The petition to put the Chuckanut Mountains Park District proposal on the ballot sometime next year is gone. A Superior Court judge invalidated the measure after concluding that the boundaries of the proposed district were improperly drawn.
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The CMPD idea was faulty from start to finish and should have been put down long before this, despite a handful of “so-called” environmentalists that repeatedly mislead the public.  They really are recreationists wanting free access to lands that don’t belong to them AND they wanted the property owners to foot their recreation bill.

Many of these same people are involved with the Chuckanut Conservancy too that teamed up with a Seattle based environmental group to sue the DNR recently, ultimately to prevent logging on Blanchard, AND to control Skagit lands as well. 

These “well meaning” people are not doing things that are good for the county or for the lands.  They want to capitalize on tourism and bring in thousands and thousands of tourists across Blanchard and the Chuckanuts to recreate; that is not conservation nor is it good for the wildlife or the sensitive lands.

The label of “well meaning” for these ruthless people trying all ways they can to bully control over Skagit lands is like calling a bank robber a “well meaning borrower”.

Several of the principals in the CMPD Advisory Committee (the proponents of the par district), Ken Wilcox and Gerry Wilbour to name two, stood to profit from this proposed taxing district through trail building and other activities.Forest Steward has it exactly correct - this was no “well meaning” group. The real basis for the proposal was initially to get enough public money to stop the development of the “100 acre woods” (Fairhaven Highlands) in south Bellingham. The former mayor of Bellingham, Mark Asmundsen, in a public letter, ( see http://www.cob.org/documents/mayor/2005-06-16-fairhavens-highlands-mayor-letter.pdf) advised this group that the best way to get the money they sought was using the Metropolitan Park District law and it was an epiphany for these folks that saw the possibility of real power and real money. The $0.25 per 1000 “proposed” (not really proposed, just mentioned on the defunct petition and not binding) tax rate was the tip of the iceberg. Without voter approval, the 5 person commission could have increased this to $0.75 per thousand and issued millions in bonds.

Just beware, the CMPD AC has big buck backers and this is not likely to go away. Thank goodness that this first round went to sanity.