Should the NWAC be publicly funded?

Ski patrols communicate continually with NWAC on conditions and give input on snow and weather conditions, I may be wrong but I think many of the local ski areas do contribute money to NWAC

Look at the budget Aaron posted above. Your answer is there.

Look at the budget Aaron posted above. Your answer is there.

I post slower than I ski, saw it..

Thanks for the budget.
Very telling isn't it.
FOAC and private donations are very very small. Obviously other than going to the snowbash at the Tractor tavern and hoping for free swaaag... BC skiers are all talk and no wallet.

Scotsman, did you to read past page two?  On page 5, you would read that FOAC raised $145,000 last year, of which $67,000 was from member contributions.  Much of that was spent on NWAC's website, which is operated by FOAC, but also much of it was retained as a reserve so that NWAC wouldn't close immediately if it lost state or federal funding.

As for why should NWAC receive any public funding, it is a public good .  We publicly fund aviation, nautical and other specialized weather forecasts because we decided that people shouldn't die just because there is market failure.

The hard-core BC skier is probably not the market that NWAC serves most, or at least not it's most important market.  Casual wintertime travelers, who aren't getting out several times a week and don't have the benefit of years of experience with a PNW snowpack are the ones for whom bright line rules, like what are available by using NWAC forecasts are useful.  Did you use NWAC to aid your trip planning or route selection before you became more experienced in the BC?  Why won't you grant others who are starting in their training the same tools you used yourself?

I also can't help but think of the fatality at Lake 22 several years ago.  We can't prevent people from taking risks that a reasonable person would know about, but I think we should do as much as we can to make sure reasonable people are informed of the risks.

I really value NWAC; I rely on their mountain weather forecasts (and the Mt. Rainier forecast from UW); I read their avy forecasts every day; and I review the pit information on the NWAC site and the FOAC site. I pay $20,000/year in federal income taxes, buy "passports" to use of federal lands, and contribute to FOAC; I think the best use of my tax money is NWAC, not wars in Korea, Vietnam (yes, I'm a vet), the Gulf, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, military bases (770) in foreign countries, etc. If you spend all your money on lift tickets, so be it; I ski the bc and I like a full range of weather (snow, wind, wind direction) and avy info (pits from around the region) and I don't feel so egotistical that I know everything there is to know base on my personal knowledge when I go into the backcountry. So I support NWAC and FOAC with donations (along with CSAC) and I write my elected reps to ask them to continue funding.

Scotsman, did you to read past page two? 

Did you read past page 5 where the list of contributers was? Pamela Willis= my wife and I. Hopefully your name is there as well, if not then STFU Also you may need remedial math.

Did you read past page 5 where the list of contributers was? Pamela Willis= my wife and I. Hopefully your name is there as well, if not then STFU Also you may need remedial math.

Andrew McDavid, third from the top, so I guess you'll let me keep TF spraying on turns-all-year (kTFsotay, for short).   

And while it's unlikely that I need remedial math, it's certainly possible that I do need remedial arithmetic.