OREGON STATE PARKS RANT

[Oasisbob]

Here in the Willamatte valley of Oregon we have good camping weather well into fall and sometimes beyond. Oregon state parks are extremely popular in the fall with it being a challenge to find a spot. Despite data from their own web site proving this Oregon State Parks refuses to keep parks or loops open longer thus turning away revenue and camping opportunities to all. Milo Mciver campground closes October 31 yet reservation data shows high interest. Champoeg state campground closes A loop though usage is shown to be high through October. They just do not care. Very frustrating

[dedmiston]

This got ugly. Thread closed.

[RedRollingRoadb]

It appears that you said the parks get "very little money from the general fund."

In fact it gets NONE from the general fund. The General Fund isn't Federal grants.

[rhagfo]

RedRollingRoadblock wrote:

rhagfo wrote:



That is interesting, here in Oregon we are still opening new parks both East and West side of the Cascades.
OPRD has a good funding system that gets very little money from the general fund. Main sources are User Fees, RV registration Fees (60% goes to parks), and a share of Lottery dollars.

No exactly.

2011-13: $181.5M

2013-15: $189.6M

2015-17 (budgeted): $201.9M

2017-19 request: $219.5M

Money comes from: Oregon Lottery (47 percent), visitor fees / RV fees (47 percent), federal grants (6 percent)

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2017/03/17/crowds-rise-oregons-state-parks-seek-more-ran...

Looking at that article, just what I stated less the 6% federal grants. The most important statement in the article is that the funding is stable!

[nickthehunter]

Oasisbob wrote:
Here in the Willamatte valley of Oregon we have good camping weather well into fall and sometimes beyond. Oregon state parks are extremely popular in the fall with it being a challenge to find a spot. Despite data from their own web site proving this Oregon State Parks refuses to keep parks or loops open longer thus turning away revenue and camping opportunities to all. Milo Mciver campground closes October 31 yet reservation data shows high interest. Champoeg state campground closes A loop though usage is shown to be high through October. They just do not care. Very frustrating

What did you conclude after you made the same Rant last year? RANT Even used the same All Caps title for the thread. Did you think the answers would be different?

[RedRollingRoadb]

rhagfo wrote:



That is interesting, here in Oregon we are still opening new parks both East and West side of the Cascades.
OPRD has a good funding system that gets very little money from the general fund. Main sources are User Fees, RV registration Fees (60% goes to parks), and a share of Lottery dollars.

No exactly.

2011-13: $181.5M

2013-15: $189.6M

2015-17 (budgeted): $201.9M

2017-19 request: $219.5M

Money comes from: Oregon Lottery (47 percent), visitor fees / RV fees (47 percent), federal grants (6 percent)

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2017/03/17/crowds-rise-oregons-state-parks-seek-more-ran...

[rhagfo]

Y-Guy wrote:

RedRollingRoadblock wrote:
Go north and stay in a Washington park. Problem solved.

Unless you live on the East side of the State. They abandoned most of the campgrounds in our area, turned some into KOAs and our county took over one.

That is interesting, here in Oregon we are still opening new parks both East and West side of the Cascades.
OPRD has a good funding system that gets very little money from the general fund. Main sources are User Fees, RV registration Fees (60% goes to parks), and a share of Lottery dollars.

[Y-Guy]

Oasisbob wrote:
Here in the Willamatte valley of Oregon we have good camping weather well into fall and sometimes beyond. Oregon state parks are extremely popular in the fall with it being a challenge to find a spot. Despite data from their own web site proving this Oregon State Parks refuses to keep parks or loops open longer thus turning away revenue and camping opportunities to all.

You can find a list of the Oregon State Parks Board Commissioners here with that you can find each member online, if you are serious I would personally email/mail/call each of them with your concern. They also have their meetings posted on that same page and you might go to one. A few years ago I helped lobby from an out of State visitors perspective to help get some grant funds to expand an ORV park. I can say the representatives on the East side all got back to me, not so much with some others.

RedRollingRoadblock wrote:
Go north and stay in a Washington park. Problem solved.

Unless you live on the East side of the State. They abandoned most of the campgrounds in our area, turned some into KOAs and our county took over one.

[RedRollingRoadb]

bikendan wrote:

RedRollingRoadblock wrote:
Go north and stay in a Washington park. Problem solved.

Washington State parks also close loops. the state park on my island will be closing 2 out of the 3 loops soon.

Who cares? Then he can complain about that too.

[ksg5000]

rhagfo wrote:

ksg5000 wrote:
I appreciate your sentiment. But I suspect Oregon is closing sections/loops of many State Parks starting around November. McIver isn't that popular and it's one of the largest Parks I have ever visited - the cost of maintaining the entire park has to be enormous - my guess is that total closure is the most cost effective thing. When I visited MM last year in Sept it was almost empty for 3 days straight.

Milo McIver is actually a small Park in the OPRD system with about 50 sites. The largest park in the system is Ft. Stevens with over 500 sites.
Parks in the Valley and gorge get extreme weather and for their size are costly to operate.
Many of the coastal parks keep at least half their sites open year around. Understand after Labor Day weekday camping drops off considerably, keeping staff needed for weekends is costly, so some parks close and some parks close part of the loops to run with reduced staff.
The two parks near Newport open all RV loops for the weekend of Seafood and Wine Festival in February.

I agree that Milo has a small RV park but I interpreted the OP as saying they closed the entire park ... the RV section is a very tiny portion of a the Park. MM is very large park and so large it's common to run into people hiking who are lost.

[Oasisbob]

Thank you for the link. It actually worked. I will let you know what they say. I want to make it clear I think the staff and workers at these parks are awesome and do a wonderful job. I just cannot understand why they close too early.

[bikendan]

RedRollingRoadblock wrote:
Go north and stay in a Washington park. Problem solved.

Washington State parks also close loops. the state park on my island will be closing 2 out of the 3 loops soon.

[rhagfo]

Bob, try using the email link at the bottom of This link.

[rhagfo]

ksg5000 wrote:
I appreciate your sentiment. But I suspect Oregon is closing sections/loops of many State Parks starting around November. McIver isn't that popular and it's one of the largest Parks I have ever visited - the cost of maintaining the entire park has to be enormous - my guess is that total closure is the most cost effective thing. When I visited MM last year in Sept it was almost empty for 3 days straight.

Milo McIver is actually a small Park in the OPRD system with about 50 sites. The largest park in the system is Ft. Stevens with over 500 sites.
Parks in the Valley and gorge get extreme weather and for their size are costly to operate.
Many of the coastal parks keep at least half their sites open year around. Understand after Labor Day weekday camping drops off considerably, keeping staff needed for weekends is costly, so some parks close and some parks close part of the loops to run with reduced staff.
The two parks near Newport open all RV loops for the weekend of Seafood and Wine Festival in February.

[Walaby]

I suspect it's not that they "don't care", but probably don't have the resources to stay open. As mentioned, many state parks operate at a deficit, or right on the raggedy edge of that, so likely it's a cost savings/cost avoidance issue.

There are some state parks here in Northern Georgia that stay open late into the winter, but are unmanned. There's a honor system box where you are supposed to pay cash and drop in a slot. Can't help but wonder how many people try to rip them off by not paying.

Mike