Salem, Oregon – With a record-breaking 53,853,609 day-trippers in 2024—above the previous peak in 2021 by a tiny 0.4%— Oregon’s state parks saw an unprecedented surge of visitors. Although these figures usually point to success, state park officials have raising major concerns on the viability of this expansion.
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department claims that the 3% increase in visits from 2023 is not entirely a cause for celebration.
“It isn’t sustainable financially,” state parks director Lisa Sumption said to Oregon Live. “We need help.” She highlighted the dire need for additional resources as the influx of visitors has accelerated the deterioration of park facilities and infrastructure, thus escalating the costs associated with their upkeep.
The department described particular difficulties in a recent news release. One well-known park now, for example, needs more than a semi-truck load of toilet paper annually. Aging infrastructure exacerbates these problems; over half of the park’s restrooms are more than 50 years old and replacements run around $1 million apiece. As a result, the costs of operating and maintaining state parks have now exceeded revenues by 30%, leading to a daunting $350 million maintenance backlog.
Oregon’s state parks are mostly supported from non-public sources including the Oregon Lottery, RV licensing fees, and earnings from campground reservations and parking passes. Under current demands, this funding structure is showing to be insufficient.
Park officials raised parking and camping fees beginning January 1 to cover the financial imbalance. Sumption stressed, nonetheless, that these steps by themselves cannot close the financing deficit.
“Continuing to raise fees is not the answer,” she remarked, signaling the need for a more sustainable financial strategy moving forward.
Sumption projects a future “budget crisis” by 2027 without a viable solution. Talks with state legislators have started, but as yet no clear answers have surfaced.
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An 8% rise in trips to the Oregon coast, the only area in the state experiencing growth last year, was mostly responsible for the spike in visitor count. By contrast, visitors to the eastern Oregon and Willamette Valleys dropped by 5% and 3%, respectively.
Three coastal parks in particular—Hug Point, William M. Tugman, and Driftwood Beach—had visitor increases above 100%; Driftwood Beach saw an astonishing 233% spike from year before.
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With just 2,810,255 reported, discounting the anomalous year 2020 when parks were closed for several months, the state witnessed the lowest count of overnight park visits among these skyrocketing figures. This drop in camping, especially noticeable even on the coast—home to 62% of all camper nights in Oregon— demands more questions about the direction of the state park experience.
Without appropriate financing and improvements, officials are concerned that the well-known Oregon state park experience could degrade and future visitations may significantly decline. Parks without functional water systems and deteriorated bathrooms have great potential to compromise visitor experience quality and jeopardize park sustainability itself. As Sumption cautioned, if current trends go unchecked, the future could really be concerning.
