ONLINE FORUMS

Online forums gather public input on recreation in Washington state: Should parks be commercialized?

The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office is hosting a series of online public meetings to get people’s thoughts about the future of outdoor recreation in Washington. The online forum is intended to gather the public’s input about the demand for outdoor recreation, what people want to see in their parks and on their trails, what prevents people from recreating outdoors and the quality of their experiences when they do. To participate in the online public meetings, visit scorpwa.wordpress.com. You can participate at any time of day. The meeting starts with a series of questions about commercialization of parks, and new questions will be added regularly. The first series of questions asks what people think about allowing advertising or corporate naming rights in our public parks; if parks should allow businesses, such as small grocery stores or gift shops; whether new types of recreation, such as zip lines, should be part of our public parks; and whether wireless Internet access should be allowed in public parks. “These are thought-provoking questions that are facing our recreational professionals every day,” said Kaleen Cottingham, director of the Recreation and Conservation Office. “We don’t know the answers and we want to find out what people really want their outdoor experiences to be like.” The online meetings run from November 2012 through January 2013.