Well, Otter has revoked the notion of ellinating the Idaho State Park and Recreation, but is dramatically cutting funding for the program which will result in 25 state park employees losing their jobs...starting now. Locally, Harriman State Park is losing no employees (this year), but is cutting back on the number of seasonal workers hired.
Yesterday I attended a community meeting hosted by the Smart Growth Coalition which focused on Harriman State Park and recent issues facing the IDPR. Speakers included fly-fishing icon and eastern Idaho native Mike Lawson, former IDPR board member Monte Later, and Harriman State Park manager Keith Hobbs. Mike Lawson reflected on HSP and his adventures there, from sneaking into Golden Lake to fish to how his business, Henry's Fork Anglers depends on the park. Monte Later talked about how is was one the main people responsible for determing how to manage the park after it was decided that IDPR was to be created. He talked about wanting to keep the park as the Harriman's experienced it for the public.
Everything comes down to economics and politics, both of which I know little about. The State of Idaho is broke....and is looking first to cutting eduction and state parks..the two things I would not mind paying more taxes on. We know now, the IDPR is going to stay, but that funding for state parks, like Harriman, is going to be decreased. With already limited funding and alot of land to manage, how is Harriman going to thrive?
Harriman State Park is a large park, and needs much management. Currently a full time staff of 4 and numerous seasonal employees are responsible for maintaing all the lands, including its fencing, hiking paths, housing facitilities, yurts and ski trails. Last week, when a friend and I organized a support ski for HSP, no HSP employees were present to sell ski passes because they were scrubbing toilets and making beds at the guest houses. Harriman lost money on that day. During the summer, when hundreds of fly-fisherman come to fish the famed waters of the Ranch, they can avoid park entrance fees by entering at wood road 16 or the mailbox. Harriman loses money on those days. Lack of enforcement is not the HSP staffers fault, they are busy maintaing fence and performing basic operations to keep the buildings open. But, what is the true draw of Harriman? Is it the Jones Warming Hut? Is it the main office where you can get maps or use the toilet? Is it the concert series, skiathons, halloween events the staffers put so much time and money into? Perhaps to some, but not to me. I love Harriman because it is wild, I can reconnect with nature and see the lands as my ancestors did or would have. Unchanged.
But todays times have changed. People need a draw, an event to visit Harriman. The problem is that these events take time and money to organize. Time and money that I wish would go into habitat restoration projects and organized field tours. Education to our youth-our future preservers- about the area.
Harriman State Park wants to create a "Friends of Harriman State Park" non-profit 501c-3 group to help the park financially. The community is rallying behind this idea. If the govenor won't raise taxes to help our parks, then we will use that money saved of our own to go directly to a cause we support. Less governement to control our money so we can put it where we want it. We now have the privelage of financing our state parks, and we as a community will take on this responsiblity because we value our parks and need them.
But is this new community rally going to merge into a financial future burdon for our children and future generations? By relying less on the state to do their job of paying their state employees to preserve the states parks, we are going to commit ourselves, and future generations, possibley forever to paying for these things. If this is the commitment, then I want the Friends of Harriman to own Harriman, not the state. This is not going to happen.
I believe that before commiting our selves to financially supporting Harriman, we need to look at the resources we currently have available. First of all, we now have an organized group of volunteers, known as the Henry's Fork Master Naturalists. This group was specifically commited to help departments, like Harriman, with fencing, collecting fees and maintaining buidings. If these volunteers can help out with the basic operational duties of Harriman, then the park's employees can expand their duties and efforts at organizing community event.
Secondly, we have the Henry's Fork Foundation which is spending millions of dollars through grants and donations on the "Caldera Project" which is looking directly at the most important economic draw of the Ranch: the fisheries.
I can't help thinking that governor Otter is sitting in his office with a smirk upon his face. He devised a great scare that fooled people into thinking that funding for state owned lands should come directly from the public.
