None of Southwest Washington’s three state parks contains significant historical buildings, but all offer camping and waterfront access. They are:
o Battle Ground Lake State Park. The closest state park to Vancouver, the 280-acre park rings a lake in a volcanic crater, a miniature version of Oregon’s famous Crater Lake. The campground has 41 sites, some of which cannot be accessed by car, and four cabins. Swimming and fishing are popular, and there are several miles of hiking, biking and horse trails.
o Paradise Point State Park. Tucked next to and in one spot directly under Interstate 5 along the East Fork of the Lewis River, 88-acre Paradise Point has 76 campsites and 6,180 feet of beach access for swimming and fishing. There are two miles of hiking trails.
o Beacon Rock State Park. Off state Highway 14 in Skamania County, 5,100-acre Beacon Rock has an older campground that the park’s website warns is better for tenters than RVs. Beacon Rock is the park’s outstanding natural feature; named by Lewis and Clark in 1805, the unusual monolith is the remaining core of an ancient volcano. A trail leads to the top for a panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge. That trail is currently closed due to a rock slide, according to the park’s website. The park offers other trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding, and there is access to the Columbia River.
SEATTLE — Washington’s park system turns 100 this year, but not since the Great Depression has it been so imperiled.
None of Southwest Washington's three state parks contains significant historical buildings, but all offer camping and waterfront access. They are:
o Battle Ground Lake State Park. The closest state park to Vancouver, the 280-acre park rings a lake in a volcanic crater, a miniature version of Oregon's famous Crater Lake. The campground has 41 sites, some of which cannot be accessed by car, and four cabins. Swimming and fishing are popular, and there are several miles of hiking, biking and horse trails.
o Paradise Point State Park. Tucked next to and in one spot directly under Interstate 5 along the East Fork of the Lewis River, 88-acre Paradise Point has 76 campsites and 6,180 feet of beach access for swimming and fishing. There are two miles of hiking trails.
o Beacon Rock State Park. Off state Highway 14 in Skamania County, 5,100-acre Beacon Rock has an older campground that the park's website warns is better for tenters than RVs. Beacon Rock is the park's outstanding natural feature; named by Lewis and Clark in 1805, the unusual monolith is the remaining core of an ancient volcano. A trail leads to the top for a panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge. That trail is currently closed due to a rock slide, according to the park's website. The park offers other trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding, and there is access to the Columbia River.
Since 2000, the state has shed 12 parks, reduced hours at others, and shifted 66 of 189 full-time rangers to seasonal jobs. Starting in 2009, the state parks cut 595 full-time permanent employees to 395.
The situation has gotten so bad that Gov. Jay Inslee and key state lawmakers say they are considering restoring some state tax dollars to fund the parks.
“The governor is a big supporter of state parks,” said David Postman, spokesman for the governor. He said Inslee’s coming budget proposal will reflect that. “Parks are struggling, and it gets worse every year. We can’t let that go on; it gets harder and harder to get them back where they need to be.”
In a park system in which more than 30 percent of the land base was donated by families, the parks’ state of diminishment and disrepair is unacceptable, some said.
“Families gave this land believing it would be taken care of,” said Ralph Munro, former secretary of state.
The amount of state funding for parks continued to crater, from 63 percent of the $149 million total budget in 2007-09 to 18 percent of the $121 million budget this biennium.
The percentage of the agency’s budget coming from user fees did soar from about 25 percent to more than 40 percent between 2000 and 2010. But it wasn’t enough.
As the recession bottomed out, then-Gov. Gregoire announced, while putting her budget together in 2010 for the coming biennium, that the state’s share of the parks budget would have to be supported by user fees.
The Legislature launched the Discover Pass in 2011, charging visitors $30 a year to use state park facilities.
It was a radical step: No park system in the country is so heavily supported by user fees, and the Discover Pass generated only about half the hoped-for revenue. The cutting got deeper.
In 31 years with state parks, Tom Pew has watched his job change from primarily providing safe, rewarding experiences for park visitors to cruising the parking lots for Discover Passes on the dashboard and running after emergency maintenance.
“We are just getting by with keeping the campgrounds and the restrooms clean. The heavy emphasis on the collection of the fees, that takes staff time too,” Pew said. “We have less contact with the public, and the contact we do have is in more of a negative manner.
At Lake Wenatchee State Park, winter storms downed so many trees that more than half of the campsites are unusable. Cleanup is slower, with fewer year-round staff.
Meanwhile, all over the state, portions of trails, scenic overlooks and campgrounds are cordoned off because there is no money to repair or maintain them. Since 2000, 12 parks have been transferred to local, federal or tribal governments, or closed.
The state used to operate a string of parks along the Snake River, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of its mitigation for construction of Snake River dams. Today one park is closed, one operates a few hours a year when volunteers help, and another is open only seasonally by a concessionaire.
Even state legislators who pushed hardest for a user-fee system say the effort has run aground. This has to be the year for a turnaround, some lawmakers say, and it should be a permanent one.
Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, the chief budget-writer for the House, said funding parks is good for business and the state’s quality of life.
“We are not trying to be Arkansas. We are not trying to drive the state tax system into the ground. We are trying to say what are the right set of purposes that people want, and in my district, people want parks,” he said.
“It’s one of the huge attractions of our state and why we have the high-tech community that is driving the economy. Stiffing the state parks … Are you serious?”
