Oregon’s state parks have begun to reopen, but the agency that manages them is now hurting for money amid the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department announced Tuesday that it will lay off 47 full-time employees by June 30, in addition to the 338 seasonal staff that will not be rehired this year.
Parks officials said the number of layoffs could change before the end of the month, and did not specify which positions will be cut. Seasonal employees who work in the field have already borne the brunt of staff reductions: only 77 of 415 seasonal positions have been filled for 2020.
The source of the staff reduction is an estimated $22 million budget shortfall between now and next June, due to the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. Unlike other state agencies, the parks department is not funded by tax dollars but by a trio of separate revenue sources: Oregon Lottery funds, camping and parking fees, and RV registration fees.
Oregon state parks closed to the public at the end of March, just before Gov. Kate Brown announced her stay-home order that closed most businesses across the state. Lottery funds subsequently reduced dramatically, while park fees were down to zero.
“It’s a gut punch, we’ve never been through anything like this before,” parks spokesman Chris Havel said. “This just shows what happens when you kick not just one, but two legs out from under a stool, it tips over.”
The layoffs will translate to reduced services at day-use sites and campgrounds across the state, including trash collection, restroom cleaning and maintenance. Those are cuts that visitors to newly-reopened parks have already experienced, Havel said.
Starting in May, day-use park sites began to reopen with limited services across the state. On June 9, several popular campgrounds will also reopen, with online reservations starting Wednesday, June 3, at noon. That will provide some revenue to the parks department, but it’s not expected to be enough.
That means some facilities, and even some parks, might remain closed for the foreseeable future. Havel said the parks department is not planning on reopening every park site this spring, though he declined to specify which parks would remain closed or for how long.
Visitors to Oregon state parks had become accustomed to finding clean restrooms, campground showers and running water, but parks officials now caution that those amenities should not be counted on. People are asked to bring their own water, hand sanitizer and toilet supplies, and to be as self-sufficient as possible, just in case.
“We don’t know what kind of service we can offer over the next year,” Havel said. “It could change, we could see a recovery in revenue that allows us to provide more service, but we could equally see a decline in revenue.”
One way visitors can help support the state parks department is to simply use fewer of its resources, he said. Packing out your own trash, bringing your own water, using your own hand sanitizer or even toilet paper means less of a cost for the department.
But there are also long-term costs to keep in mind. Maintenance projects like ruptured water lines, out-of-order restrooms or damaged trails will need to be shelved, Havel said. Two major projects on the Oregon coast will be put on the back burner: a new campground at Fogarty Creek and long-awaited trail repairs at Ecola State Park.
With the budget shortfall, layoffs and lack of seasonal hires, there simply are not enough resources to care for state parks completely, officials said.
Oregon’s parks haven’t been in such dire straits since the early 1990s, when the parks department was cut off from the Oregon Department of Transportation and left to fend for itself. Officials faced the closure of some 60 state parks before voters approved parks funding through the Oregon Lottery.
There’s still a chance funding could increase in 2020, but with so much uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, the parks department isn’t betting on it.
“We accept that there’s a lot of things that are out of control,” Havel said. “We truly don’t know not just what the next six months look like, but the next one to two years.”
For now, officials are focusing on taking care of the staffers who will face layoffs at the end of the month, when crowds will begin to stream into day-use areas and campgrounds across the state.
“This is a heartbreaking time for our agency family, both for those who face a heavy workload as we roll into summer and for the dedicated professionals we have to release from service,” Lisa Sumption, state parks director, said in a news release Tuesday. “We’ll do everything we can to help them land on their feet. With support from Oregonians, the agency will rise to this challenge and adapt.”
--Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB
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