After a landmark year for visitors in 2022, Vermont state parks are experiencing a slowdown — and that was the case even before flash floods last month shuttered several of the parks.
Vermont’s 55 state parks had logged 340,000 visitors as of July 11, a day after the historic flooding, according to the state Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
At the same point last year, the parks had drawn 400,000 visitors, both campers and day users. It was a year that had brought a total of 1.1 million visitors to the parks — the most since around 1969, when the figure reached almost 1.2 million, comparative department data showed.
Visitations are tracked when state parks are officially open, from around mid-May to mid-October.
“Last year was a record year for us for attendance,” Nate McKeen, Vermont state parks director, said in an interview in July. “It’s just been a rainy summer so far — spring and summer.”
Last month, flash floods in different parts of Vermont closed down at least seven state parks. Some were closed for days, and others for weeks. All are currently open except Camp Plymouth, which is immediately adjacent to Ludlow — a town that became an epicenter of the statewide storm and suffered millions of dollars’ worth of damage to homes, businesses and public infrastructure.
As of Aug. 15, the year’s visitor count at Vermont state parks was 615,000 — down 21% from 780,000 visitors during the same period last year.
“Recent flooding, coupled with the challenges stemming from its aftermath and the unrelenting wet weather, has led to a decline in seasonal visitation,” Danielle Fitzko, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, said in a written statement. “However, in the face of these obstacles, determined recovery efforts are progressing.”
Camp Plymouth — the worst-damaged state park — will remain closed for the rest of the season.
Several major repairs are needed before it can welcome back visitors, said Frank Spaulding, Vermont’s parks projects manager. That includes fixing washed-out roads inside and outside the park, and repairing or replacing underground utility lines for water, sewer and electricity.
“In some cases, the water lines broke,” Spaulding said in an interview. “In other places, the electrical lines will have to be reburied.”
In addition, a park playground has to be redone, after silt brought by floodwaters settled on the mulch-like cover designed to cushion children from hard falls.
Spaulding said the impact of last month’s flooding on Camp Plymouth was worse than that from Tropical Storm Irene, which came in late August 2011, because of the timing.
“It happened in the middle of the summer,” he said of the July floods. “Irene happened at the end of our season, so we had the opportunity to kind of take a breath and have the fall and winter to get it repaired and reopened.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect location for Camp Plymouth.
