Sunnyside County Park is where Oregonians go to relax.
The 160-site campsite is located east Sweet Home in Cascade Foothills.
However, Sunnyside was not a peaceful place this summer, according to park officials. The demand for camping sites outstripped the campground capacity.
“Campsite pirates” claimed sites that were already reserved as their own. They tore off reservation tags from the campground’s kiosks and replaced them with their own, leaving the original parties confused — and angry — when they showed up and foundtheir campsite occupied.
Tensions rose over the first-come first-served campsites. Rangers had to act as mediators and detectives to find the rightful owner of the site. Brian Carroll, Linn County Parks and Recreation director, admitted that there were two parties who even got into a fight.
“People were literally fighting over campsites,” said Carroll. “What we experienced this year was certainly a general level of increased frustration and anxiety of people not being able to get their campsite. There seems to be less general common courtesy going on.”
While fistfights and campsite piracy are extreme examples, interviews with rangers and land managers make clear there is growing anger and sometimes violence at Oregon’s crowded campgrounds.
In an earlier report, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department stated that harassment and assaults of park rangers has increased to the point where the agency would seek legislation for additional protection and a higher penalty for their attacks.
Rangers have reported not only being physically assaulted, but being stalked by campers with firearms and even attacked by campers’ dogs. Last April graffiti was found at State Capitol State Park that said “die rangers” in a bathroom along with a racial slur.
“Traditionally about 1% of our visitors really struggle with complying to rules and regulations,” said Dennis Benson, recreation manager for Deschutes National Forest. “Now, we’ve got more like 10% of the population that doesn’t comply or adhere with rules, regulations, those kinds of things, which is lending itself to more problematic behaviors on public lands.”
Skyrocketing demand causes stress
Demand for Oregon campsites has been growing sharply for well over a decade, but skyrocketed during the pandemic and hasn’t let up, often leaving a shortfall of available spots.
As the Statesman Journal reported this spring, the number of campers has grown rapidly with the state’s population boom, but campsite capacity hasn’t kept up, especially in popular areas. Oregon’s state park system has opened just three new campgrounds since 1972.
Related:Oregonians play ‘campsite Jeopardy’ as demand skyrockets and supply declines
There have been many sold-out campsites even during the week. This is in addition to the well-known story of people getting up early to reserve a site six months ahead.
Last year, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department set records for its total numbers of visitors — an estimated 53.6 million day visits and 3.02 million campers who stayed overnight. This year’s numbers are about the same, state Parks and Recreation Department associate director Chris Havel said.
“This summer we’ve been extremely busy, at 96% to 98% capacity, which basically means you might find a night here or there, but basically everything is taken,” Havel said. “What we’re noticing again this year is that it’s a lot of people new to camping and the outdoors in general. In other words, the trend that we saw start during the pandemic of people coming out for the first time is continuing, and that means we’re going to stay busy.”
“We rely on the public’s honorability.”
At Sunnyside — and at many other campgrounds — there is a mix of sites open to reservations and first-come, first-served, with the idea of allowing for spontaneous trips or planning options.
But the combination of the two can lead to trouble when all the reservation sites are taken in advance — which is happening more frequently — and people still show up for a limited number of first-come sites.
People who’ve packed up their boat, trailer, camping gear and kids become desperate, and a growing number appear unwilling to accept defeat.
Carroll claimed that people took down the tags of campsites already reserved and replaced them with their own. This is similar to taking a campsite reservation card and claiming it as your own.
“In the past, it was extremely rare,” he said. “Have there been disputes? Yes, that has happened before. However, it was not on the same scale as what we saw this year.
There have been posts in Facebook groups that mention this type camper piracy, which includes taking over campsites previously reserved by another. However, land managers claimed that campground piracy was rare in general, given the fact that most campgrounds at minimum have a host.
A perfect world would see park staff able to help with disputes. Unfortunately, there was a labor shortage in Oregon, so many campgrounds had no staff this summer. This left campers to resolve disputes themselves.
“In more remote campgrounds or the smaller campgrounds we don’t have staff available, and we are relying on the public to be honorable,” Carroll said.
Rising anger targeted at park rangers
Rangers speculate that people have become less honorable and more violent in recent years due to COVID-19, increased newcomers to the outdoor world, or the volatile social climate.
“The interactions that our staff are having with the public have been really challenging over the last three years,” Benson said. “People are angrier, and that is coming out on our employees and it’s very concerning.”
Kade Pulliam, Linn County’s Park Ranger II, is his name. He worked at Sunnyside this summer, along with a few other parks, where he said he’s seen people’s increased frustration.
“Not everybody that’s come and disrespected a ranger truly has it out for us rangers,” Pulliam said. “They normally have some kind of outside or personal happening that is upsetting for them, and they take their anger and frustration out on us.”
Havel said the trend in Oregon’s state parks is twofold. There are just more people, so by the law of large numbers, there are just more encounters over rules violations — usually, things like keeping dogs leashed or turning down music.
“But, unfortunately, what stands out is that we’re also seeing an increase in situations where people not only disagree with our rangers, but disagree in ways that include verbally attacking them, threatening physical violence and sometimes following through on those threats,” Havel said. “We have had rangers hit. More often, it’s a person who’s upset charging or threatening them in a very intense way. It’s not an enormous number of incidents, but it’s growing and it doesn’t take many for us to see it as a critical issue.”
Havel indicated that the state Parks and Recreation Department will be looking for a state legislator who can introduce a bill next week that would provide more protections for rangers and raise the penalty for their assault.
The reservation system provides some assistance
During the height of summer, Oregon’s state parks system has moved to the point that the vast majority of campgrounds are controlled by reservations.
The reservation system allows park staff to track who has the rightful access to a campsite and eliminates confusion that can arise from first-come first-served sites. According to Havel, disputes over campsites have been reduced at state parks this year.
“Almost all of our summer camping is by reservation, so there aren’t big lineups at the park entrance and there are no people rushing to get a campsite and running into other people also looking for a campsite,” Havel said. “That just doesn’t happen in the state park system because it’s all taken care of in advance.”
But it’s not perfect. It’s not possible to make spontaneous trips like Oregonians are used to. People may have to plan summer trips in winter, before they are aware of weather and sickness. It is also known that many people will buy campsites online, but not use them. Outside Magazine has published stories about campgrounds that have been fully booked, but are only half-full.
Havel said that hasn’t been a big issue at Oregon state parks — less than 1% of the reservations made don’t show or cancel. No-shows are a problem in some parts of the state, however.
Overall, parks officials said, Oregon’s outdoor boom has put stress on everybody — campers and rangers. The situation will only get worse as there are not enough funds and options to build new campsites.
“People are loving the outdoors to death, and I think we’re at the point where, at least locally for our system, that’s come home,” Carroll said. “Even the camping side of things, people are loving it to the point where we were having trouble meeting the demand.”
Makenzie Elliott interns outdoors at the Salem Statesman Journal. Reach her at MElliott@Salem.gannett.com.
Zach Urness, an Oregon outdoor reporter for 15+ years, is the host of Explore Oregon Podcast. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. You can reach him at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com 503-399-6800 Follow him @ZachsORoutdoors.
from Salem – Salem Local News https://bit.ly/3BKn7Xp
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.