Thurston County, WA Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)

Thurston County Code § 10.76.430 flatly bans smoking and use of tobacco, vaping or marijuana products in any Thurston County park, preserve, or on any trail. The provision was added to the Park Code by Ordinance 15652 § 2 in August 2018, more than four decades after the rest of Chapter 10.76 was adopted, and it sits alongside the chapter's other substance restrictions: alcoholic beverages are separately regulated at § 10.76.380, and no one may use park facilities while intoxicated under § 10.76.390. 'County park' is defined at § 10.76.030 to include every area the Board of County Commissioners manages for parks and recreation, from developed picnic grounds and playgrounds to trails, beaches, drives and parkways, so the smoking ban follows visitors onto a wooded trail just as much as a developed campground or swimming beach.

The ban covers combustible tobacco, vaping devices and marijuana products alike, with no carve-out for designated smoking areas the way some park systems allow. Violating it triggers the Park Code's general enforcement provision at § 10.76.410: a misdemeanor, punishable on conviction by a fine of up to two hundred fifty dollars. Because the traffic-infraction carve-out in that section applies only to parking, standing, stopping and pedestrian offenses, a smoking citation is charged as a straight misdemeanor rather than a lesser infraction. Park rangers and the Thurston County Sheriff's Office enforce the rule alongside the chapter's other conduct provisions, including the bans on disorderly conduct (§ 10.76.350) and public disrobing (§ 10.76.360).