Closure threatens kayak-boating sites

POPULAR CAMPGROUNDS: Cypress Island is popular with kayakers
and other boaters, but the state Department of Natural Resources
may close three campgrounds and a trail there, and a campground on
Lummi Island, if the Legislature and Gov. Gary Locke cut recreation funding.
GENE DAVIS COURTESY PHOTO

OUTDOORS: Popular spots on Cypress, Lummi islands could lose recreation funding.

Aubrey Cohen, The Bellingham Herald

Local kayakers and other boaters are distressed that popular campsites on Cypress and Lummi islands may close soon.

The sites are in jeopardy because proposed budgets by Gov. Gary Locke and the state House would eliminate recreation funding for the state Department of Natural Resources.

The DNR can use money, collected from fees on off-road vehicles, to keep up sites that have off-road vehicle areas. But about one-third of the agency's sites and 250 miles of trails rely solely on the recreation funding, agency spokeswoman Jane Chavey said.

"You can do it on a shoestring, which is what we were doing it on," she said. "But we can't do it on nothing."

The list of threatened sites, which the DNR released on Thursday, includes the Lummi Island campsite, Cypress Island trails and campsites (Cypress Head and Pelican Beach) and the adjacent Strawberry Island campsite.

"It really is irritating, to say the least, that so many of the outdoor things are being shut down," said Gene Davis, a local kayaker. "I know that the state has a problem, but I think the outdoor recreation things are important for people, too."

If the state eliminates the recreation funding, the DNR might be able to save the local sites by using money designated for natural areas, Chavey said. "It's likely that some of them might be able to be left open."

The island campsites are popular with kayakers and other boaters, including a growing number of tour groups, said Andy Wallis, a member of the Whatcom Association of Kayak Enthusiasts and husband of club president Lisa Wallis.

"People come from all over the country and all over the world sometimes to paddle out in the San Juans," he said. "These are all the sites that the outfitters use."

Cypress Island, north of Anacortes, gets particularly crowded.

"Cypress just gets so much use by everybody in the area," said Carl Prince, outdoor program coordinator for the Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department, which runs trips to the island.

"It's just one of the pristine places to go," Prince said.

On a weekend summer night, Cypress Island's campsites may have 20 or 30 tents, said Tom Murley, special lands coordinator for the DNR's northwest region.

Groups of disabled people pull into Pelican Beach, which has a site with a wheelchair-accessible composting toilet.

The Lummi Island site is a less-crowded alternative, Wallis said. "It's kind of the local hideaway."

The state cut DNR recreation funding from $1.2 million in the biennium that started in July 1991 to $859,100 in the biennium starting in 2001. State officials then cut another $217,300 last year. Accounting for inflation, the cuts halved the recreation budget, Chavey said.

During the past two years, the DNR has eliminated 162 positions, making it even harder for the agency to supervise recreation sites, she said.

The state Senate's proposed budget would continue the same amount of recreation funding as this year, but that may not be enough to keep all the affected sites open, Chavey said.

The DNR recently closed three campgrounds in the Capitol State Forest, south of Olympia, because of a lack of money.

Last summer, the DNR closed the Hutchinson Creek campground, off Mosquito Lake Road, because of budget cuts, vandalism and public safety concerns, and removed toilets from the Lizard and Lily Lakes campgrounds to save money.

Murley kept the Lummi Island campground open by recruiting volunteers from the Whatcom Association of Kayak Enthusiasts to help maintain the site.

State laws forbid the DNR from using proceeds of timber sales on recreation areas and from charging fees. State Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland does not want to charge fees, anyway, and doing so could cost more than it would be worth, Chavey said.

Volunteers probably could keep the Lummi Island site and possibly other sites open on their own, Wallis said. Volunteers went out at least every two weeks last summer to do basic maintenance and clean up the site, he said.

Volunteers are valuable, but they cannot do certain tasks, like major maintenance, pumping toilets and enforcing laws, Chavey and Murley said.

Sutherland's proposed long-term solution is a new "Legacy Trust for Recreation and Conservation."

Under the plan, which Sutherland unveiled last November, the state would acquire forestland and use revenue from logging that land for recreation, law enforcement on state lands and stewardship of natural areas.

DNR officials want to find a way to keep the sites open, Chavey said.

"We need lots of opportunities to be outdoors," she said. "We're all indoors too much."