Area parks see more visitors

National and state parks are a key element of Klamath Basin tourism.

It’s no secret that the main reason summer tourists visit the Basin is to see Crater Lake National Park, which receives most of its nearly half-a-million visitors during the snow-free summer months.

But the Collier Memorial State Park and Logging Museum and Lava Beds National Monument also are popular attractions with locals and out-of-town travelers making repeat visits.

Collier is just off Highway 97 north of Klamath Falls and Medford. Its outdoor logging museum, which has been upgraded, is regarded one of the best of its kind in the nation.

Lava Beds generally requires a planned visit because of its distance from major highways, but the park has a strong following from people interested in caving and Modoc War history.

A new component was the creation of the Tule Lake Unit of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, created by President George W. Bush shortly before he left office in 2009.

Dave Kruse and Craig Ackerman, superintendents at Lava Beds and Crater Lake, and Jim Beauchemin, Collier’s director, talk about 2010 and give their forecasts for the parks’ futures.

Climate change effects on park resources will continue to be a concern. We expect to see increased mortality in whitebark pines from blister rust and pine beetles that are increasing due in part to milder winters. We are at about 80 percent of normal on snowpack. This may mean earlier road openings, but an earlier and longer fire season. Some species like the pika also could be affected by changing habitats.

The support that Congress and the president gave to the Park Service overall was incredible. We got our Rim Visitor Center project back on track and started making some progress on the deferred maintenance backlog throughout the park. We continued to get attention from some high profile visitors like former first lady Laura Bush. Visitation was strong last year. We had a long and successful run with boat tours in the lake. We also experienced a very safe year with few serious accidents or injuries for visitors or employees. 

We didn’t make as much progress on planning for some new projects as I had hoped. These include plans for improvements at Cleetwood Cove, Sun Notch and the North Junction. Those projects are likely still several years out now and, because of the difficult economy, may have problems finding funding.

What opportunities exist for parks this year?

Finishing up on the recovery act projects will help many parks and hopefully nearby communities. We are also poised to make progress on some longstanding issues, like repairing the dock facility on the lake.

We have benefited from the economic recovery act projects. Visitors also seem to be coming back to the parks rather than taking long distance or international vacations. We see more families here connecting with their kids and nature.

I think we will see an increased interest in the parks for the reasons mentioned and due to exposure from the Ken Burns PBS series (about the national parks). Having our citizens more engaged with their parks is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once you’ve experienced them first-hand, you are hooked for life.

The primary issue facing state parks this year is maintaining operations and services with relatively flat budgets, primarily the result of non-paid furlough days. It has made providing services interesting, in that the public expectations still have to be met. So, scheduling and planning operations and maintenance are challenging. We are also leveraging our resources by seeking grants, utilizing volunteers, youth crews, corrections labor, friends groups, partnerships and other associations. By combining these efforts in an economical way, we intend to keep services at a high level.

The year 2009 was extraordinary, in that park attendance was higher than expected. The public was looking for close-to-home recreational opportunities that were economical, and state parks fit that need well. 

With many people struggling in these difficult economic times, our agency is dedicated to providing good outdoor recreational opportunities and experiences. It’s important for citizens to be able to get away from life’s pressures to an enjoyable and meaningful place.  

As an agency, we are looking toward the long view and the future. We intend to seek opportunities as they arise and to plan for future demands.  Opportunities can come in a variety of ways, whether it be potential acquisitions, development, partnerships or simply providing the best services possible with available funds. Locally for 2010, we are looking at continuing improvements to the collections exhibits at Collier State Park Logging Museum and upgrading about 13 miles of gravel trail surface on the OC&E Woods Line State Trail.

It was interesting to see significantly more local and regional users at our facilities and fewer out-of-state visitors. Visitors were often staying more consecutive days at parks and campgrounds, while driving shorter distances. It seems our parks are perceived as being a good value, whether recreating for the day or staying overnight.

State parks have a well-established system with good purpose and vision. We plan to preserve those natural and historic places, while connecting the public to our parks; to provide a sense of discovery through recreational and interpretive experiences in special outdoor settings. As long as we stay with these core values, the future of state parks should be bright.

We are currently writing and editing the new General Management Plan. We hope to have that document done and out for public review and meetings in the fall. We are also working on an updated Cave Management Plan that should go out for review this fall. Thanks to the stimulus act and other Park Service project funds, we also are managing and implementing numerous facility and resource projects, such as building a new equipment garage and shop building, replacing fuel tanks, installing fire sprinklers in all of our buildings, realigning the main park road/Medicine Lake Road intersection and continuing thorough cleaning of popular caves.

The other major issue is that Lava Beds staff is also operating the new Tule Lake Unit of the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument. For Tule Lake, we hope to again offer interpretive tours between Memorial Day and Labor Day and start long-range planning this fall. 

Visitation was up again in 2009 to about 135,000 visitors, and we had no serious visitor or employee accidents or injuries. The biggest highlight of the year was the July 3 dedication ceremony for the new Tule Lake Unit. We had 159 former internees attend as well as a strong turnout of local residents.

I honestly cannot say we had any significant “low points.” Well, OK, maybe the fact that Lava Beds or Tule Lake was not featured or even mentioned in the PBS series! (Kruse is referring to a well-publicized six-day Ken Burns National Park series).

We again will have substantial amounts of project funding and work, thus we will be able to hire a good number of seasonal employees and will have our facilities in better shape than ever. We hope to complete our General Management Plan that will set the stage for how we will manage Lava Beds over the next 10-20 years. Then we hope to start long-range planning for the next 10-20 years at Tule Lake. The federal budget for fiscal year 2010 was kind to national parks in that it kept pace with inflation and made up for some prior year budgets that did not cover cost increases. That budget also included funding for Lava Beds to hire an archeologist, a profession position we have long needed.

Anecdotal evidence, from talking to visitors, is that the recession is indeed the major reason that Lava Beds and nearly all National Parks visitation is up. People said they were taking lower-cost vacations and thus coming to attractions like parks. We also are getting very high quality contractors to bid on our project work and they are giving us very good prices for that work. 

We will see at least another year or two of growing visitation due families taking lower cost vacations and staying closer to home.