Comments on: Shuttered visitor center gets $1M repair

By: The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear - Page 5 - Tree of Souls - An Avatar Community Forum

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:22:22 +0000

[…] genital-washing studies, studies on how monkeys react to cocaine, dead people, bus station art, replacing windows of an abandoned Mt. St. Helens visitor center, an accordion polka festival… …And many, many, many more as well. "…you know, the […]

By: Michael McCulloch AIA

Michael McCulloch AIA — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:34:22 +0000

While with SRG Partnership in Portland I was involved as a design architect for the original visitor center at Silver Lake. It was located there due to fears about the activity of the volcano and because a land donation was made available as a site. This visitor’s center was eventually eclipsed by the centers – Coldwater Lake and Johnston Ridge – and it was transferred to the State of Washington to capitalize on the management efficiency of combining Seaquest Park and the visitor’s center. Today it is languishing in terms of service to the monument.

My point is that the agency that constructs, maintains, and revitalizes these facilities should be an agency that is in the businesses of hospitality and public visitation. The Forest Service and State of Washington never prioritized these facilities highly enough, even though they fought the Park Service to retain their ownership. The Forest Service saw a chance to be re-cast as a host and steward via these bases for visitation, scientific investigation, and preservation of a truly unique evolving landscape. Here in the Northwest we have one of the wonders of the world and we are minimizing public access due to window failure and inappropriate facilities management…

It is not too late to rescue the chain of facilities and again allow world visitors to access this spectacular landscape. Why not allow the Park Service to step in? Or to ask for a private operator to submit a proposal for an overall management plan that will sustain itself over time?

The original visitor’s center was awarded by Reagan and appreciated by a curious public. The monument remains a spectacular draw for tourists and scientists worldwide.
What a sad commentary on public committment from the agencies involved.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:36:46 +0000

I often don’t agree with Mark Smith but in this case I do.

By: Mark Smith

Mark Smith — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:20:28 +0000

I served on the Advisory Committee and not all of the us voted to leave it with the USFS, two of the 14 members voted to move to a National Park. If you are going to quote from the report then please report the facts. Of coarse the final report has not even been submitted yet, almost a year after its completion. The USFS is not the best agency to manage the over 154 million federal dollar investment. Under their watch we have seen a continued decline in visitation and closure of facilities with no turn around plan in sight. We need to take a serious look at making the monument a National Park. This could go a long way in protecting the critical areas, allow better recreational access, provide annual line item funding for operation and generate economic benefits to the region.