Nice little article from our local paper. It really is not going to be as bad as everyone thinks! But trying to tell people that and getting them to believe it is another thing. California’s drought and the effect it will have on travelers this summer did not receive much attention at Wednesday’s Shasta Cascade Tourism Summit in Redding. That doesn’t mean the dry conditions are not on the minds of those who have a stake in the region’s important tourism economy. “It has been a little challenging this year with the drought,” Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association General Manager Laurie Baker said during a break from Thursday’s event. “Locally, people are afraid that the word is going to get out that maybe people shouldn’t come because our lake’s down.” But a lower Lake Shasta means better fishing, and at 150 feet from the top, Shasta is still bigger than most lakes in the state with plenty of recreational opportunities, Baker said. An estimated 3 million people visit the lake each summer, many renting houseboats and cottages. Currently, Lake Shasta is at 52 percent capacity, 88 feet from the top, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. A year ago, the lake was nearly 60 feet higher. “Just to set the stage here, we are starting out the beginning of the summer season way below normal,” said Don Bader, the bureau’s deputy area manager. Bader did not attend Wednesday’s event at the Red Lion Hotel. The bureau estimates the lake will drop 62 more feet by mid-summer before reaching its low point of the year in October, expected to be 42 feet higher than the record low mark set in 1977. Bader said the Bureau of Reclamation has met with the lake’s marinas and talked about how the water levels will impact their operations. “Here at Holiday Harbor, what we are trying to do is just make the most out of a bad situation,” said Operations Manager Kevin Kelley, who did not attend the tourism summit. Holiday will run fewer boats out of its marina this summer. “Usually our fleet is about 65 and we will run 40 boats this year,” Kelley said. “That is going to be true with all the other marinas. They have pulled back the reins and are only running partial fleets.” Kelley says Holiday also will be running specials to get more people on the water. “We are the biggest lake in California even at 150 feet down,” Kelley said. “It just takes more time to get to the water. . . . Once you get outside the marinas and get on the water, the banks disappear. . . . and there is so much to explore because they (structures) are exposed.” Fishing also improves with the lake down, said Phil Mitsuedo of Phil’s Propeller Service in Shasta Lake. “We had spring all winter, so the fishing has been really good,” Mitsuedo said. Trout and bass like to hang out around the many structures that typically sit below the lake’s surface. But with the water down, the structures are exposed to anglers. “We have had probably our best fishing year in a couple of years,” Mitsuedo said. However, the dry conditions make a launching a boat more difficult because some ramps are unusable. There was a movement a few a years ago to build a “super ramp” that wouldn’t be affected by the low water levels. But enthusiasm waned after the rains came in 2010 and 2011. “If the Forest Service did their part to build more launching facilities it would help tremendously ... because obviously private people can’t build launch ramps,” Mitsuedo said. Meanwhile, Visit California forecasts a 2.5 percent increase in visitors coming to the Golden State this year and about a 5 percent uptick in spending. Baker of the Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association said her group is partnering with San Francisco Travel to bring more tourists to the North State. Baker told the gathering at the Red Lion that San Francisco doesn’t have enough hotel rooms to house everybody who comes to the city. So Shasta Cascade and nine other regions in the state are featured on the website “Beyond San Francisco.” “Our plan is to get more people to look at coming north from San Francisco,” Baker said. Baker also hopes to the North State can benefit from the U.S Travel Association’s “Travel Effect” campaign. The initiative is the travel industry’s effort to get more Americans to use their vacation time. In 2013, families failed to use 429 million days of paid leave. U.S. Travel calls it the “Day Off Deficit.” The group estimates getting those Americans to use their vacation time could bring in an extra $140 billion annually to the industry. “About $1.5 billion could come to the Shasta Cascade,” Baker said. “We need to tap into that.”
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 07:40:51 +0000
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