By SUE RYAN
News staff writer
September 6, 2007

The U.S. Forest Service has begun the process of evaluating campgrounds throughout the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

The review is known as the Recreation Site Facility Master Planning 50 process and includes 24 sites in both Washington and Oregon.

Most of the Scenic Area campgrounds were built between 30 to 70 years ago. Over time, the public using those facilities has aged and preferences have changed.

Recreation Program Manager Stan Hinatsu said money is an issue for the agency in maintaining campgrounds. They are evaluating the sites by looking at use and capacity.

“When you get a site that is at 10 percent capacity, this causes you to think — Are we investing wisely?” he said.

The ultimate outcome has three strategic goals:

- Provide recreation opportunities for the national forest;

- Operate and maintain recreation sites to meet national quality standards;

- Eliminate or reduce recreation site deferred maintenance.

The program is used by the Forest Service nationwide and goes through seven steps to evaluate and eventually prioritize sites for action. The result will be a proposed five-year program of work.

The Scenic Area has been looking at niche values that influence how and what role the site plays within the region.

The agency is examining how sites match up with what the public wants to see provided. That can include population changes, visitors’ requests and the concept of an urban forest.

“The vision of a solitary, overnight destination is no more,” Hinatsu said. “Urban forests are more defined by proximity to an urban area and day trips.”

Possible actions might include reducing hours, operations and services or contracting out campground management.

“I don’t think many sites will change as a result; we get an incredible amount of use on a small land base,” Hinatsu said. “Multnomah Falls is the most-used site.”

One of the main drivers behind the evaluation process is the budget. The Forest Service gets its campground monies under a fund called Recreation/Heritage and Wilderness.

This money must pay for not only recreation site operations and maintenance but also the dispersed recreation program, management of the two Wild and Scenic Rivers, heritage resources, scenery and management, interpretation and education and technical assistance to the Gorge Commission and counties for scenic and cultural reviews.

Another fund, Facilities Capital Improvement and Maintenance, covers the cost of maintaining recreation buildings, water and waste water systems.

For Region 6, which covers more than just the Gorge, the allocations have steadily declined. In 2004, the agency received $ 25,729 for the recreation/heritage and wilderness fund. In 2006, the amount dropped to $16,559 and in 2007 to $14,711.

For the facilities capital improvement/maintenance fund, allocations follow the same trend, In 2005, $22,953 was allocated. This amount dropped to $8,564 in 2006 and $6,976 in 2007.

“When timber was king and more commodity-driven, we received substantial budgets (for recreation),” Hinatsu said. “Since then there have been substantial social and cultural shifts.”

The adjustment was because as the budget went down, the agency began seeing more recreation use. But even though there was more use, the overall budget was going down. So recreation dollars had to increasingly be used to pay for overhead.

Once an evaluation is complete, the agency will rank the sites then go to the public with a proposed five year program of work.