Should the NWAC be publicly funded?

Very fine post Friends of NWAC.
I will continue to donate to FOAC and I fear private support is going to be more and more needed. Budgets are being cut and the solution is far from sight. NWAC will suffer like everybody else.
However, some immediate suggestions for you.
1) Change your board to reflect the true demographics of skiers and snowmobilers and change your copy to omit "This guy is the only member who does not ski." Perception is reality.
2) Sponsor a snowmobile event like verfest and advertise it on TAY and any Snowmobile websites.
3) Ensure your Board member by-laws says a board member cannot lobby against snowmobiles or be derogatory about snowmobiles or post on web sites that people should lay fishing gut down to mess up their tracks. You can't promote to them if you publicly decry them as well.
4)Hire your lobbyist back immediately..... you need him.
5) Hire a professional fund raiser to increase private donations from wealthy individuals and corporations. Trust me a professional fund raiser is worth every penny especially in these hard times and considering your web hits.... private donations are paltry.
6) Find a snowmobiler who is prepared to dig pits and post on FOAC so you can refer to them and not just TAYers and ski areas in your forecasts. Shouldn't be that hard if you tried.

Good luck

I don't have the figures for only Washington but for the west region (CA, OR, WA, AK) snow based recreation has a total economic impact of $9,284,000,000. Thats with a B.

The federal and state taxes from snow sports from those states equals $1,153,000,000, still with a B.

This is from the fall 2006 report called "The Active Outdoor Recreation Economy" by outdoorindustryfoundation.org

Snow sports include downhill skiing, including telemark; snowboarding; cross country or nordic skiing; and snowshoeing. For this study it does not include snowmobiling, which I'm sure would add considerably to the total.

One further quote "The federal tax income generated by the Active Outdoor Recreation Economy ($48.5 billion) would cover the budget of the Department of Interior ($16.4 billion in 2005) for nearly 3 years."

There may be an updated version on their website.

Thanks for weighing in FOAC.

Stormking, thanks for pulling up those numbers. I had hoped to find some of those reports today after reading this, but got busy.

The NWAC provides a necessary service to promote commerce and recreation. It is in the public interest of Washington to continue this program. Imagine if I-90, US2 or US12 were closed frequently, this would have a significant impact on commerce in Washington. The annual budget of NWAC is far cheaper than the alternative of building snow sheds over all the potentially dangerous avy paths along the critical highways (which I bet would be economically justifiable to WSDOT given a paucity of other options).


Heck, I might just actually donate this year instead of just talking about it...

If it would benefit snowmobilers to use NWAC data, then is it not their responsibility to do so?

I may be naive, but to me the NWAC is not hidden from view, they are often referred to in the official local and scientific forecasts any time the hazards are enhanced and that alone should inform most about the fact that there is such a service out there. If they want more representation on the NWAC board, they should seek it. My hope is that there is some outreach there.

In some respects the novice biler may be in an easier position to get themselves into trouble than the novice skier, but that is debatable. If the purchase of a new snowmobile included an attached booklet about avalanche safety and awareness, and also key web sites to get that info, along with an envelope for a donation to NWAC then it would be less hard to imagine that at least everyone was exposed to the idea that the sport comes with some exposure to danger and that there are responsibilities. Same could be done with the purchase of ski gear. It all costs money however.

Personally, I think that the funding ought to be part of the DOT. Just as acquiring a drivers license in Europe pays for rescue, DOT, which in this state must monitor avalanche conditions along its thouroughfares, ought to cover that infomation in at least those corridors. Well they happen to be most of the corredors where skiers and snowmobilers travel. If they need to employ the experts in NWAC to do the job properly, then they ought to fund that group entirely. General forecasts and local conditions reported from skiers and ski areas can only add to the important information that extends to the road cuts in the mountains.

It goes without saying that any skier/biler who skis the same area repeatedly day in and day out is going to value a NWAC report less than someone who cannot do so. But that is but a very few people who call themselves backcountry skiers. General forecasts can in fact be very useful, especially to those who have the wherewithall to understand that they are not perfect and that they still have to do their own local assessment every time they go out.

Maybe the sno-park model would work for this, but I know there are a lot of issues that would raise. It is way more important and acceptable for people to pay for a nicely plowed space to park at the very same trailhead that they will then use to get themselves into deathly trouble! Such is the nature of freedom!

Alan

The Washington Snowmobile Association has a link on their website to the NWAC www.wssa.us/ .

I think Friends of NWAC did a great job of laying out the facts, much appreciated.
Also, great to hear all of the feedback and ideas. All involved with FOAC are hard at work and there is lots of work to be done.
Please PM me or Friends of NWAC if you want to become involved.
Back to work....