Wednesday, November 29, 6 – 8 p.m., Eastsound Fire Station
— from Toni Droscher, Washington State Parks —
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission is beginning a public process to consider expanding the long-term park boundaries of Moran and Obstruction Pass state parks on Orcas Island.
The public is invited to participate in the effort, which will kick off with a public workshop scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, November 29, at the Eastsound Fire Hall, 45 Lavender Lane, Eastsound. At the meeting, State Parks staff will provide background on the parks and their current and proposed future long-term park boundaries.
The purpose of identifying a long-term park boundary is to take a big-picture look at what lands, independent of ownership, might help to advance the conservation and recreation mission of a park.
The current project is to consider whether three properties, totaling approximately 358 acres, should be added to the long-term boundaries of Moran and Obstruction Pass state parks. Land classifications for the three properties will also be considered. The seven-member State Parks and Recreation Commission will make a decision on the long-term park boundaries and land classifications at its March 22, 2018 meeting in Snohomish.
Including privately owned property in a long-term park boundary enables the Commission to direct State Parks staff to work with nearby landowners willing to consider potential land transactions.
Washington State Parks has completed more than 100 land-use plans for parks around the state, through its Classification and Management Plan (CAMP) process. CAMP processes address opportunities for additional parking, trails, water access while also preserving habitat, overall visitor experiences, natural resources, recreation areas, and other topics of interest to the communities.
Opportunities for public comment will be available at the meeting, and public comment also may be provided by contacting Sanh Ho, Park Planner, (360) 902-8645 or sanh.ho@parks.wa.gov. Information about the planning project is available online at bit.ly/MoranPlan.
About Moran and Obstruction State Parks
Moran State Park is 5,252-acres and offers abundant camping, five freshwater lakes for swimming and non-motorized boating and more than 30 miles of hiking, bicycling, mountain biking and equestrian trails. Mount Constitution stands 2,409 feet above sea level. For more information about Moran, visit parks.state.wa.us/547/Moran.
Obstruction Pass State Park is an 80-acre primitive camping park on the south end of Orcas Island, south of Moran State Park. The park is one of the few spots on Orcas Island with access to more than one mile of publicly owned saltwater shoreline. For more information about Obstruction Pass, visit: parks.state.wa.us/553/Obstruction-Pass.
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Could you post a larger version of the map with a key, please? It is hard to understand in the small format.
Judy – Check out the links. the maps there are large and well-explained.
I checked out the maps and info, and sent in some comments. This morning, I got an email back from Sanh Ho, thanking me for my thoughts. I encourage everybody to learn about these ideas on park expansion, and to send in your thoughts. Personally, I think they would be excellent additions to Obstruction and Moran, some more than others. The only part that wasn’t clear to me was whether the landowners were supportive of the ideas.
Further clarification from Sanh – landowners are interested in working with State Parks.
Before commenting on the form provided, we were wondering if there was any more information other than the 2 paragraphs on the Moran Long Term Boundary page, and if anyone else can see a legend for the map that’s connected to the link? We don’t see anything else. Thanks.
I received the following reply to my question about more info.
“Thank you for taken the time to submit your comments. We are in the first stage of the process and we began with a set of meetings to discuss your issues, hopes, and concerns for the parks and get feedback from the public then we used comments from the meeting and online to put together approaches for each of the parks. Prior to the upcoming meeting, we put together the preliminary recommendations. Below is our preliminary recommendations for the three properties:
1. Youngren – We are considering adding to the park’s long-term boundary that could be used as a new cabin, RV’s campsites with utilities, parking and shuttle service, and also for adding trail to the existing trail system.
2. Wilcox – We are considering adding to the park’s long-term boundary that could be used for trail and water access.
3. Spring Bay (Burger) – At Spring Bay, we are considering adding to the Obstruction Pass park’s long-term boundary that could be used for parking, trail, shoreline access, and potential for development of vehicle camping.
At the conclusion of the meeting on November 29th, we will make changes to the preliminary recommendations as needed, and put them together into a final recommendation that we will take to our Parks and Recreation Commission for consideration in March.
That is all the information that I have available for this project at this time. You can see the issues that folks brought up at the meeting on our project webpage.
Please feel free to contact me if you have additional questions.
Thank you,
Sanh Ho
Parks Planner
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
Since we cannot be at the meeting on Wednesday, I sent back our comments below.
“Hello Sanh,
We feel very strongly that the Youngren property would be a tremendous asset to Moran State Park. Cabins, tent cabins and tent camping would all be suitable for this Park if they are placed and situated for sight lines and preservation of natural terrain and trees, as they are in Yosemite.
Shuttle service to Moran and Eastsound and would be desirable and safe and cut down traffic through the heavily used area of Cascade Lake during the season. Encouraging parking in an aesthetically appropriate lot, preserving the view from the road, on the Youngren property would be wise.
Encouraging the use of the Glenwood Springs Hatchery on the Youngren property as an educational, eco-tourist visit spot would be an ideal and appropriate use for it. The Hatchery is an extremely viable and important part of salmon recovery efforts in the Puget Sound, as well as preservation of the native salmon population. We would like this Hatchery to continue to be a model for other preservation and recovery efforts throughout the Sound. Having cabin and camping accommodations available for researchers, engineers, technicians and students, as well as visitors, would be valuable and would make the potential of the Hatchery’s continued success more likely.
There are no eating establishments between Moran Park and Eastsound, other than Rosario down the hill and Inn at Ship Bay, a more exclusive dinner restaurant near Eastsound. Creating a beautiful family-style cafe on a well-developed site back off the road, inside the property and near the cabins and tent cabins, would generate excellent revenue all year round and would very likely be utilized by the local residents in the off season.
RV’s campsites at the Youngren property WOULD NOT BE SUITABLE. Here are the following reasons:
1. It would create extreme danger on the 2 lane road that is the only road that serves our entire side of Orcas Island for commuters, school busses, emergency vehicles, residents, etc. There is no alternate route or shoulders on this roadway.
2. Mount Baker Farm in Eastsound has recently been re-purposed as an RV campground where it has public water and sewer. Orcas does not need another one. Shuttle service could easily stop there.
3. At the Youngren property public water is not available, nor is public sewer, and RV water and other utility usage there would be ill-advised. Cabin and tent camping usage could, we believe, be appropriately accommodated from the natural flow of water on the property.
Thank you for reading our concerns and suggestions. Although we cannot be at the meeting on Wed, 29th, we will be able to attend future meetings and will continue to participate in public comment.
Sincerely,
Marian O’Brien and Keith Whitaker
Hiking trails on the Youngren property that connect to the lakes and mountain would be a great addition. In fact, we should strive to make it possible to hike or bike from town to the top of the mountain.
However campgrounds between two residential areas are not appropriate and not needed. Those should stay only where they are now without increasing the numbers. Otherwise we cancel the benefit of spreading the park further and making it accessible to hiking from closer to town. We don’t need more people but more space for the current number of visitors.