Langsdorf Landing, a key boat ramp for spring and fall chinook fishermen along the Columbia River in the Vancouver Lake lowlands, is getting a $753,000 renovation starting later this year.
The state Recreation Conservation Office announced the grant on Wednesday.
A total of nine projects in Clark County are being financed, including $64,795 to replace Hathaway Park boat ramp along the Washougal River in Washougal.
“Wow, that’s pretty cool,’’ said Larry Snyder, president of the Vancouver Wildlife League. “It’s been a long time in coming. We’ve been pushing for it for years and years.’’
Langsdorf Landing is a single-lane, concrete plank ramp on Caterpillar Slough off Lower River Road. It also is called the Caterpillar Island or Shillapoo boat ramp. The site has two small gravel parking lots. There is excellent spring chinook salmon fishing along Caterpillar Island and fall chinook angling can be very good a few miles downstream of the island.
Plans call for replacing the ramp, widening the parking area, adding auxiliary parking and installing fencing, a viewing platform and a boarding float.
Caterpillar Island is about 10 miles downstream of Marine Park boat ramp in Vancouver. That’s too far for small boats to venture in the changing weather of spring.
Guy Norman, regional director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the goal is to have the renovation complete in time for spring chinook fishing next March.
The Langsdorf parking lots often are full by 5 a.m. during the peak of the spring chinook fishery in late March or April.
“It’s a high-demand area,’’ Norman said. “It’s a really good access point.’’
Snyder said some Vancouver Wildlife League members will grimace at today’s news.
“It’s already crowded and if they built it it’ll be even more crowded,’’ he said.
Other projects getting Recreation Conservation Office financing include:
• $64,795 to replace Hathaway Park boat ramp in Washougal. The launch has seen no major improvements or repair since it was built 30 years ago and is becoming unsafe.
• $153,775 to buy three acres to expand Abrams Park in Ridgefield.
• $158,273 to buy a half-acre in the Rose Village neighborhood of Vancouver for a park.
• $73,800 to develop two staging areas for a new mountain bike trail in the Yacolt Burn State Forest.
• $160,800 to construct and install two bridges and up to three large culverts in the western Yacolt Burn State Forest as part of a new motorized trail system.
• $57,935 to maintain 18 miles of off-road-vehicle trails and two trailheads in the Yacolt Burn and Elochoman areas.
• $60,500 to maintain 54 miles of non-motorized trail in the Yacolt Burn and Siouxon areas.
• $151,000 to restore the Washougal Oaks Natural Area, the largest native oak woodland remaining in Western Washington.
Two projects were funded in Klickitat County.
• $685,857 will go to Columbia Land Trust to buy a voluntary land preservation agreement to stop further development of 215 acres of the Schmid farm in the Trout Lake valley
• $145,500 will go to the state Department of Natural Resources to restore the hydrology and vegetation of the meadows at the Trout Lake Natural Area Preserve.
