For many years, visitors to Sauvie Island might stop by one of the local shops to obtain a wildlife parking permit, which is required to park at the majority of the island’s beaches and strailheads.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife abruptly changed that arrangement last summer when it chose to encourage local businesses to utilize the department’s online permitting system instead of selling booklets of paper permits.
Local company owners were taken aback by the development and claimed it would result in a heavy cost for the upcoming year.
ODFW stated in a written statement that it no longer sells local vendors pre-paid booklets of annual permits. The retailers have made $2 on each purchase thanks to those permits, which cost $10 for a day or $30 for a year.
According to an email sent on Thursday by department spokesman Beth Quillian, ODFW is abandoning the use of pre-paid booklets and transferring all product sales to the agency’s computerized licensing system. The selling of annual pre-paid items is not only out of date and expensive, but it also violates federal regulations pertaining to annual licensing products.
According to ODFW, permits must now be displayed on the dashboard of a parked vehicle and acquired online at myodfw.com prior to a visit. Visitors to Sauvie Island must print a paper permission before departing their homes.
On Sauvie Island, the Oak Island Trail winds through grassy meadows surrounded by water on three sides and inhabited by cattle, wildlife, and oak trees.”The Oregonian” or Jamie Hale
On Saturday, November 12, 2022, sandhill cranes soar over Sauvie Island, with Mount Saint Helens in the backdrop.Graves, Mark/The Oregonian
The effects of the new permitting system have been so severe at the Sauvie Island Cove Market that owner Kristen Cook is concerned the business won’t survive. Cook thinks the market sells between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of permits annually.
According to Cook, “I was pretty deflated last year, and it definitely impacted our business.” I have no idea what the impact will be this year.
She claimed that although ODFW offered to assist the store in setting up a system to sell permits online and print them out for customers, the procedure would be too time-consuming and burdensome, especially because the small store frequently experiences long lineups during the summer. Cook said that credit card transaction fees would consume the vendor fee the business would get on the licenses, which would be lowered to $1 for the online permits, leaving her with little to show for the trouble.
Regarding the ODFW ruling, Cook remarked, “I was just gutted.” It was merely offensive.
There were three shops on the island that used to sell permits. Annual parking permits are no longer available for purchase at Sauvie Island Cove Market, Reeder Beach Country Store, and Cracker Barrel Grocery. A request for response from a fourth, Topaz Farms, was not answered. Another trustworthy location to pick up permits, the 7-Eleven in nearby Linnton, has announced that it no longer sells annual passes.
However, visitors may still be able to get a pass for the day. According to certain retailers, they have a lot of day permits, and ODFW verified that if they last that long, the businesses will be able to sell them until 2025.
The Reeder Beach Country Store’s manager, Dione Burchell, stated that she anticipates the remaining day passes to be sold out by spring. According to her, her store still had a large number of annual and day permits available for the year when ODFW notified them in July 2024 that physical passes would no longer be available. However, the firm started to suffer when the new year arrived and customers started lining up for new yearly permits.
According to Burchell, she is now concerned about the hectic spring and summer months that lie ahead.
Regarding the permits, she stated that when people arrive, they will buy more than just that. If consumers don’t have a reason to stop by in the first place, she worries that sales of drinks and snacks may decline, leaving the store in the dark. Since they can’t get away with it here, they simply won’t quit.
In order to sell permits through the internet system, ODFW reaffirmed that any Sauvie Island store is welcome to register as a full sale license agency. Additionally, the department announced that it will keep selling day pass booklets to vendors until the end of the year.
Although Cook and Burchell had reservations about the strategy, the department also implemented a new policy in September that permits visitors to get around the printing problem by writing down their permit number on a slip of paper and displaying that on their dashboard. This would enable people to purchase a permit on the spot using their smartphone.
“We have terrible phone service out here,” Cook added. She was also uncertain that the Oregon State Police troopers who issue penalties on Sauvie Island would accept a scribbled permit number, even if people were able to connect and purchase a permit. The notion was met with suspicion from a trooper, according to Cook and Burchell.
A request for comment from Oregon State Police was not answered.
Even while the Sauvie Island shops are now the most popular places to get parking permits, there are other vendors in the area. Hunting licenses, along with wildlife parking permits and other paperwork, are sold by 349 permit dealers around the state, including Portland’s Fred Meyer and Bi Mart stores, according to the ODFW website. As more companies register to use the online permission system, the agency said it will update the list.
However, Cook stated that many of her store’s patrons are either regulars who have become accustomed to purchasing permits on the island or tourists who are unaware of how the permission process operates. As people get used to the new reality, she anticipates mayhem for the time being.
“I see a lot of confusion, and I don’t see it going smoothly,” she remarked. It didn’t seem very well thought out, but I’m hoping for the best.
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–Jamie Hale co-hosts the Peak Northwest podcast and writes about travel and the outdoors. You may contact him at [email protected], 503-294-4077, or HaleJamesB.
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