OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
TuESday, FEBRuaRy 1, 2022
State parks draw a crowd, topping 3 million visitors
increases by percentage
were at two of the smallest
places: Umpqua Lighthouse
and Humbug Mountain
state parks.
By JAMIE HALE
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon state
park campgrounds were
packed in 2021, as locals
and tourists alike left the
comforts of their homes
to sleep under the stars,
among evergreen forests
and beside the ocean.
The Oregon Parks and
Recreation Department
reported a total 3,026,756
camper nights last year, far
outpacing the pandemic-im-
paired numbers from 2020,
and eclipsing the 3 million
mark for the first time, the
department said.
In state park parlance
a “camper night” is one
camper spending one night
at a campsite. A family of
four spending two nights in
a tent, for example, would
equal eight camper nights.
And since virtually every
campground saw a dip in
numbers during statewide
park closures in 2020, it’s
more useful to compare the
recent numbers to those
in 2019, when state park
campgrounds were in the
midst of a huge surge in
popularity.
Most of the growth in
2021 came on the Oregon
Coast, which saw a 9%
increase in camper nights
Advocates
seek state
support
to fight
dementia
By BRITTANY FALKERS
KGW News
PORTlAND — The toll
of Alzheimer’s and other
dementias goes beyond
the emotional and physical
impact for families facing
a diagnosis. In 2021, Alz-
heimer’s and other demen-
tias cost the U.S. $355 bil-
lion dollars for things like
health care and long-term
care, according to the Alz-
heimer’s Association.
Unless a treatment to
slow, stop or prevent the
disease comes along, by
2050 Alzheimer’s is pro-
jected to cost more than
$1.1 trillion dollars, and
that’s before adjusing for
projected inflation.
“It impacts all of us.
If you are a resident of
the United States you are
affected by the cost of
dementia,” local Alzhei-
mer’s Advocate Jenn Cook-
Buman said.
Next month, Cook-
Bauman and 61 other Ore-
gonians will meet with
Oregon lawmakers to push
for more resources to find
a cure.
More than 6 million
Americans are living with
Alzheimer’s, around 69,000
people in Oregon and
120,000 in Washington,
according to the Alzhei-
mer’s Association’s latest
research.
One in three seniors will
die from a form of the dis-
ease. It kills more people
than breast and prostate
cancer combined.
“We are one of the
lowest funded causes and
yet in the top 10 causes of
death and most expensive,”
Cook-Buman said.
She knows the pain
behind the numbers first-
hand. Several of her family
members suffer from Alz-
heimer’s and other demen-
tias and their diagnosis has
often been early onset.
Cook-Buman also works
in the senior long-term care
industry.
“I see the impact on the
families that I work with
constantly. It’s very devas-
tating,” she said.
She will be one of 62
Oregonians to meet Feb.
8-10 virtually with legisla-
tors to share personal expe-
riences and ask for legis-
lative support in the fight
against Alzheimer’s and all
other dementia.
Minam sees big jump
Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
Rustic cabins at Cottonwood Canyon State Park offer a nice overnight option at the remote park site along
the John Day River.
over 2019 — the only
region in the state to see an
overall increase last year.
More than a third of that
increase came from the
massive campground at Fort
Stevens State Park outside
Astoria, which saw 343,485
camper nights last year, far
more than any other.
Parks department
spokesman Chris Havel
said the data show a con-
tinued trend of midweek
camping in the summer, as
well as weekend and hol-
iday camping in the fall,
winter and spring. The
numbers also continue a
significant uptick in state
park camping that began in
2012, a trend that park offi-
cials see as a win.
“Hooray for people con-
tinuing to realize enjoying
the outdoors is good for
body and mind, and good
for both the individual and
the community.” Havel said
in an email Wednesday. “As
people continue to look for
places to experience in our
centennial year, we hope
they branch out to look for
places new to you, and take
the time to prepare well.”
The Oregon Parks and
Recreation Department
will be celebrating its
100th anniversary in 2022,
marking the occasion with
special events that might
draw even more people to
parks across the state.
The centennial cele-
bration of the National
Park Service in 2016 led to
record numbers of national
park visitors that year.
At state park camp-
grounds on the Oregon
Coast, securing camp-
sites might be competi-
tive for the centennial this
summer — at least if last
year’s numbers are any
indication. Almost every
state park campground on
the coast saw more camper
nights in 2021 than in 2019,
and while the most popular
campgrounds got a little
more popular, the biggest
Smaller campgrounds
in Eastern, Central and
Southern Oregon also saw
big increases last year, con-
tinuing a trend from 2020
that saw people looking
for more remote getaways
amid the pandemic. Some
of the least-visited state
park sites in recent years
saw huge jumps in camper
nights in 2021, including
Red Bridge State Wayside
and Hilgard Junction State
Park outside La Grande,
as well as the tiny, remote
Minam State Recreation
Area along the Wallowa
River, which saw a 254%
increase last year, going
from 5,498 camper nights
in 2020 to 19,460 in 2021.
Willamette Valley camp-
grounds, meanwhile, saw
their camper nights down
compared to 2019, almost
across the board. Increases
at the popular L.L. Stub
Stewart State Park, as well
as the state park camp-
grounds of the Columbia
River Gorge, were out-
weighed by decreases at
places like Milo McIver,
Willamette Mission and
Detroit Lake state parks.
Some decreases were
due to campground closures
that followed wildfires,
windstorms and flooding.
Money that has been ear-
marked for Oregon state
park improvements will go
to both adding new camp-
sites and moving existing
ones out of harm’s way, as
campsites in some parks
are currently threatened
by eroding cliffs, rising
rivers and wildfires. In
2021, the state Legisla-
ture approved a $50 mil-
lion bond to upgrade Ore-
gon’s state parks over the
next two years, a plan that
will include new campsites
at some of the state’s busiest
parks, in addition to infra-
structure and other projects.
That may help alleviate
crowds in the state’s bus-
iest campgrounds, but not if
crowds continue to grow, an
issue the parks department
said it is keeping an eye on.
“It’s a concern,” Havel
said of the overcrowding at
campgrounds. “Planning,
designing, and building
new sites takes a couple of
years, in some cases more
time than the three year
limit on the bonds, so we’re
still in pursuit of a long-
term solution.”
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