Tourism operators react to park closures

PALMER -- Some small business owners in the Valley are frustrated by the closure of seven state parks in the Mat-Su area. It was bad enough to have a neighborhood attraction taken away, they say, but the problem was made worse by recent media accounts that covered the closures and the political posturing surrounding them.

"The negative press makes it sound like all the Mat-Su parks are closed, but all of our major parks are open," said Bonnie Quill, executive director of the Matanuska-Susitna Convention and Visitor's Bureau [Mat-Su CVB]. ". . . It has been buried at the very end of the article that these were the least visited parks."

Least visited or not, the effect of the closed parks and the headlines have been acute for businesses next door to closed parks. Three parks with picnic areas, boat launches and camping spots in the Big Lake area are on the state's closure list. The news made the front pages of this and other newspapers and appeared in TV and radio newscasts. Area business owners saw the coverage as a big advertising campaign against them. It might, some feel, have been the worst public relations Big Lake has had since the Miller's Reach fire in 1996. Coverage of the fire left the impression of a burnt-out area and a dampening effect on business, despite the fact that most of the lake's shoreline was never touched by the fire.

Houston Snyder, owner of Big lake Lodge, is concerned that this year some potential customers might think there is no access to the lake.

"We were seeing people come back. Big Lake was kind of healing itself and this sort of thing doesn't help," Snyder said. There are about a half dozen area businesses that market the lake co-operatively, according to Snyder, but they weren't included in press accounts of the closures. He also said there is a short window -- about 15 weeks -- to attract summer visitors.

"There are three businesses with boat launches and at least two with RV parking. A lot of people didn't pick up on that," Snyder said. If Snyder and his neighbors do spend extra money marketing this year, the message will be simple.

"The lake is fine, and the businesses are here and waiting," Snyder said.

Just South of Palmer on the Glenn Highway there is a similar situation. Three combination campground/ RV parks surround the day-use area and main entrance to the Kepler-Bradley Lakes state recreation area. Patti Swanson-Kepler, who runs the family-owned Kepler Park, said she had guests with reservations for Memorial Day weekend who called to inquire if her business would be open -- apparently the guests didn't know that her park wasn't the state park.

"Ever since the state put in the Kepler-Bradley state park down the road, we've had people coming here who think that this is the state park. There's just confusion because of the similarity in the name," Swanson-Kepler said.

Swanson-Kepler said the family hasn't spent much on marketing in the past -- the park has been leased to another operator the past few years -- but the phone calls have got her thinking about raising Kepler Park's profile.

"It's not just a matter of letting people know that we are here, it's matter of letting them know that we are open," Swanson said. "Several [customers] called kind of in a panic because the articles about the closures had come out in between the time they made their reservations and the time they had planned to come."

The state parks aren't being closed to access, they are just being stripped of services. Visitors to Kepler-Bradley can still hike or ride horseback on park trails, and some of the 12 area lakes were stocked with fish by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game this year. But the day-use parking lot will close June 21. Swanson-Kepler knows there's an upside to this, as long as she installs a sign or two on the road and visitors don't mind paying her five dollar day-use parking fee.

"We're the ones that are still open, so after [customers] figure that out it will of course help our business," Swanson-Kepler said.

Adjacent to the state-operated park entrance is Fox Run RV Campground, where owner Letha Butts said living next to an unmanaged state park could turn a would-be asset into a liability.

"I'm less than thrilled about it closing down," Butts said.

Butts and her husband Alan have operated Fox Run for four years. They like having the state park next door, but like it better if it's maintained -- preferably with a campground host living at the site to keep things quiet. Right now the parking lot is open but unattended.

"We've already had people trespassing and trying to take our boats," Butts said.

The prospect of an unattended park becoming a magnet for vandalism and other rowdy behavior is troublesome in Big Lake too. For the last few years, fees have been collected at Big Lake area parks, and park rangers and campground hosts have been there to discourage nuisance campers. But just last weekend, Snyder played host to RV travelers who had fled an un-patrolled state park because of rowdiness in the campground.

"They just kind of took over because the place was unsupervised," Snyder said of the rowdy campers. Snyder also believes the state is increasing it's own liability by not maintaining the parks. He may be right -- he said the RV travelers told him they didn't feel safe at the state's camping sites.

"There was some gun-play," he said. "The motor homes came over here -- they were pretty-well terrified."