I just wrote Senator Cantwell. Here is the letter I sent her. I am posting this so that you may get a feel for my approach and use it as a template for your own letter, but please don't cut and paste as I believe politicians avoid copied letters like we avoid spam. Also given the details I put in it likely won't match up to your life. I believe in personalized letters, both on the "from" and "to" side!
Dear Senator Cantwell,
This week Mt. Rainier National Park announced a two day per week closure during the winter of their primary winter recreation facility, Paradise. As a longtime user of MRNP, from winter camping as a boyscout in my early years to my modern backcountry use; As a longtime financial supporter, from climbing fees to annual National Park permits; and as an occasional park volunteer, it saddens me to see this reduction in access.
In fact MRNP now has a demonstrable history of reducing access to the natural landscape who's core mission it is to share with the people. While this has happened for management reasons (staffing) and natural reasons (road washouts) the root cause is the same: UNDERFUNDING.
We are letting our biggest icon (literally) in the state die on the vine. How can we, with pride, stamp out license plates that bear the mountain's image when we don't support it? Are we as a state that shallow?
I understand that I am glossing over many of the complexities here, but the budgets of our National Parks are woefully inadequate and it is starting to show in ugly ways here in Washington state (just ask the folks over in Port Angeles how they feel about ONP). Since you are a Majority member on the Senate Finance Committee, and Washington state's single most powerful political asset in national politics, I urge you to use your position to regain lost ground and help restore the budgets of our ailing parks.
Sincerely,
<real name redacted on the internet because I'm actually super famous and worth billions>
