A6
THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, MAy 28, 2019
Parks: ‘More people are coming, but we don’t have more resources’
Continued from Page A1
“It’s not about get-
ting more visitors here,”
said Nan Devlin, executive
director of Visit Tillamook
Coast. “It’s about managing
them when they get here.”
Multiyear project
The tourism network
came out of a multiyear
project led by Travel Ore-
gon to look at how to make
tourism more sustain-
able, environmentally and
economically.
“The North Coast is
clearly entering a new part
of its destination ‘lifecy-
cle,’” said Kristin Dahl,
vice president of destina-
tion development for Travel
Oregon, in a statement
announcing the formation
of the North Coast Tour-
ism Management Network
in May.
“Key to moving forward
will be finding the right bal-
ance between the economic
and social benefits of tour-
ism and the impacts that
high visitation can have on
traffic, local services, natu-
ral resources and quality of
life.”
Around
the
world,
Devlin can point to exam-
ples of tourism gone awry,
where crushes of visitors
have had major impacts on
the quality of life and frag-
ile ecosystems.
As far as natural resources
are concerned, the North
Coast isn’t quite there yet,
she said. “We’re nowhere
near what is termed ‘over-
tourism,’ ... but we’re going
to be if we don’t manage it
and get a handle on it now.”
“We just want to get
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Astorian
Visitors to Haystack Rock walk around the tide pools.
ahead of the game,” she
added.
David Reid, the exec-
utive director of the Asto-
ria-Warrenton Area Cham-
ber of Commerce, sees the
potential for more ecotour-
ism-type activities: moun-
tain biking, trail systems
and river excursions. He
views the rural tourism stu-
dios Travel Oregon hosted
last year and the tourism
management network as
important tools to adjust
tourism and make sure it is
something that helps, rather
mittees progress and what
kinds of impact they have
on visitor awareness.
More and more waste
A father and son look at wildlife in the tide pools near a beach
at Ecola State Park.
than hinders, the coast.
It remains to be seen how
the projects proposed by the
tourism network’s com-
For now, Ben Cox, park
manager of the Nehalem
Bay Management Unit,
which includes Ecola State
Park, is taking steps to
address the impacts in the
parks he oversees, particu-
larly the wads of used toi-
let paper and less savory
human-generated discover-
ies rangers find along popu-
lar trails.
For state parks, one of the
consequences of increased
tourism is an uptick in the
number of people who seem
uninformed about how to
be responsible in beautiful
but potentially dangerous
areas like coastal cliffs, or
just how much of an influ-
ence their activities can
have on plants, animals and
landscapes.
Rangers are seeing more
and more waste left behind,
Cox said. Whether it’s dog
waste, human waste or gar-
bage, “in a lot of ways per-
sonal responsibility sort of
flies out the window,” he
said.
Cox plans to place one,
possibly two, portable toi-
lets at the South Neahkahnie
Mountain trailhead. They
already maintain these kinds
of facilities at Saddle Moun-
tain during the winter, when
the flush toilets need to be
shut down.
“We are recognizing,
slowly, within the system,
within the department, there
is a need for more toilet
facilities,” Cox said.
With more tourists comes
a heavier demand on a park’s
septic and water infrastruc-
ture. There’s also the plas-
tic, paper and food waste
that emerges from the bow-
els of cars and is carried in
sacks or by the fistful to park
trash cans. Managing all this
comes at an extra cost. The
added expense takes away
from resource-protection or
education projects rangers
might otherwise tackle.
“The more people that
visit, the harder it becomes,”
Cox said. “More people are
coming, but we don’t have
more resources.”
Craft3: Lender will decide where to invest over the next six months
Continued from Page A1
Adam Zimmerman, the
CEO of Craft3, said the lender
will decide over the next six
months where to invest the
$50 million in tax credits.
“It’s our expectation that
between three and six proj-
ects will be rural in nature,”
he said.
Craft3 invests in projects
around the Pacific North-
west. Which ones get funded
depend on their ripeness, and
Craft3 encourages locals to
reach out with proposals. The
typical project funded requires
between $5 million and $20
million, with rural projects
usually under $10 million,
Zimmerman said.
The New Markets Tax
Credit program is set to expire
at the end of the year. Craft3
has come out in support of leg-
islation backed by the congres-
sional delegations of Oregon
and Washington state to per-
manently fund the program.
real
fatherhood
“Daddy time is my third job and it’s
the most important one. That’s why
my trailer is full of STIHL. I don’t have
time to mess with anything else.”
BRETT RUSSELL
Landscaper & Firefighter
GIVE DAD THE GIFT OF STIHL
SAVE $ 100 *
SAVE $ 20 *
SAVE $ 50 *
WITH THE BUNDLED PURCHASE
OF THE FSA 56 TRIMMER
AND RMA 460 SET
MS 170
CHAIN SAW
HS 45
HEDGE TRIMMER
NOW JUST
519 90
$
16 " bar†
$
RMA 460 SET INCLUDES
AK 30 BATTERY AND
AL 101 CHARGER.
95
WAS 179 SNW-SRP
$
"THE PRICE AND RELIABILITY
ARE OUTSTANDING"
WAS $ 619 90 SNW-SRP
159 95
18 " blade
+
WAS $ 299 95 SNW-SRP
249 95
$
"VERY AGILE TO HANDLE
AND CONTROL“
+
- STIHLUSER209
- SPENCERFORHIRE755
Clatsop Power Equip. Inc
34912 Hwy 101 Bus. | Astoria | 503-325-0792
800-220-0792 | ClatsopPower.com
*Offers valid through 7/7/19. Available at participating dealers while supplies last. † The actual listed guide bar
length may vary from the effective cutting length based on which powerhead it is installed on. Check out these
reviews and others on the product pages at STIHLdealers.com. ©2019 STIHL SNW19-522-142475-5
stihldealers.com