This weekend kicks off the official summer camping season, but the work to prepare Oregon’s more than 250 state parks and campgrounds has been going all year long.
Behind the scenes, park rangers have moved mountains of sand, cleared thousands of downed trees and repaired roofs, bridges and trails around the state to keep
parks well maintained and ready for visitors.
Visitors might think that parks stay pristine because they look just like they did last year, but maintaining beautiful landscapes in some of Oregon’s harshest climates takes some work:
- Cape Lookout State Park cleared more than 1.5 million pounds of sand after winter winds buried one camp loop in six-inch drifts. The park is not alone. Many coastal parks must dig out campsites, sidewalks and parking lots after the winter season.
- Devil’s Lake State Recreation Area removed a dump truck load of slime, algae, branches, leaves and trash, which coated the campground when lake water receded. The lake floods every year, and rangers clean up the muck left behind.
- In the Mountain Region and other areas where it freezes, rangers reinstall plumbing components and restart the plumbing to the campgrounds, buildings and picnic shelters, which includes restarting water to thousands of campsite spigots.
- At Fall Creek State Recreation Area east of Eugene, rangers cleared eight dump truck loads of fir needles, cones, branches and debris to make the roads passable at Winberry Park when it reopened this spring.
- Nehalem Bay State Park cleared nearly 180 downed trees in one winter storm alone. Parks across the state repaired winter storm damage, including clearing downed trees, repairing roads, fixing roofs and mending bridges.
- In the Columbia River Gorge, parks cleared thousands of pounds of woody debris from paved trails. They created chips from the debris and spread it around trees and shrubs.
Overall, Oregon State Parks rangers spend nearly 800,000 hours a year cleaning bathrooms, building and repairing trails and bridges, fixing old and new pipes and wiring, keeping parks safe, preserving Oregon’s history and natural resources and sharing knowledge on everything from mushrooms to the night sky.
“Rangers work tirelessly to keep these landscapes beautiful and accessible for the approximately 56 million visits each year at Oregon State Parks. We’re thankful for the work they do every day,” said Oregon Governor Tina Kotek.
Oregon State Parks welcome as many as 17,000 guests on the busiest nights, which means moving a city roughly the size of Canby in and out of campgrounds on almost a daily basis statewide.
“Oregon State Parks are like small cities. They run sewer, water and electrical systems; maintain roads and structures, all while managing campgrounds. When one system goes down, our staff manage the necessary emergency repairs to keep parks open. I’m proud of the work they do to keep parks safe, welcoming and ready for everyone to enjoy,” said Oregon Parks and Recreation Director Lisa Sumption.
Help rangers this season by following all safety signs and barriers; staying on trail and checking campfire restrictions in advance at stateparks.oregon.gov. Interested in what rangers do? Check out the Oregon State Parks episode of “Odd Jobs” by SAIF Corporation at https://youtu.be/NUqCmEe38Uw?feature=shared or the Join Us page on the website: https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=get-involved.jobs