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Protesters will take to WA State Parks this Saturday against SEAL training
Deception Pass State Park is one of the parks permitted for SEAL training. (WSDOT)
If you’re headed to a state park this weekend to enjoy the early spring weather, you may see some protesters. The group suing the Washington State Parks Commission over Naval SEAL training is organizing demonstrations in parks across the state.
The Whidbey Environmental Action Network’s Not in our Parks coalition is encouraging park-users to go out to their local state park on Saturday to picket, gather signatures, and speak to the public about why they oppose the Parks Commission’s January decision to allow Navy SEALs to train in more than a dozen coastal state parks.
By KIMBERLY CAUVEL | Skagit Valley Herald | Published: March 10, 2021 (Tribune News Service) The Whidbey Environmental Action Network is appealing the State Parks and Recreation Commission s decision to allow Navy SEAL training in 28 state parks including at Deception Pass State Park and others in Skagit and Island counties. The decision would allow naval special operations groups carrying simulated weapons to engage in clandestine military training operations in the water, across beaches, and into the uplands of twenty-eight coastal state parks and to remain hidden for extended lengths of time while surreptitiously surveilling other . park visitors, the appeal, filed Monday in Thurston County Superior Court, states.
Washington State Parks
Changes to a plan that would allow covert Navy training at certain Washington State Parks are further angering some park goers.
Last month, the State Parks Commission approved a request for the Navy to conduct SEAL training operations at up to 17 parks. For at least nine months, the training must take place at night, when fewer park visitors would be around. The decision could be reevaluated after the trial period.
The restrictions came after pushback from park users who worried they would be unknowingly watched.
During a special meeting Thursday, the commission voted to let the state parks director decide if daylight restrictions can be lifted or modified after the Navy’s nine-month trial period is up, as long as the Navy complies with limits on when and where it will conduct training operations.