Leaders Strategize Rebranding Lewis County as Outdoors Haven

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The first inklings of a vision to sell Southwest Washington as a name-brand recreation destination began to take shape Wednesday, amid brainstorming sessions with local officials, business owners and nonprofit leaders.

“We’ve got a great asset here, and we’re not making the most out of it,” said state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama. “There just needs to be a little more coordination amongst the different groups to do a better job promoting the area. It’s a phenomenal area out here. I don’t know how you find an area that’s more beautiful than what you get out here. There are opportunities here.”

Dozens of locals came together at the Lake Mayfield Resort and Marina, where they spent the all-day Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Summit talking about the opportunities and challenges ahead. Though the contours are still unclear, attendees mentioned places like Leavenworth, a struggling timber town that remade itself as a tourist-friendly Bavarian-themed village in the North Cascades, and Moab, Utah, which has become a hub for climbers, hikers and mountain bikers after the decline of its mining industry.

Lewis County and the surrounding area have similar parallels, long-dependent on timber and surrounded by outdoor hotspots. Area leaders spent the day brimming with optimism that harnessing the fast-growing tourism economy could provide the region with a new identity.

“That’s the key, is identifying where we’re drawing a circle around, then making sure that everybody who’s doing stuff is engaged and telling the same narrative,” said Dan Moore, CEO of Pandion Consulting and Facilitation. Moore, a veteran of the travel industry, led the event, offering facts about various tourism sectors and prompting discussions among smaller groups. Whether it’s a tagline or ad campaign or a development strategy, he urged locals to unite around a single narrative to promote the region.

“When we’re representing the Volcano Corridor, here’s our stories — communities that flank the most powerful volcanoes in the world,” he said, noting that the term encompasses everything from the epic peaks to the glacier-fed rivers that water the agricultural land far below.

The event was put on by the White Pass Scenic Byway, which hopes to make it an annual tradition. It brought together county, state and federal officials, as well as representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Mount Rainier National Park, the Cowlitz Basin ORV Club, Fire Mountain Arts Council, Discover Lewis County, Tacoma Power, Washington State Parks, local libraries and many others.

“The energy they have developed is really contagious,” said Mary Kay Nelson, marketing consulting with the White Pass Scenic Byway. “What’s got to sift out of this is a real focus, a brand, a target that we can all jump on board with. That’s why outdoor recreation surfaced. It kind of encompasses who we are in this region.”

The event was attended by about 50 people, and Moore said the group was made up of equal parts government, business and nonprofit representatives. He made sure members of each of those three groups were at every table, saying the collaboration fostered by small group discussions was emblematic of the large-scale work those entities will need to do if they undertake a larger effort.

“One of the biggest challenges is that triangle,” said Harry Bhagwandin, a board member of Lewis County Community Trails. “I don’t know how to crack that to get us all working together to get this world-class tourism economy.”

On the government side, Orcutt said the state can do a better job of promoting tourism, particularly in this region, and supporting local infrastructure that communities can put to use for that purpose. County commissioner Gary Stamper, whose rural East County district has been hit the hardest by the decline of logging and is also home to many of the area’s outdoor assets, said it was important to have the various groups together.



“This gathering of all the different groups and businesses and government partners — hopefully the ideas that are gonna come out of this meeting are gonna give us some insight on how we can move forward and do a better job marketing,” he said.  “More people are traveling today, they want to get out and recreate. … We need to be able to capture that.”

The group had plenty of ideas for how to achieve that, such as connecting Highway 504 to Highway 12 on 16 miles of land currently owned by Weyerhauser, which would offer a connection from Mount St. Helens to Mount Rainier. Others mentioned public transportation to Mount Rainier and the ski area, an outdoor recreation program at Centralia College, adding guided outdoor experiences, additional lodging and enhancing salmon recovery in area rivers.

Those were just a few of the ideas offered Wednesday, but attendees also brought up plenty of concerns. Many wanted to preserve the area’s solitude, preferring not to deal with the tourist crowds of a place like Leavenworth. Kathy Steichen, Rainier’s Chief of Interpretation and Education, noted that the national park has often seen long wait times at the entrance during the summer months and said locals may want to visit on weekdays or fall months when they can have a more “personal” experience.

“I think that being able to have that triangle of non-profit organizations and businesses and politicians coming together, that’s when problems can get solved,” she said. “That’s what I saw today. It was a very inspirational time just seeing the interest in Lewis County wanting to solve some problems and make for a better experience for tourism.”

Rainier’s volcanic counterpart also faces challenges, according to Amy Wilson, a community engagement specialist at Mount St. Helens.

“If you look at the way that the monument was created, it was designated as a monument with very specific goals, and preserving that eruption area and letting it heal naturally, and also allowing research, and also allowing recreation, and considering public safety,” she said. “These are difficult things to balance.”

Other challenges include the lowered water level at Riffe Lake, which inhibits recreation opportunities there. Some noted that communities within the “Volcano Corridor” may be reluctant to cede their unique identities to a larger narrative. Most, though, left the event in high spirits about what’s ahead. White Pass Scenic Byway is planning to hold the event again next year, where they say they’ll almost certainly need to find a larger venue.

“Let’s have the next step,” said Tamara Hayes, executive director of Discover Lewis County. “Where do we keep growing these ideas? What is it that we’re trying to sell that’s going on in Lewis County?”

Those answers, Moore said, will come over time, as long as area leaders continue to build on the momentum from the initial meeting.

“This is the beginning, not just a one-day event where we talk about stuff,” he said.