Program aims to bring more activities to Clark County parks
May 28-Clark County recently launched a new program intended to bring more activities and visitor services to county parks, but it comes with higher fees.
"The goal is to make parks more active, welcoming places for the community," according to a Wednesday news release.
Businesses and organizations can sign up to offer fitness classes, guided activities, educational programs, recreation opportunities, and food and beverage sales for a fee. By working with local businesses, the county hopes to create more vibrant parks, support local economic growth, and enhance the maintenance and usability of public spaces, according to the news release.
The program is available to all types of local businesses and community organizations. To participate in the program, the business or organization must submit a proposal to the parks department. County parks spokesperson Kaley McLachlan-Burton said the proposals will be evaluated by staff. She said successful proposals will demonstrate clear community benefit or enrichment; compatibility with the selected park and its regular uses (and park code); realistic operational plans, including staffing and equipment needs and ability to meet those needs; and ability to meet safety, insurance and contract requirements.
She said proposals also should support an inclusive, welcoming parks system and highlight past successes and experience.
"For example, we can be confident that an established yoga studio knows how to register people, has proper insurance, qualified instructors, etc., so bringing classes to a park would just be using a new venue," McLachlan-Burton said in an email.
The new program was approved by the Clark County Council in 2025. The council had earlier directed parks staff to identify additional funding sources, because park user fees weren't enough to cover the cost of operating and maintaining the county's 61 community, neighborhood and regional parks and natural areas.
"Addressing the ongoing structural deficit and increasing costs will require utilization of multiple different mechanisms, including partnerships and a regional funding solution," McLachlan-Burton said via email.
For some current park users like PNWK Forest School, the new fee structure and higher costs are a major obstacle. PNWK Forest School Director Sophia Lewis said the school was notified four weeks ago that the county would now be charging the program 30 percent of the nonprofit's gross revenue to continue operating in the parks.
"I explained to them that this would put programs like ours in an impossible position. The only way to financially survive under something like this would be to either dramatically increase ratios and reduce student support, or close entirely," Lewis said in an email last week. "We are not willing to operate unsafely or lower the quality of care and supervision children receive in our program."
Because of the county's new fee structure, Lewis said, PNWK Forest School will close its Clark County program after this summer. PNWK Forest School is a fully outdoor education program for ages 2 1/2 to 10. The school started in Snohomish County in 2018 and expanded to Clark County in 2020.
"We're still planning to run summer programming, even though it will likely operate at a loss with this added fee, because we don't want families suddenly left without care or teachers suddenly without jobs," she said. "Unfortunately, we can't sustain that into the school year under the proposed structure."
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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 6:07 PM.