Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992 TAG: 9202030004
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CAMPERS LIKE OLD DOUTHAT
For Lacy All, paradise is a recreation vehicle parked at the edge of Douthat State Park lake where a car-top boat can be shoved into pristine water for a day of trout angling.All, who owns All Huntin-N-Fishin Store in Salem, has viewed the park, near Clifton Forge, as his Walden Pond for more than 25 years. He spends as many as eight to 11 weeks a season in the 4,493-acre facility.
So when park officials moved in last fall to revamp Campground A, where 35 sites overlooked the 50-acre lake, All didn't consider it a favor.
Nor did some of the other regulars of the campground.
"As far as I am concerned, they have just raped the park," said All.
"What could be more pleasant and pleasing than a campsite on the lake with a boat tied up in front?" asked Garrett McCormic of Lynchburg. "Why change our primitive setting, that we so much enjoy?"
There are several reasons for the project, said R. Gary Waugh, Jr., communications manager of the Division of State Parks.
"Frankly, the area basically was being killed by kindness," he said. "We got to a situation down there where the ground was compacted and the roots were exposed and we were in danger of losing some trees."
So park officials are in the process of redesigning the campground. The number of sites are being reduced from 35 to 19. The campground road is being redone. The lake front, where All and others have parked their RVs and beached their boats, will become a "green" area where no camping is permitted.
For the most part, "there will be no more looking over someone else's RV to get a nice view of the lake," said Waugh.
The thing that galled the regulars most was the park's plan to make it illegal to pull their boat onto the bank at their campsite.
Douthat is a fee-fishing lake, where the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries provides frequent releases of trout, and anglers pay a $3.50 daily permit to fish for them.
Fishermen like All follow a tradition of keeping their boats at their camps for quick and easy launches.
"Now they are telling us we are supposed to park our boats all the way across the lake," he said. "The people who really support the lake in the spring and fall often are the older, retired people, and the handicapped people. I am not handicapped, but I cannot move my boat batteries and rods and two or three tackle boxes and life jackets out of the boat and carry them all the way across the lake three or four times a day."
There were several problems associated with people docking boats anywhere they desired along the campground's edge, said Waugh.
"One, if you keep hauling your boat up on the same place you are going to have an erosion problem. The other thing, for those folks who aren't boaters it was a asthetic problem as far as having a lot of boats circling the lake shore."
It was such a sensitive issue that park officials have suggested a compromise.
"What we are proposing are three boat tie-up areas at the campground that would handle about 18 boats," Waugh said. "People would be able to come in during the day, if they wanted to take a break, and tie up their boat and go to the campground or restroom."
Boats could be secured at the tie-up areas during the night, he said.
Park officials and campers are scheduled to meet in Lynchburg Wednesday to discuss the issues.
"We don't want to down play or negate the concerns that these people have," said Waugh. "They have brought some very valid concerns to the table."
One concern involves the use of railroad cross ties as campsite dividers.
"How do you expect us to smell the leaves and the outdoors over the creosote?" asked McCormick. "How do we get the blasted stuff out of our campers when we track it in?"
"The rain is going to wash creosote into the lake," said All. "Now a trout is a pretty fragile little animal. How is he going to react to all the creosote?"
The cross ties, some 40 years old, were donated to the park and are being used to save money, Waugh said.
"We were under the impression that they were old enough and had been outside long enough that there would be no leeching problem."
In answer to the concerns of campers, Waugh said park officials had sent samples of the ties to a research lab to determine if they pose a problem.
"If the results come back that they will cause any kind of environmental hazard, we have gone on record to take up what ties that have been used and no longer use them in the lake area," he said.