you ALL need a discover pass for ALL DNR land.

[gator626]

thats his name

[Elkaholic daWg]

thats his name

Okay???

[Elkaholic daWg]

Why is everyone so upset about a $30 pass to access DNR "recreation lands"?  DNR land provides you with a place to hunt, fish, camp, berry pick, cut firewood, or just relax and go for a drive.  You spend more than that taking the family out to dinner or going to the movies, and those activities only last a couple of hours!  If you want to be upset about something be upset that DNR is only getting $2.55 per pass!  How many of you can go hunting in State Parks?  How about this for a question, when the morons rut up the roads, dump garbage, shoot up trees on DNR land is that recreation?  If you camp on DNR land where there are not facilities, are you not doing it for recreation?  I'm sure no one on this forum would leave a mess when they camp away from designated campsites.  But it does happen so who should pay for that?  It seems that there are no free rides any more and if I have to pay to access some of our state trust lands then I am willing.  And as a point of clarification, DNR land is not "public land" even if that is what the commissioners title is.  DNR land is state trust land that provides money to it's trust beneficiaries, like schools, colleges, and state capital.

 Last post got me thinking........... this is from about page 4

 THERE you go Guys.... another one poster

# *
# Posts: 1
# Location: Eastern Washington

Maybe we should give Gator a break.

Although Extremist hit THIS one dead ON!

 "If you want to be upset about something be upset that DNR is only getting $2.55 per pass!  How many of you can go hunting in State Parks? "

[bobcat]

OK, he's lucky you figured out what he was talking about, as I was about to ban him for his non-sensical posts. 

[bobcat]

I think the reason they came up with the higher percentage of the money going to State Parks, is that they assume the majority of people buying the pass will be using it mainly for accessing State Parks. It would make sense, if 84% of the passes purchased were purchased by people who only go to state parks. Most people don't hunt or fish, and many of those people may have no reason to ever access DNR or WDFW lands. If that is true, then State Parks would deserve to get the majority of the money.

[bosshogg112]

By the way, the DNR website has some new maps up that show where it is required:

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/Topics/OpenClosureNotices/Pages/amr_statewide_rec.aspx

so is it only the green areas on the maps that it is required to have the pass???

[Sumpnneedskillin]

I think the reason they came up with the higher percentage of the money going to State Parks, is that they assume the majority of people buying the pass will be using it mainly for accessing State Parks. It would make sense, if 84% of the passes purchased were purchased by people who only go to state parks. Most people don't hunt or fish, and many of those people may have no reason to ever access DNR or WDFW lands. If that is true, then State Parks would deserve to get the majority of the money.

The explaination that I read was Parks took the biggest funding cut so they needed more money than the other 2 agencies.  But if you read the bill after they make 71 million every biennium they get to split the funds evenly.  The counter resets to 0 in 2013. 

[bigtex]

By the way, the DNR website has some new maps up that show where it is required:

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/Topics/OpenClosureNotices/Pages/amr_statewide_rec.aspx

so is it only the green areas on the maps that it is required to have the pass???

Yes, and the red dots. The dark green areas are recreation areas. Light green are DNR natural areas. Red dots are recreation facilites and trailheads.

If the DNR land is not shown on the map then at this time the pass is not required.

[Curly]

I mostly agree with Huntingextremist.  However I won't be buying the pass because of the fact that it is good for only one vehicle and because I don't plan to go to State Parks.  Why should 84% of my money go to State Parks when 0% of my time will be spent there?

I'd rather they would have had separate passes..........one for DNR lands, one for Parks, and one for WDFW (which we already had anyway when buying a hunting license).  When I used to launch at State Parks a lot, I had a Parks Launch permit that was vinyl and stuck to the windshield........seems like they could have converted the launch permit to include access to Park lands.  So the only agency that didn't already have a permit was DNR........they should have been the only one to have a new access pass; and if they were the only one then it sounds like the price could have been under $5.

But this whole thing is not about access to DNR or WDFW lands.  It is about saving State Parks and they are using other user groups to pay for Parks.  They must have mis-managed State Parks so bad that they can't afford to run them anymore.  Maybe they should get rid of the Park Rangers (or most of them)........private parks are not closing down.  The difference between private parks and State Parks is private parks rely on county law enforcement officers and State Parks have Rangers..........that is the only difference I can see.

[gator626]

why not incorporate it into our hunting and fishing licences

[fireweed]

[
But this whole thing is not about access to DNR or WDFW lands.  It is about saving State Parks and they are using other user groups to pay for Parks.  They must have mis-managed State Parks so bad that they can't afford to run them anymore.  Maybe they should get rid of the Park Rangers (or most of them)........private parks are not closing down.  The difference between private parks and State Parks is private parks rely on county law enforcement officers and State Parks have Rangers..........that is the only difference I can see.
[/quote]

Doing the Math (It's been awhile so check it for me), it looks like the VENDORS get more out of this pass that the DNR and WDFW combined.  VENDORS get up to $5 for each pass.  8% of $30 is $2.40 which is what DNR and WDFW get EACH.  Leaving $25.20 for Parks.  This just ain't right folks.

[Curly]

Yeah, doesn't that suck.  The vendors get more of chunk than DNR and WDFW.

The other thing I was thinking about..........isn't WDFW going to be getting the short end of the stick?  People won't need to buy the WDFW parking pass anymore (since they will be getting the Discover Pass) and WDFW will make far less on the Discover Pass than they did with the parking permit.

[bigtex]

[
But this whole thing is not about access to DNR or WDFW lands.  It is about saving State Parks and they are using other user groups to pay for Parks.  They must have mis-managed State Parks so bad that they can't afford to run them anymore.  Maybe they should get rid of the Park Rangers (or most of them)........private parks are not closing down.  The difference between private parks and State Parks is private parks rely on county law enforcement officers and State Parks have Rangers..........that is the only difference I can see.

Doing the Math (It's been awhile so check it for me), it looks like the VENDORS get more out of this pass that the DNR and WDFW combined.  VENDORS get up to $5 for each pass.  8% of $30 is $2.40 which is what DNR and WDFW get EACH.  Leaving $25.20 for Parks.  This just ain't right folks.
[/quote]

That is false.
Vendors (the stores that sell the pass) get $2
Transaction fees (the licensing company) get $3

[Elkaholic daWg]

"Transaction fees (the licensing company) get $3"
 But it is true that a outside contractor gets more than either of the red headed step children,right?
 Somewhere (on here I believe) I read that if you actually go to a state puke and buy one it only cost you the basic $30.

[bigtex]

Somewhere (on here I believe) I read that if you actually go to a state puke and buy one it only cost you the basic $30.

As far as I know if you buy it directly from a Park the vendor fee's are waived but the transaction fee's still apply. It may be the other way but I am almost positive that the vendor fees are the ones that don't apply.