Longview kayak park on state’s short list
Saturday, September 27, 2008 4:47 PM PDT
By Tom Paulu
Printable version
E-mail this articleElk and Hanaford lakes near Mount St. Helens might become public land rather than be sold to private interests.
And a stretch of Cowlitz River shoreline in Longview has moved one stroke closer to becoming a park for canoers and kayakers.
The Washington State Wildlife and Recreation Coalition has ranked applications for purchasing both areas high on its list of recommended projects. The coalition also recommends providing about $7 million to expand state parks in Pacific County.
The state agency recommended funding for 115 projects from the 370 applications received statewide. They go to the governor’s office, who can place them in her proposed budget.
“This was the first phase off a three-phase approval project,” said Jill Wasberg of the recreawtion coalition.
If the governor favors the list and the Legislature funds the state’s Wildlife and Recreation Program at $100 million next year — the same level as it did in the current biennium — there will be enough money for the recommended projects, Wasberg said.
The High Lakes north of Spirit Lake Memorial Highway have long been popular with anglers and hunters.
Last year, Weyerhaeuser Co. sold 4,100 acres of forest land in the area to two men from the Tacoma area, who put it on the market in parcels.
This week, the recreation coalition approved the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s application for $556,396 to buy 240 acres in the High Lakes area.
Susan Zemek, a spokeswoman for the state recreation office, said the area includes Elk and Hanaford lakes and part of Forest Lake. Another popular destination a few miles away, Fawn Lake, isn’t included.
Longview already owns about four acres of land along the Cowlitz River between Stewart Title and PT Northwest on First Avenue, a few hundred yards downstream of the Cowlitz Hall of Justice.
The city wants to buy another two acres adjacent to land it owns from J.D. Eaton of Bend.
The parcels hold a few stretches of sandy river shore amid blackberries bushes and cottonwood trees. A rough track leads to the area from the Stewart parking lot.
The city would like to create a new park with a launch for non-motorized watercraft, said parks and recreation director Rich Bemm.
A parking lot would be built as part of the project.
Bemm said the park could also be a trailhead for trail envisioned along the river all the way up to Castle Rock.
The city’s application for $126,872 was ranked fifth in its category by the state recreation coalition.
Other projects in Southwest Washington recommended for funding:
n $143,000 for the Department of Natural Resources to build a 1-mile loop trail at Merrill Lake southwest of Mount St. Helens.
n $534,140 for Clark County to purchase 341 acres of shoreline, wetlands and forests on Mud Lake and the Lewis River, two miles upstream of the Columbia River.
n $951,361 for the Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation Department to develop a 2.7-mile trail along the Chelatchie Prarie rail line near Battle Ground.
n $185,706 for the Department of Fish and Wildlife to restore salmon habitat in Hoffstadt Creek, a tributary of the Toutle River.
n $300,000 for the state parks department to pave 1.5 miles of the Willapa Hills trail between Chehalis and Adna.
n $883,312 for the DNR to buy 336 acres at the Bone River and Niawakum River preserves in Pacific County.
n $2.47 million for state parks to buy about 40 acres of the Eagle’s Nest RV Resort to replace campgrounds in Cape Disappointment State Park that will be consumed by ocean over time.
n $2.5 million for state parks to buy 123 acres to expand Loomis Lake State Park on the Long Beach Peninsula.
n $2 million for state parks to buy 10.5 acres of the Seaview Dunes, including 870 feet of ocean waterfront now proposed for development.
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