Last year, U.S. Forest Service officials asked private entrepreneurs to "sharpen their pencils" and propose new money-making ventures for the cash-strapped Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The response was less than overwhelming.
The agency received only three proposals, despite the volcano's international notoriety and ongoing eruption.
"I was expecting more than what we have here," said Steve Nelson, recreation planner for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. "That was a surprise to me."
Forest Service officials are reviewing the three proposals, which were submitted by the agency's Feb. 24 deadline. They wouldn't reveal any specifics or identify who made the proposals.
Private entrepreneurs contacted by The Columbian said they were wary of committing time and money to a venture they believed would be tightly restricted by the Forest Service. One would-be concessionaire said he couldn't overcome the financial hurdles of operating on government-owned property, especially an area with as much public scrutiny as Mount St. Helens.
"We couldn't get a loan for overnight lodging," said Charles Barker, a food concessionaire from Oregon. "Banks are pretty nervous about loaning money on leased property."
Others said they believe the Forest Service will ultimately resolve its budgetary shortfall at Mount St. Helens by closing one of the two visitor centers near the end of the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. The likely target for closure would be Coldwater Ridge. Coldwater opened in 1993 with a full complement of state-of-the-art displays and food service, but the center was supplanted as a primary destination when the Department of Transportation extended the highway another nine miles to the Johnston Ridge Observatory in 1997.
Just five miles from the volcano's gaping crater, Johnston Ridge is an attractive and obvious destination for volcano visitors.
"I think Coldwater is really surplus," said Jim Adams, executive director of the Northwest Interpretive Association, a nonprofit agency that contracts with the Forest Service to sell books and collect entry fees at the visitor centers. "It's not as necessary as when it was first built. It's very expensive to maintain. It's going to have to have some major work done on it soon. I think it would be a smarter move on the Forest Service's part to get rid of Coldwater. Demolish it. Take it out."
Weighing options
Forest Service officials are weighing all options.
Faced with a chronic shortfall of money to maintain and operate the visitor centers, the Forest Service made a public plea for help from private enterprise in a 150-page prospectus released in October.
The prospectus suggested private concessions might be feasible on four broad areas surrounding the mountain: the main westside route along state Highway 504; eastside areas including Windy Ridge; southside attractions such as Ape Cave; and the Pine Creek recreation complex surrounding an old ranger station.
Most of the interest revolved around the volcano's popular westside access.
Of the three applicants to submit proposals, The Columbian definitively identified only one.
Jay Shepard, president of Foodmasters Inc., which operates the restaurant and gift shop at Cowlitz County's Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center, said his proposal focuses on the volcano's westside access along state Highway 504, also known as the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. He proposes to add helicopter tours at Johnston Ridge and/or the Castle Lake overlook; a 130-space RV park and campground at Coldwater Ridge; and boat and mountain bike rentals at Coldwater Lake.
"There's a huge opportunity up there," Shepard said.
Others aren't so sure.
Dick Ford, manager of Weyerhaeuser's Forest Learning Center, one of five volcano-related visitor centers along the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway, said he thinks the Forest Service's underlying goal is to secure full funding from Congress to operate the monument with a minimum of commercialization. He believes the agency is merely going through the motions with the prospectus.
"They don't have their heart in it," Ford said. "I think they hope Congress would step in and fully fund them."
EcoPark Resort owner Mark Smith concurs.
Smith, whose family owned a lodge along Spirit Lake before the 1980 eruption, said he believes the Forest Service needs to revamp its comprehensive management plan so the 110,000-acre monument can loosen up restrictions on commercial activities. Without such fundamental changes, he said, it's no wonder few private entrepreneurs are interested in proposing new attractions.
"If you want to sell T-shirts and mountain books and volcano burgers in the existing spots, that's great," Smith said.
Realistic approach
Smith said he considered proposing boat rentals on Coldwater Lake but couldn't justify the expense of an environmental impact study that would be required with a new activity on the monument. Smith, who is considering adding 25 private cabins to his EcoPark 17 miles west of the volcano, said his 90-acre resort features horseback riding, camping, hunting and other activities that have nothing to do with Mount St. Helens.
"After 14 years of doing it here, I'm a realist," he said.
George Casey, the San Diego filmmaker who opened the Cinedome in Castle Rock a decade ago to show his seat-rattling movie of the eruption of May 18, 1980, said declining visitation prompted him to put the Cinedome up for sale.
Despite the renewed eruption that began in the fall of 2004, Casey said the Cinedome has continued to struggle, and he isn't interested in convincing the Forest Service to show his film at one of the visitor centers close to the mountain.
Besides, Casey said, he figured other vendors had the inside track with the Forest Service.
"I think some of them are kind of justifiably a foregone conclusion," he said.
Dick Gordon operates Mount St. Helens Concessions, the vending company that runs the restaurant at Coldwater Ridge and Cascade Peaks, but he declined to say whether his company was one of the three to submit proposals.
Update
Previously: The Gifford Pinchot National Forest has struggled for several years to keep up with maintenance and operation of three volcano-related visitor centers on the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway due to the decline of timber revenue and recreation dollars appropriated by Congress. Six years ago, the Washington Parks and Recreation Commission agreed to operate the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake. Uncertainty surrounds the remaining visitor centers at Johnston Ridge and Coldwater Ridge.
What's new: The Forest Service is evaluating three proposals submitted by private entrepreneurs willing to pay the Forest Service for the opportunity to provide commercial amenities such as helicopters tours, mobile food stands or RV sites.
What's next: An evaluation panel of Forest Service employees will go through the three applications, clarify proposals and then begin the formal process of evaluating proposals through the National Environmental Policy Act.Vancouver Columbian
