TRAVEL

Parks leader charts new direction for Oregon

Zach Urness
Statesman Journal
Lisa Van Laanen, who lives in South Salem, is the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department director, pictured here at Silver Falls State Park.

A little more than a year ago, Lisa Van Laanen took the reins of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

By every account, the Michigan native and South Salem resident stepped into big shoes.

Her predecessor, Tim Wood, guided the department through a decade of expansion that included opening nine new state parks. As neighboring states shut down parks because of a lack of funds, voter-approved money from the Oregon Lottery buoyed the Beaver State's system into one of the nation's best.

In some ways, Van Laanen was an unusual choice. Although she'd worked at OPRD for seven years, her background was in internal auditing and business administration, not natural resources. A former regional manager at Kmart, she specialized in bringing private-sector efficiency to state bureaucracy and showing a diplomatic touch for difficult issues such as the Oregon State Fair.

She needed all of those talents to navigate her first year on the job, which culminated the past week with presentation of the OPRD budget to the State Legislature.

It has become clear that Van Laanen's ascent coincides with a new era. Revenue from the lottery, RV fees and visitor fees are stagnant or declining. To fill a $4 million shortfall in the budget, OPRD has said it will freeze creation of new parks and delay a few maintenance projects for the 2015-17 biennium.

Last week, I caught up with Van Laanen at the Capitol. In a wide-ranging conversation, we touched on controversial issues such as selling public land to private developers and the state park smoking ban, along with her thoughts about being the first woman to direct the department. What stood out more than anything was her drive to make state parks relevant to the next generation and looking for new ways to increase revenue.

"Rather than keep doing exactly what we've done for the last 100 years, we want to figure out what we should look like for the next 100," she said.

Answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Lisa Van Laanen holds a meetings concerning changing the management of the Oregon State Fair a few years ago, before she became director of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

Zach Urness: What's been the biggest surprise during your first year?

Lisa Van Laanen: When I started, I had this grandiose idea of being able to get out and see the whole park system because my passion is recreation, and I wanted to be out there on my bike or hiking, and that just didn't happen. It was like being too close to the parks to actually use them, and that was tough. There are times when I think, "I haven't been on a bike in how long?"

Hopefully, that is going to change a little going forward, now that I've got my team in place. One of my goals is to visit every property we manage, which is a lot. I talked to a former director, who said it took him 10 years to see everything.

Lisa Van Laanen, who lives in South Salem, is the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department director, pictured here at Silver Falls State Park.

ZU: You're the first woman to serve as director of the parks department — which dates back to 1929. Natural resource departments, historically, have been filled mostly with men, especially in leadership positions. Has that presented any unique challenges during your first year?

LVL: This is honestly the first time I've thought about it ... I mean, the department is almost 100 years old, and I am the first female director, which is pretty cool. But I've never felt like I have to show up different because I'm in a male-dominated organization. I work with people who love what they do, who know that I love what I do, and that's the most important thing. So, thank goodness no, it hasn't been a hurdle at all.

I guess I would say that I hope that by being female, it's offering younger girls the chance to look and see that opportunities are endless.

ZU: Your budget summary said this: "With revenue stagnant and costs increasing, we need to cut more than $4 million to balance." You've already said you don't plan to increase fees. So where would cuts come?

LVL: We won't have the same amount of money for acquisitions, and there are some maintenance projects that we won't do. In a way, it's actually a good reset because there are some parks we haven't developed yet. Instead of spending money on expansion, we're going to look at ways of investing in the parks we already have.

I don't like that we're down for this biennium, but we're OK. For me, it's more about focusing on new revenue and reducing expenditures. Our core mission is protecting special places, providing the best possible experience and taking the long view to be financially stable. That's our focus right now, and that won't change.

ZU: How can parks solve this long-term issue without raising fees?

LVL: Rather than having to come over to the legislature and asking them to allow us to raise fees or solve our problems, we want to come up with new ways to create revenue so that we're financial stable. If we have a park that's under-utilized, we want to ask if there's something different we can do that would create revenue. Maybe that is a zip line or an adrenaline park, large social events, fun runs or more mountain biking. Rather than keep doing exactly what we've done for the last 100 years, we want to figure out what we should look like for the next 100.

ZU: You've talked about partnering with vendors at state parks. Do you mean the way Crater Lake uses Xanterra to run some elements of the park? How would that work at a state park, and what issues does it solve?

LVL: National parks have been doing it forever. At Crater Lake, you can still hike and bike and snowshoe. But if you want to, you can go get on a boat (through the vendor Xanterra), and users don't know the difference.

We're looking at how that might work at state parks. At Cove Palisades, they rent houseboats, and we've had interest in a large corporations renting them for the whole office. Right now, we're not prepared to do that, but a vendor might be able to. We're looking at renting bikes and kayaks at (coastal) state parks. How can we do that in the best way?

ZU: My advice would be to rent those cool fat bikes to ride on the Oregon Coast beaches.

LVL: Exactly. Maybe a vendor wants to do that for us. I'm not sure we want to invest in a fleet of (fat bikes) since we don't have folks that are experts in that area, but we could partner with a small business to do it, and in that way invest in the local economy at the same time.

ZU: The Bandon Exchange has proved controversial. The Commission approved selling a 280-acre piece of Bandon State Natural Area to Bandon Biota for a new golf course. In exchange, state parks got a huge package of land, money and concessions. But the idea of selling public land to a private developer rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Considering OPRD's apparent need to find revenue streams and scale back, would you consider selling other parcels of state land to private business?

LVL: The Commission makes decisions about property exchanges, but in this case, they saw a significant overwhelming public value. In addition to funds that came from the deal, it added acres to the park system we didn't have before. It moved a trail off county roads and onto an actual trail, it got invasive species removed and it put money out there that allowed us to purchase the Beltz Property (what will become the newest state park in 2015 or 2016). Those things wouldn't have happened without the deal.

We're not interested, the agency or commission, in selling public property for pure dollars. But when there is an overwhelming value and a way to better serve users, we're going to have the dialogue. And that will be controversial. Because no matter what park we're talking about, somebody is connected to it and loves it.

ZU: So you are open to the idea?

LVL: We are in a situation where some of our properties just don't fit our portfolio. We do have to have the dialogues when they come up.

ZU: Another controversial issue that bubbled up last year was the smoking ban. Smoking is now banned in most places at state parks, but you decided against making a rule to outlaw smoking on Oregon coast beaches. What did you take from the issue inspiring so much passion? Will it impact how you look at implementing or proposing rules in the future?

LVL: It became pretty clear that we hit something that's worth having a debate about because (when it came to outlawing smoking on beaches), it was split right down the middle, and people really showed up to give us their opinion.

We heard the public loud and clear, and instead of enforcing a rule where there wasn't a consensus, we went back and will look at it for a year and come back to it. If it doesn't work, we'll try rule-making again and have the debate again.

ZU: One criticism that I've heard of state parks is this: The last state park you opened, Cottonwood Canyon, is way out in Eastern Oregon, and the last park you tried to open (Grouse Mountain) was also out in Eastern Oregon. (The project died after OPRD spent more than $100,000 on it). Why spend resources in areas that won't get as much use, instead of focusing more on areas closer to urban centers where it would get more use?

LVL: One thing people don't always recognize that we do is local government-grant and community-grant programs. Twelve percent of lottery funds automatically go back into local government grant programs … which can be used for urban recreation experiences. For example, in Salem, we helped fund the Union Street Railroad Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge and the new bridge going into Minto Island (the Peter Courtney Minto Island Bridge) through grants. It's not always about being the ones out front managing; we invest so there's recreation opportunities statewide.

I don't think people realize that our portfolio is larger than what it seems like. Our footprint is everywhere.

ZU: In that same vein, oftentimes when people want to kick-start a project or save a special place, they look to state parks. It's seen as an agency that can do things. Do you enjoy that role, or does it become a burden?

LVL: It is an honor. But for every project we have to ask, 'Is this what we're about?' That's the dialogue. No idea is a bad idea. But we have to ask if it's really sustainable over time. We have to ask if an urban trail is part of our core mission, or is that better served through local government?

ZU: What projects are in the pipeline now that you're excited about?

LVL: I'm excited about the Beltz Property opening into a park. (The property is near Sand Lake in Tillamook County). It was my first acquisition as director, so I'm really looking forward to that.

The Salmonberry Corridor (a 86-mile rail-trail from Portland to the coast) is a great legacy project. Hopefully I won't be too old to use it once it's done. Partnering on the Willamette Falls Legacy Project (in Oregon City) has also been really exciting. Those are the things I've been working on most recently.

ZU: What are some of the biggest challenges you're looking at now?

LVL: Focusing on the underserved population is a big one. How do we connect with users who don't want the experience we provide? We do have an aging demographic, we do have an aging system, and I really want to talk to folks that aren't using. Do they want to use us differently? What would that look like?

ZU: What about over the next five to 10 years?

LVL: My biggest focus is relevancy and revenue. If you do the same thing you always did, and your customer is evolving and changing and you're not, that's a problem, and that's when revenue becomes an issue. That's when you have to raise fees, and that makes parks less accessible to the whole population. We really want to avoid that.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for seven years. He is the author of the book "Hiking Southern Oregon" and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Facebook at Zach's Oregon Outdoors or @ZachsORoutdoors on Twitter.

OPRD directors over the years

•Sam Boardman 1929-1950

•Chester Armstrong 1950-1961

•Mark Astrup 1961-1962

•Harold Schick 1962-1964

•David Talbot 1964-1992

•Bob Meinen 1992-2000

•Michael Carrier 2000-2004

•Tim Wood 2004-2014

•Lisa Van Laanen 2014-present