Category Overview
State Parks grants help preserve and develop our state’s best outdoor recreation areas by funding new campgrounds and amenities to increase the capacity of our parks, creating new parks, improving park resources, and protecting historical areas. These grants help our state continue to develop our world-class parks system to share our cultural heritage and natural treasures with all of its visitors.
Project Highlights
State Parks will use this grant to buy 200 acres next to Brooks Memorial State Park to offer more hiking and equestrian trails and solve a trespass issue where the park trail crosses private property. Additionally, the purchase will protect the view, important oak habitat, and one of the last three regional habitats in Washington State for western grey squirrel, which are listed by the state as threatened with extinction. The landowner is willing to sell. Although the land was recently logged, non-marketable trees including imperiled oak communities, were left standing and the forest now has improved conditions for oak trees because the conifers typically grow taller than the oaks and prevent them from thriving. Brooks Memorial State Park is a 700-acre camping park between the barren hills of the south Yakima Valley and the lodgepole pine forests of the Simcoe Mountains. More than 9 miles of hiking trails lead visitors along the Little Klickitat River and up through ponderosa pine-Oregon white oak forests. At the top are open mountain meadows with panoramic views of Mount Hood. Visitors may see deer, beaver dams, squirrels, spring wildflowers, and a variety of birds.