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NEW DUNE RULES AT SILVER LAKE STATE PARK FOR 2000

Read on…This information was shared via the Oceana Herald-Journal newspaper. Reported by John Cavanagh, Assistant Editor

Dune Voucher Details:
SILVER LAKE -- Anyone wanting to run an off-road vehicle (ORV) in the Silver Lake sand dunes on weekends this summer will need a piece of paper before they can get into the park. That was the word handed down by the state parks department before a full house at a special meeting at the Golden Township Hall Jan. 5. The idea was met with some opposition and lots of questions during the two-hour meeting. Under the plan, dune users will be required to obtain a free voucher, designating arrival times to the dune entrance for specific weekend days. "You can think of it as holding your place in line," said parks department Grand Rapids District Supervisor John Winters. "You can go back to your campground, hotel room, home and have your place in line." "There is the potential here for us to handle far more people than we do now," Silver Lake State Park Manager Pete Lundborg said. "And that's supposed to be a positive thing." The parks department intends to construct a 35-space parking lot voucher distribution center on the southwest corner of Ridge and Fox roads. The 30-acre parcel is already owned by the state. Dune users would access the distribution center from Fox Road. The parks department will rent a portable booth for $250 a month, Winters said, and a department of Natural Resources construction crew will develop the wooded parcel. The voucher system will be used this year while the parks department develops a long-term plan for park operation, Winters said. The department hopes to have the voucher distribution center in place before Memorial Day. Two vouchers will be issued. One will be for street legal or "dune ready" vehicles and a second will be for people needing to use the off-road vehicle area parking lot. Lundborg said dune ready vehicles make up 75 percent of dune use. "You will be able to pick from the time of day that you want up to a certain point," Winters said. The dune ready vouchers will be available at noon Fridays, and parking lot vouchers will be available at 6 p.m. Fridays. The voucher center will be open around the clock and will be staffed by two people. The center also will sell state park motor vehicle and ORV permits as time allows. Winters said staff will also hand out information about off-roading in the dunes. Campground and motel owners will be allowed to obtain vouchers for guests, who have dune ready vehicles, Winters said. The only information required is the dune user's name and license plate number. The voucher system was developed because of property owners' and Golden Township complaints about traffic congestion and the line waiting to get into the ORV area. Many people camping in line overnight and waiting to get into the park have been accused of defecating and urinating on private property. They also are accused of littering and building campfires along the roadside. According to information provided by Silver Lake State Park, the line has been seven miles long during park hours. The park estimates 350,000 people used the ORV area in 1999, which is twice the number of people using the park 10 years ago. "The number of folks visiting us has increased steadily over the years," Lundborg said. The park is limited on the number of vehicles it can have in the parking lot. Lundborg said the parking lot had 356 cars, 112 trailers and 292 off-road vehicles at one time last Labor Day weekend. Winters said the parking lot cannot be expanded because of sand dune protection laws. Because the ORV area was in place prior to dune protection laws, it can continue to operate, Winters said. No limit will be placed on the number of vehicles allowed in the dunes. Once inside the park, dune users can stay as long as they want. "We got more tickets to the show than we do people wanting to see it," Lundborg said, explaining that the voucher system will handle more people than the current demand at the ORV area. Arrival times will be at two hour intervals. Dune users needing the parking lot will be allowed in at 7 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. as in the past. Dune ready vehicles can begin arriving at 9 a.m. No one will be allowed on the dunes until 9 a.m., Winters said, The park should be able to handle 300-500 dune users every two hours, Lundborg said. To keep traffic from bogging down, the park plans to add a second dune ready lane. It also plans to make dune entrance ramp improvements, but needs Department of Environmental Quality approval to widen the ramp to two lanes, Winters said. One dune ready lane would be for permitted vehicles with vouchers and the second for dune ready vehicles needing permits. The third lane will be to route traffic to the parking lot. Audience members criticizing the plan said the distribution center will create unnecessary traffic at the Fox and Ridge road corner. "Are you going to sell this to the people of Upper Silver Lake -- No," said Silver Lake resident Tom Shaw. "This should be another year of learning before you create any more confusion for people wanting to get on the dunes." Audience members also said once the parking lot is full others won't be able to get in and a line will again form while people wait for parking spaces to open. More vouchers would be issued as parking lot vacancies became available, Winters said. Others criticized current operation of the existing dune ready line and yet others didn't think two people would be enough to distribute vouchers. It also was suggested that the park run two-way traffic on the exit hill for dune ready vehicles and have people using the parking lot enter on the current entrance ramp. The move would keep dune ready traffic from having to pass through the parking lot, they said. Silver City II Campground owner Mike Fuller asked what would stop people from counterfeiting vouchers. Winters says he hasn't seen the final form so he couldn't comment as to what might happen. Still other audience members asked about turning the property at the Ridge and Fox road corner into an overflow parking lot for dune users. They also asked about purchasing additional property. "You raise a good point, believe me, we're looking for other property to purchase," Winters said. ?

Again, above reported by the Oceana Herald-Journal. It will be an interesting season at the Silver Lake Dunes this year. Since no overnight parking will be allowed in the line by the entrance, I’d suggest to get your hotel or campground reservations well in advance of your vacation. If you need help in selecting a hotel or campground, you can go to the Oceana County's website and click on Silver Lake (www.oceana.net/silverlake/)
Until then, we’ll see you on the dunes April 1, 2000.

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