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Yakima Canyon Interpretive Center— Expected Audiences <br />Community Members <br />85,000 <br />85,000 <br />{ <br />5,000 <br />Year 5 <br />5,750 <br />so <br />5,500 <br />$5,000 <br />Byway Travelers <br />Current Annual Byway Travelers: <br />1,100,000 <br />Current BLM Permit's: 300,000 <br />80,000 80,000 <br />5.000 Byway Travelers <br />Year 4 Year 3 Community Members <br />Year 2 <br />Year 1 <br />According to WSDOT, the Yakima River Canyon Scenic Byway (YRCSB) sees 1.1 million drivers annually <br />without any significant signage (there are only 2 signs at the beginning and end of the Byway). The YRCSB <br />Partnership is working with the WSDOT to install signage from 1-90 and 1-82 in both Ellensburg and <br />Yakima. In addition the Partnership will be designing and installing wayfinding signage, branding signage <br />and interpretive signage over the next several years. The Bureau of Land Management, operating the 4 <br />campground/river launch points in the Canyon sees 300,000 paying visitors on an annual basis (though <br />they are only open for paid camping from May -October). All of this, combined with a marketing presence <br />for the YRCSB that the Chamber is working on, will dramatically increase the number of tourists to the <br />Canyon, the only Blue Ribbon Trout Fishery in the State, and all the other recreational offerings in the <br />Canyon. The Partnership is also working on expanding hiking options on public lands, increasing public <br />safety with planned traffic improvements, and implementing other goals of the newly updated Corridor <br />Management Plan (KEEN and Forterra completed the update in August 2014 and are in the process of <br />submitting to WSDOT for adoption). <br />KEEN and Kittitas County are working closely with the Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce on branding <br />and marketing the Canyon and the YCIC as a tourism destination for our County and region. <br />For the purposes of this grant request, we have adjusted our numbers of expected visitors defined as <br />'tourists' based on several factors including peak travel seasons, number of repeat visitors, and local <br />visitors. Further these numbers are calculated from information collected by similar facilities in the area <br />(Wild Horse Visitors Center ^'20,000/year and the Yakima Arboretum 55,000/year) both of which have <br />much less visibility than the YCIC will have. <br />We believe that the YCIC will capture an increasing percentage of people already traveling on the YRCSB <br />and, when combined with the marketing, signage and other affinity efforts will experience a very large <br />