Record $1.1 million awarded to WA national parks

Washington’s National Park Fund on Wednesday awarded a record-setting $1.1 million to Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks.

The money will fund 42 priority projects at Washington’s three national parks in 2023, according to WNPF.

Each year, park superintendents and leadership teams select priority projects for their respective parks, which fall into four core areas: advancing science and research, improving visitors’ experiences, expanding volunteerism and stewardship and embracing inclusion.

Mount Rainier National Park received $630,768, which will fund projects like Wonderland Trail improvements and maintenance, development of an online accessible trails guide, aquatic surveys and restoration and the park’s 200 Meadow Rover volunteers, who patrol alpine trails to teach visitors about land stewardship, WNPF said.

The park will receive an additional $144,212 when it is ready to implement additional programs, according to WNPF.

North Cascades National Park received $114,225 for projects like rare carnivore research, digitization of the 1963 North Cascades Study Commission photographs that built the case for protecting the land as a national park, the Adopt a Whitebark Pine project and an innovative food sustainability and native plant education program in partnership with local tribes, according to WNPF.

WNPF will award an additional $179,449 when North Cascades National Park is ready to add further programming.

Olympic National Park received $385,771 to fund projects including the development of a Native Conservation Corps program by youth members of the Quileute Tribe, the Terminus glacier memorial project, the Adventures in Your Big Backyard youth program and elk monitoring in the Hoh Rain Forest, according to WNPF.

WNPF will award an additional $57,773 when the park is ready to implement additional programs.

“It’s quite remarkable yet not surprising based on the generosity of our donors that we were able to fund nearly every project our three park partners requested funds for,” said Laurie Ward, CEO of WNPF, in a news release.

WNPF raises funds through donations from individual and corporate donors, stock and estate gifts, contributions from park lodge guest donation programs, foundation grants, events, fundraising climbs and the statewide national park license plate program, according to WNPF.

“I’m proud to say that [we] ended the year with an additional $380,000 on hand to distribute to the parks when they’re ready to implement additional programs — all thanks to our thousands of supporters and partners,” Ward said.