Campers worry about future of imperiled state parks

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Monday, April 1, 2002

MARYHILL STATE PARK -- With two stainless steel bowls full of chunks of sturgeon and walleye fillets, John Crumrine was in fisherman heaven.

"There's nothing better to eat than walleye," he said.

Crumrine, 57, and his wife, Chandelle, who gives her age only as past 55, have been hauling their boat to Maryhill State Park on the Columbia River for the last 20 years.

"The walleye fishing is the first attraction," Chandelle Crumrine said. "We just camp. I paint the scenery. I bring my watercolors out."

And then there's the weather. Long before the snow melts at their home in the Eastern Oregon town of Lakeview, the sun is out and the weather is mild in the Columbia River Gorge.

"It's a little oasis in the high desert," John Crumrine said.

But the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, which operates the 70-campsite park, has canceled its lease for this oasis with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the land.

Maryhill State Park attracts about 450,000 windsurfers, campers, boaters and picnickers annually. But it might close next year along with a dozen other state-run parks on leased land, most of them in Eastern Washington.

"That's why I came here for spring break -- because it might be the last time," said Jenni Heib, 31, of West Seattle, who was walking her German shepherd, Faith, around the park.

Heib, a student at Bellevue Community College, has been a regular visitor to Maryhill State Park for the past five years.

"I just like everything about it. The quiet. The river," she said. "Without sounding too much like a hippie, there's just a nice energy here."

The state's decision to cancel the leases will save about $1.4 million for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, but leaves the future of the parks in limbo.

Cleve Pinnix, state parks director, has said the 125-park system is dying by attrition.

The Corps of Engineers district office in Portland is responsible for deciding the future of three of the parks in the Gorge, including Maryhill. Right now, the prospects seem bleak.

While the state said it would like to see property owners chip in to keep the parks open, Mike McAleer, a spokesman for the corps' Portland office, said the federal agency doesn't want to do anything that would increase its own operations and maintenance budget.

The Legislature cut the state parks budget by $2.8 million in the session that ended last month, prompting not only the canceled leases but increases in camping and boat-launch fees.

In Wenatchee, the Chelan County Public Utility District has three parks on the canceled-lease list. The PUD hopes to work out something with the state, said PUD spokeswoman Susan Gillin.

A meeting is scheduled this month. PUD employees hope to get a better sense of how much money the utility would have to kick in to keep the parks open. Another option is expanding campgrounds or keeping them open longer to raise money, she said.

Canceled leases

The state has canceled leases to operate 13 parks on property owned by other agencies:

-U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Potholes and Summer Falls state parks

-U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Crow Butte, Central Ferry, Chief Timothy, Maryhill and Lyons Ferry state parks; Spring Creek Hatchery

-Tacoma Power and Light: Ike Kinswa and Lake Cushman state parks

-Chelan County Public Utility District: Daroga, Lincoln Rock and Wenatchee Confluence state parks

The Olympian Copyright 2002

back to Outdoors index