Listen, the last few years haven't been great for snowfall around the United States. Well, apart from the 2022-2023 season which was record-breaking.
But for the vast majority of the country, snow has been hard to come by. Blame El Nino or El Nina, I can never remember which is which, global warming, space lasers, or the definitely real evil cabal that controls the weather from a secret underground bunker beneath the US Capitol, whatever the case may be, the snow hasn't been seen which has led to both declining snowmobile sales, as well as registrations.
And that's hit state legislatures hard, as many rely on those sales and registrations to maintain the public lands we all use and enjoy. The most recent of which is Washington, which recently announced that it'd have to close, temporarily, 14 of its snowmobile "Sno-Park" trails this season.
According to the press release given by the Washington State Parks Department, it "will temporarily close fourteen motorized Sno-parks for the 2024-25 winter season, due primarily to a roughly 25 percent reduction in funds available from snowmobile registrations to support the motorized part of the program." The Winter Parks Program, which maintains the snowmobile trails, is fully funded by registrations and a small percentage of the state's gas tax.
The fund receives approximately $92 per snowmobile registration, but the total number of snowmobiles has declined by over 52% in the last few decades, which has left the program without the ability to groom, maintain, clean, and pay staff to take care of all the trails under their watch. That all, obviously, costs money. But when you're self-funded through registrations, and due to a variety of factors, not those just including lackluster snowfall, but all critical amounts of personal debt, inflation, rising costs of snowmobiles, and anxiety over an upcoming election, it's easy to see why folks have shied away from buying or registering their winter toys.
The department did denote which trails it'd close this season, including; Echo Valley, Skate Creek, Bethel Ridge/Soup Creek, Crow Creek, Cloverland, Elk Heights, Fish Creek, French Cabin, Nile, Taneum, Reecer Creek, Crawfish, Nine Bark and Clear Lake.
What should be noticed is that the Parks Department says these closures are only temporary until they can figure out a way to fully fund the 2,300 snowmobile trails it maintains. Whether that's through registration fee hikes, grants from the federal government (unlikely given the recent USFS budget cuts), or through other means is yet to be seen, but the department says it's looking at everything.
