Town Prefers Trees to RVs at Campsite

It has always been a little jewel to visitors, this campground by the bay with a dense canopy of trees, making it seem like something out of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy rather than the arid Central Coast.

Even on the sunniest days, large, haphazard campsites in the shade are its hallmark, making Morro Bay State Park Campground a popular destination for folks fleeing the hot climes of Bakersfield, Fresno and Los Angeles. Built by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration 70 years ago, the place has seen little change since.

But a firestorm is brewing between city leaders in Morro Bay and the California Department of Parks and Recreation over state plans to change the campground to accommodate an era when recreational vehicles are increasingly replacing tents.

Of particular concern to some local residents is the state’s proposal to cut 96 trees in the core area of the campsite. Although there are up to 800 trees in the general campsite, most of the felling will take place near the central area to allow more sunlight so bushes and short trees can thrive.

When some area residents noticed downed trees in the campground in the fall and winter, they began complaining. Parks officials say they made those cuts to deal with diseased or dangerous trees.

But when residents heard about the plans for cutting 96 more trees, they grew incensed.

The park is popular with locals who use it to house relatives in the summer, wander through it on the way to the nearby state golf course, and watch the monarch butterflies that hang from the eucalyptus trees on the north side in the winter months. It sits across State Park Road from the back bay, with the state marina and the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History nearby.

“This is a historic campground on the National Historic Register,” said Morro Bay City Councilwoman Betty Winholtz. “You are talking about completely doing away with that character. The real issue is they are making it a generic campground like all the others around the state.”

Winholtz voted, along with the four other members of the City Council, to block the proposal after a contentious hearing at which residents spoke passionately about their love for the park.

The council has authority over the state project as the enforcer of the area’s local coastal plan, but the parks department has appealed the city’s decision to the California Coastal Commission. A hearing date has yet to be set.

State park officials stress that plans for the campground are a result of their mission to meet the needs of the whole state -- not just the surrounding community. They hope to work out a compromise with city officials in which fewer trees will be cut.

But they also argue that the nature of camping has changed in recent decades.

“Morro Bay started as a place to pitch tents,” said Greg Smith, superintendent of northern San Luis Obispo County coastal state parks. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t have to hardly deal with motor homes. It has all changed.”

There are 140 campsites now, plus two large group sites, with no plans to change those numbers.

“We do hear complaints that it’s a dark campground, that there’s no privacy,” Smith said. The dense canopy overhead was not originally there, he said, but has been created by an infill of fast-growing nonnative eucalyptus trees. “Many of the eucalyptus were not even there 20 to 30 years ago.”

The plans call for cutting nonnative eucalyptus, some aging Monterey pines, and a few cypress trees.

Smith also said the state is going to great lengths to protect the monarchs’ trees and to restore the WPA restrooms in a historically accurate way. It even plans to remodel newer bathrooms to resemble the older WPA restrooms and to provide greater access to restrooms for those with disabilities.

The department’s plan would cost $3.2 million, paid for by voter-approved state park bonds.

But the larger issue involves a town of 10,000 with its hackles up at a state government that sits between it and most of its oceanfront.

State parks owns the south end of the bay’s sand spit, nearby Montana de Oro State Park, Morro Bay State Park alongside the back of the bay, and Morro Strand State Beach at the city’s north end. A different state agency owns the town’s commercial waterfront and leases it back to the city.

“The relationship between the city and state parks local management is strained,” Mayor Bill Yates said. The issue came to a head once before recently, when the state closed a one-mile stretch of its beach to dogs -- even on leashes -- to protect the endangered western snowy plover.

“They don’t do very good outreach when they make these unilateral decisions,” Yates said. “Often the first thing people know is a trail they’ve used for years is closed.”

City leaders believe it’s the first time that the city and its powerful neighbor have been quite so at odds.

“It sounds like we put the Coastal Commission in a tight spot,” said Gary Kaiser, senior planner for the city of Morro Bay. “If it sides with the city, it angers a fellow state agency. If it sides with the state, it angers a whole town.”