Wildwood Recreation Area Management Plan Impacts Environmental Assessment (EA) Number: DOI-BLM-ORWA-N010-2016-0003-EA November 2019 Responsible Agency: United States Department of Interior- Bureau of Land Management Northwest Oregon District Office, Cascades Field Office Clackamas County, Oregon T. 02 S., R. 06 E., Section 23 Responsible Official For Further Information, contact John Huston, Field Manager Dan Davis, Outdoor Recreation Planner Northwest Oregon District Office Northwest Oregon District Office Cascades Field Office 1717 Fabry Road SE 1717 Fabry Road SE Salem, OR 97306 Salem, OR 97306 (503) 315-5935 Wildwood Recreation Area Management Plan Section 1 – Introduction. (a) Executive Summary The Wildwood Recreation Site is located 42.5 miles east of Portland on US-26, near the Town of Welches and at the base of Mt. Hood. The estimated drive time to Wildwood from Portland is 1 hour and 7 minutes. The area surrounding Wildwood Recreation Site has ample outdoor recreation opportunities ranging from mountain biking at the popular Sandy Ridge Trail System, spending the day at Timberline Lodge, skiing at the various resorts, fishing and water activities in the Sandy and Salmon Rivers, and Wildwood provides direct access to the Salmon- Huckleberry Wilderness area. Wildwood Recreation Site is currently a day-use only site that offers large reservable group shelters, a smaller reservable group shelter, reservable outdoor kitchens, potable water, picnic tables, kitchen facilities, and seven full service restrooms. Wildwood Recreation Site offers two ball fields, open play areas, a playground, four horseshoe pits, two volleyball courts, two basketball courts, and an extensive assortment of trails, accessible interpretive facilities, and site hosts. The site includes several miles of accessible trails that allow visitors to explore the forest along the Salmon River, enjoying an interpretive experience that explains the natural process of the river, with the trail concluding at the underwater fish-viewing window. Visitors currently pay standard amenity (day-use fee) and expanded amenity (reservable group shelters, kitchens) fees for day-use at the site. Wildwood Recreation Site is a well-maintained recreation site, which offers high quality recreation amenities in a well-developed, forested environment. Wildwood offers unique experiences for recreation visitors that want to engage in the natural world in a very developed platform for the day. The quality and amount of available amenities at Wildwood is uncommon for a federal recreation site. The site currently underutilizes the unique history that is found directly on the site, including portions of the Oregon Trail and remnants of the logging mill that occupied the area until the 1930’s. The BLM’s approach to meeting recreation demand encompasses two distinct recreation management areas (RMAs): Special Recreation Management Areas (SRMAs) and Extensive Recreation Management Areas (ERMAs). The 2016 Resource Management Plan (RMP) for Western Oregon identifies the planning area as a SRMA (Figure 1). Changes in BLM National policy for Recreation and Visitor Services provide new guidance on applying RMA allocations. Wildwood’s SRMA boundary defines the planning area, helps determine the management of recreation use, and represents a commitment from the BLM to provide a higher level of recreation-related resources when compared with BLM-administered lands outside the SRMA. The SRMA designation provides for the protection of recreation setting characteristics (physical, social, and operational), and for the SRMA to be the primary driver for the management for this portion of BLM managed lands. Page 2 of 29 Wildwood Recreation Area Management Plan Wildwood Recreation Site is currently facing financial difficulties as the site only generates on average $49,470 annually in fee revenue or 11% of the total operation and maintenance expenses. The current operation and maintenance expenses total $449,650 annually with labor consisting of the largest portion of the cost. Stagnating or shrinking budgets and inflation compound the issue, as there is less of a budget to go around and the appropriated funding purchases less and less each year as inflation rises. Wildwood Recreation Site has seen a continual decline in visitation, while the outdoor recreation market and region has seen a continual increase in visitation. This suggests that Wildwood Recreation Site is seeing a decrease in visitation due to design and development not keeping pace with the outdoor recreation trends for the region. Graph 1: Annual Visitation Since 1995 The Recommended Development, “Proposed Action”, estimates an increase in fee generation resulting in $658,924 annually or 110% of the operating and maintenance expense, which would increase to $598,585 annually by the year 2021, due to an increase in labor, maintenance, and inflation. This would result in fee collection being $60,339 annually above costs, compared to the current deficit of $400,180. The deficit would rise to -$471,910 without new development for the year 2021 due to inflation. This alternative would result in the Northwest Oregon District saving an estimated $532,249 annually after construction of the recommended development. The construction cost is estimated at $2,770,887 and would take ($2,770,887 / $658,924) = 4.2 camping seasons to pay back the construction costs. This does not take into consideration any camping area remaining open during the winter season. The pay off period could be reduced depending on the success of the recreation site during the winter recreation season. This alternative only selects the development types that have the longest life cycles, and would need the least amount of future development. In a 30-year period, this alternative would generate $19,767,720, without the need for any major maintenance or additional development. This Page 3 of 29 Wildwood Recreation Area Management Plan alternative will not need major maintenance or improvements for 30 years, resulting in nearly 26 years of revenue generation after the initial development expenses are paid back. The return on investment (ROI) for the development would be $16,996,833 after development expenses are paid, and this does not include possible fee revenue collection during the winter months. (b) Purpose of the RAMP The Recreation and Visitor Services policy recommends the local BLM officer develop Recreation Area Management Plans (RAMPs) that address implementation level management, administration, information, and monitoring actions. The BLM has determined that development of a RAMP would allow for planning and implementation of recreation site development in order to increase visitation and revenue. The ROD/RMP designated Wildwood as a SRMA, and as such, the site would be managed to protect and enhance the activities, experiences, benefits, and desired recreation setting characteristics included in the SRMA planning framework (ROD/RMP p. 251; Planning Framework p. 135). The Wildwood RAMP would plan and implement recreation site management for the following purposes: Manage Special Recreation Management Areas and Extensive Recreation Management Areas, identified in Appendix G, in accordance with their planning frameworks (ROD/RMP p. 88): The Wildwood SRMA Planning Framework outlines specific outcome objectives that include mountain biking, hiking, camping, picnicking, day-use, swimming, fishing, and environmental education (Planning Framework p. 1). The Planning Framework also states that the site is open to overnight camping use, including permitted use for future group areas (Planning Framework p. 2). Because camping is both an outcome objective as well as an allowable use, the proposed Wildwood RAMP is in accordance within the activities, management action, and allowable use restrictions included in the Planning Framework. The proposed project meets the objectives outlined on page 1 and 2 of the Planning Framework because it would improve, not interfere with, the recreation opportunities at the site, and would maintain the recreation setting characteristics by adhering to the PDFs in EA Section 2.2. Protect recreation setting characteristics within Special Recreation Management Areas to prohibit activities that would degrade identified characteristics (ROD/RMP p. 88): The recreation setting characteristics are defined based on a combination of physical (remoteness, naturalness, etc.), social (contact, groups site, etc.), and operational components (access, visitor services, etc.) (FEIS p. 556). The Wildwood SRMA Planning Framework determined the proposed recreation setting characteristics designation to be Front County (Planning Framework p. 2). The FEIS described portions of the physical setting for the Front Country classification as Remoteness within 0.25 miles of collector roads (add footnote), and Naturalness contains a partially modified landscape with more noticeable modification and young, high density forest stands without structural legacies (FEIS pp. 556-559). The remainder of the recreation setting characteristics are described in Section 3.3 of the EA. Page 4 of 29 Wildwood Recreation Area Management Plan Figure 1: Current Wildwood Special Recreation Management Area Page 5 of 29 Wildwood Recreation Area Management Plan (c) Relationship to other documents (e.g., LUP management direction, policy documents) The BLM signed the ROD/RMP on August 5, 2016. The Wildwood Recreation Area Management Plan EA is in conformance with the ROD/RMP, which addresses