Recreation

Tough Call: Save The Trees Or The Campground?

March 11, 2009
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Walk through Oswald West State Park and you’ll soon see why this is one of the most popular spots on the Oregon Coast.

It’s the trees.

This is one of the last places where you can hike through an ancient spruce-hemlock forest.  Many of the trees are 200-400 years old.  Some are survivors of the great Tsunami that swept the coast in the early 18th Century.

The Trees Of Oswald West State Park. Courtesy Oregon Parks and Recreation.

The Trees Of Oswald West State Park. Courtesy Oregon Parks and Recreation.

So here’s the dilemma facing Oregon Parks and Recreation.  Many of the trees pose a threat to campers.  They’re so old and so weak they could come down at any time.  The danger was made clear in June when an old spruce, 11-feet in diameter, fell over and landed across several campsites.  Luckily, no one was hurt.

Since then, the campground remained closed while Park officials studied the other nearby trees.  They’ve identified 49 of them that might fall into a campsite, building, or high use trail.  If the campground is to be reopened, these trees have got to go.  If the campground stays closed, only a few trees need to be removed.

Keep the trees or reopen the campground?  What do you think?

Before any trees are cut, the Parks and Recreation Department wants to hear from the public.

A few points to consider before you weigh in.

  • Oswald West gets about a million visitors a year.  Most use the park for hiking, surfing and walks on the beach.  Before it was closed, about 15,000 people a year stayed at the campground.
  • Reopening the campground means putting most of the campsites back in service, and gives people another way to enjoy the park.  But officials also say cutting down the trees will leave a visual hole that might be filled by weeds and other invading species.
  • According to a 1986 plan, Oswald West is meant to be kept in as natural of a state as possible.  Cutting down the trees means it may have to be more heavily managed in the future.

Parks and Recreation staffers favors keeping the campground closed and only cutting a few trees.  But it’s holding off until hearing from the public.  It’s created a website where you can learn more and provides ways for you to offer comments

Oswald West State Park: Camping Or Trees?

Or if you want, leave comments on this story and we’ll forward them for you.

Did Apathy Kill Mt. St. Helens “National Park”?

March 2, 2009
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A couple of updates to pass along.

First, the list of recommendations from the Mt. St. Helens Advisory Committee may not be released today due to staff illness. As more information comes in, we’ll pass it along to you.

More importantly, we’ve had some time to get additional comments on the big decision, that the volcano should not become a national park but remain with the U.S. Forest Service.

Mark Smith is one of the members of the committee who initially started out as a skeptic of the “National Park” concept, but eventually came around to supporting it.

He thinks the committee, and the “whole country” for that matter, is missing an opportunity. “It’s a different mountain now,” says Smith, talking about the changes that have taken place since the 1980 eruption. “If it was still just the campground at Spirit Lake, the Forest Service would have no problem managing it.”

A View From Johnston Ridge. Courtesy: USDA Forest Service, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

A View From Johnston Ridge. Courtesy: USDA Forest Service, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

Over the years, five new visitor facilities have popped up between I-5 and the crater. Three of them were originally controlled by the Forest Service. But one of them was turned over to Washington State Parks, and the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center has been closed.

Smith thinks the National Park Service would do a better job of managing Mt. St. Helens as tourist destination. He says NPS has more experience with the marketing and advertising needed to draw visitors. The Forest Service, he says, isn’t geared up for operating tourism sites. Smith has some experience in this area, he owns the Eco Park Resort located just outside the Monument. He also thinks that concerns over access to hunting, fishing and other recreational activities could have been protected under the National Park concept.

Smith says he eventually went along with the Committee recommendations, but doubts conditions at Mt. St. Helens will improve. “They’ve had 29 years,” he says of the Forest Service, “I don’t have a real good felling we’ll see a lot of difference.”

Smith also appears frustrated by what he sees as public apathy over the future of this Northwest icon. No local group ever came forward to champion the National Park cause. Smith says the public hearings held by the Committee were like visits to a morgue, with the same small group of people sharing the same opinions over and over. “The public doesn’t really care,” he says.

Hopes Fade For Mt. St. Helens “National Park”

February 28, 2009
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Any dream of national park status for Mt. St. Helens took a serious blow today.

A special committee created to study the future of Mt. St. Helens is wrapping up after a year of work. Its main recommendation? That the volcano should stay under the management of the U.S. Forest Service, and not become a national park.

That doesn’t mean the Mt. St. Helens Advisory Committee is okay with the status quo. Co-Chair Paul Pearce tells us the group also wants the volcano to become a stand alone unit within the Forest Service. Currently it’s managed by the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Courtesy: U.S. Geological Survey

Courtesy: U.S. Geological Survey

How would that help? By creating a new unit, Pearce says Mt. St. Helens would become a line item in the budget, making it more visible to Congress and hopefully lead to increased funding. “The issue wasn’t how it was managed,” says Pearce, “but how it was funded.”

Spending on the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument fell dramatically from 1998 to 2007. Late that year, the Forest Service closed the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center because it didn’t have enough money for maintenance. That event was a wake up call for members of Washington’s Congressional Delegation and a few months later the Advisory Committee was formed.

National park supporters hoped that by turning over Mt. St. Helens to the Park Service, it would be better funded, become a destination travel spot, and grow the local economy.

But Pearce, who’s also a Skamania County Commissioner, says citizens wanted to continue fishing, hunting and snowmobiling near the Volcano. They could lose those activities if Mt. St. Helens became a national park.

Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center. Courtesy U.S. Forest Service

Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center. Courtesy USDA Forest Service, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

The tipping point may have come when the Forest Service and Park Service made competing presentations to the Committee. “We saw much more passion on part of the Forest Service,” says Pearce. “We didn’t see that at all with the Park Service.”

Once the Committee releases the list of recommendations, it will schedule a series of public hearings to take in more comment. Look for a new story Monday on what’s next for Mt. St. Helens.

Budget Cuts: The Impact On Oregon’s Parks

February 26, 2009
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First in a series on how budget cuts in Salem are affecting Oregon’s natural resources.

For the Parks and Recreation Department, the new budget reality in Salem means new priorities. Less money for buying park land. Hold the line for spending on park maintenance.

Spokesman Chris Havel says the department faces a roughly 17% budget cut in the 2009-2011 biennium. Most of that is due to falling lottery revenues. That could change when the next revenue forecast comes out in late April.

Hiking At Cape Lookout. Photo Courtesy Oregon Parks and Red

Hiking At Cape Lookout Courtesy Oregon Parks

In addition to buying less land, Havel says they’ll also have less money for their matching grants which support community parks, trails, veteran’s memorials and heritage programs.

Now the mission turns increasingly towards protecting what they have. Spending on maintenance and operations should remain steady. But even there, visitors may see a difference. For example, Havel says you might find a sign on a park bathroom apologizing that it’s not being cleaned as often.

Havel thinks the department will avoid layoffs. Instead, vacant positions will be left open, hiring for seasonal jobs will be delayed, and non-essential spending like travel will be cut back.

Even before the bad economic news came out, Parks and Recreation proposed raising fees for camping, day use and annual passes. Fees haven’t been raised since 1996 . Back then visitors paid for 72% of the costs of running a park. Now it’s closer to 55%.

Earlier stories:

Enviro Programs Hit Extra Hard By Oregon Budget Cutters

Concealed Weapons Okayed In National Parks

December 5, 2008
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No surprise, the Interior Department has dropped the ban on carrying concealed weapons in national parks and wildlife refuges.

The new rules defers to the state. If state law says you carry a concealed weapon, then you can start doing that on national parks and refuges within that state. Both Oregon and Washington allow concealed weapons, so this opens up such places as Crater Lake National Park and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

Interior says BLM and Forest Service already use this approach and it thought it was a good idea to be consistent.

The National Rifle Association praised the ruling, saying it allows people to “protect themselves” while enjoying these areas.

But the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees notes that national parks are some of the safest places in the country and worries that the rule will lead to increased poaching and more hunting in areas where its not allowed.

Oregon’s Most Scenic Bike Rides

October 19, 2008
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Oregon is looking for help to create a statewide system of scenic bike rides, similar to the one it has already has for scenic car drives.

The state Parks and Recreation Department is forming an advisory committee that will take nominations, choose scenic routes and work with landowners and local groups to manage them. There are 11 seats on the committee and one of them is open for a “citizen at large”. It means you don’t have to belong to an interest group or government agency to get the position.

You can learn more about the committee and the position by calling Alexandra Phillips, the state bicycle recreation coordinator, at 503-986-0631. The news release doesn’t say anything about a deadline, so if you’re interested you may need to act quickly.

The state has only one official scenic ride and you can learn more about it here:
Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway