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closeState parks system mulls future usage with four plans
CAMP plan to implement best use for state parks
Susan Schell
of the Gateway
A representative from the Washington State Parks system was at Kopachuck Middle School last Thursday to discuss alternative approaches for managing the parks in the future.
Planner Nikki Fields gave a presentation of several different scenarios that are considered ways to improve the parks and attract visitors. State parks prepared the plans through an agency-wide system called Classification and Management Planning. Part of the CAMP process involves hosting community forums.
Fields said the parks system heard “loud and clear” how much the parks mean to citizens when they responded in droves to protest the possible closure of the parks due to state budget cuts last spring.
With the population growing, parks are becoming gathering places for communities, Fields said.
“Kopachuck and parks like it give people contact with the natural world without playgrounds and soccer fields,” she said. “We want to get in touch with a statewide purpose that serves both locals and people from around the state.”
CAMP has devised four alternative plans for Kopachuck, Joemma Beach, Penrose Point and other state parks: Outdoor Activity and Play; Parks for Everyone; Stewardship and Sustainability and Regional Heritage and Community.
Rather than a conglomeration of park-like apparatus and facilities for each location, CAMP looked at each park individually and created plans with a specific focus and agenda. The kind of development parks receive will depend on which of those plans are chosen.
The “Outdoor Activity and Play” plans promote recreational avenues for children and adults. Fields said poor health and obesity are reaching epidemic levels because people stay indoors too often. The phenomenon, dubbed “nature deficit disorder” in author Richard Louv’s book, “Last Child in the Woods,” threatens a generation that is disconnected from the natural world, Fields said.
The “Parks for Everyone” approach would seek to adapt the parks to reflect the ethnic diversity of the state’s population.
An audience member questioned what CAMP meant by “ethnic diversity.” Fields said most parks’ picnic areas were built for small, family-sized gatherings, whereas some ethnic populations, like Pacific Islanders, prefer to gather in larger groups.
CAMP plan
The CAMP plan alternatives for the following parks will determine which improvements will be made. Here are some of the improvements that are being considered under four categories.
For more information or to post comments, visit ww.parks.wa.gov/plans/Kopachuck-JarrellCove.
Outdoor Activity and Play
Kopachuck State Park — Add kayak rental dive shower, fishing pier, playground and measured fitness trail.
Joemma Beach State Park — Add concession building to rent kayaks, fishing pots and crab bait; add an artificial reef and restroom with showers.
Penrose Point State Park— Acquire marina; add large kitchen shelter; add kayak rentals and concessions; add playground and develop new trails.
Parks for Everyone
Kopachuck — Add a trail to beach, kayak rentals; replace picnic shelter with larger one; add bus stop with shelter and new campground loop.
Joemma Beach — Expand campground and add cabins; create an accessible route to the dock and add a group camp.
Penrose Point — Improve park entry to allow for public transportation; replace campground restrooms; improve group camp and add cabins.
Promoting Stewardship and Sustainability
Kopachuck — Add classroom for environmental education program; add shelter for outdoor culinary programs; add ampitheater.
Joemma Beach — Add fish cleaning station; add interpretive trail system; add marine gateway interpretive facility; electrify dock; re-open cove for natural flow; explore wind power.
Penrose Point — Add enclosed shelter for environmental education program and remove creosote throughout park.
Building Regional Heritage and Community
Kopachuck — Use parking lot for Farmers’ Market; add utilities to campground and add cabins.
Joemma Beach — Add enclosed picnic shelter; develop retreat center; add control station and park office; partner with private shellfish harvesters to develop interpretive programs on harvesting.
Penrose Point — Add heritage facility to interpret the Mosquito Fleet; add utilities to campgrounds; add ampitheater.
An example, she said could be to build a large barbecue area with a fire pit big enough to roast a pig.
The “Promoting Stewardship and Sustainability” option focuses on keeping the impact of man on nature to a minimum and the need for reducing consumptive behavior.
The areas of Kopachuck and Jarrell Cove were pinpointed in the category, because they are points where “the urban metropolitan populations meet the natural world.”
The category would require partnerships and volunteers to maintain the parks’ natural resources.
The fourth category, “Building Regional Heritage and Community,” centers on the parks’ value as a link to history and the natural world.
A CAMP pamphlet stated that the Kopachuck community’s primary view is that, while local parks were oriented toward playgrounds and sports, they enjoyed Kopachuck because it was different.
An audience member from Harbor WildWatch, a local non-profit organization, voiced concern over building recreational facilities and piers along some of the last pristine beach areas on Puget Sound.
Fields said that’s why several plans are under consideration, because the issues of land management and parks are a constant juggling act.
Fields invited audience members to write their thoughts on the proposed improvements and place them on boards that depicted the local state parks.
Fields said the notes that were collected, along with those at another public meeting in Belfair, will be taken into account during the planning process.
“I was impressed that the comments were very specific,” Fields said. “This is exactly what we’re looking for. When we go through the notes, I think we’ll have a pretty easy time figuring out what people want and don’t want.”
Comments also can be taken online at www.parks.wa.gov/plans/Kopachuck-JarrellCove.