Affected Environment
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SOCIOECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
INTRODUCTION
Crater Lake National Park is located in
southwest Oregon astride the Cascade Mountain Range. This rectangular shaped
park is completely bordered by state and national forests. Rouge River National
Forest abuts the park on the west and parts of the north and south sides. Umpqua
National Forest forms the middle third of the park’s northern boundary. Winema
National Forest borders the park on part of the north, almost all the east, and
middle part of the south border. Sun Pass State Forest on southeast completes
the public forest encirclement. Sky Lakes Wilderness (part of the Rouge River
and Winema National Forests) is on the southern edge of the park and Mount
Thielsen Wilderness (part of the Umpqua and Winema National Forests) lies to the
north.
Access to the park is via State Route 138
through the north entrance or by State Route 62 from the west or south. The road
from the north entrance and the crater rim road are open only during the summer
season due to heavy snows. Highway 62 is open year round. The Pacific Crest
National Scenic Trail runs north and south through the park with side trails
leading to Crater Lake.
Most of the park is contained in westcentral
Klamath County with small areas spilling over into Douglas and Jackson Counties.
The communities in these counties are closest to the park’s boundaries and serve
as gateways to the park, providing a variety of goods and services for visitors
to the park. The park’s location makes the three- county area the economic
region under consideration for this planning effort. Any socioeconomic impacts
from the action alternatives would have the most impact on these counties. Such
impacts are marginalized farther from the park,
Klamath Falls is the county seat of Klamath
County and is about 50 miles south of the park via route 62 and US 97. Medford
(county seat of Jackson County) is about 75 miles southwest of the park,
traveling west and then southwest on route 62. Visitors traveling north and then
west about 100 miles on route 138 reach Roseburg, also a county seat. These
three cities are primary business, transportation, and service centers in their
respective counties.
A number of smaller unincorporated communities
— Beaver Marsh, Diamond Lake, Fort Klamath, Prospect, and Union Creek — are much
closer to the park. Beaver Marsh is northeast of the park about 19 miles from
the north entrance.1 The store and gas station have been closed for over three
years. Less that 150 people live in Beaver Marsh. Diamond Lake is a resort
community about 5 miles north of the north entrance. The resort structures and
summer homes are within the Umpqua National Forest on land leased from the U.S.
Forest Service. Year- round residents are estimated to be less that 20. Fort
Klamath is approximately six miles south of the park astride Highway 62. There
is a store and gas station. The 60 permanent residents are joined by summer
folks to increase the population to about 200. Prospect is 12 miles south of
Union Creek and about 20 miles from the park’s
1 Mark, Steve. May 2003. E- mail communication
forwarded on May 27, 2003. Most of the information in this paragraph represents
his personal knowledge of the area surrounding the park.
west entrance. A high school, several churches,
a gas station, a store, and three restaurants are found here. This is the
largest of the local gateway communities; having a population estimated at
between 200 and 250 persons. Union Creek is also a resort and summer home
community located within Rogue River National Forest on leased federal land
managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The historic resort complex contains a store
and there is also a restaurant nearby. Some government housing is found within
this community. Approximately 50 permanent residents live here.
Population
The three counties in the affected region for
socioeconomics are predominantly rural, with large areas in federal ownership as
a national park and national forests (managed by the U.S. Forest Service). This
three- county area had a combined population of more than 345,000 persons in the
year 2000 (table 6). The three county seats accounted for 102,633 of these
residents. The rest are scattered among many smaller communities. The population
of the state of Oregon in 2000 was more than 3.4 million, which ranked it 27th
in the nation. The affected three county area contains about 10.1% of the
state’s population. This area grew at a much lower rate (15.6% compared to
20.4%) than the state as a whole during the 1990s. Only Jackson County, with an
annual growth rate of 2.2%, led by Medford growing 34.5% over the decade,
outpaced the state average (1.9%) for growth. Klamath and Douglas Counties had
annual growth rates of only 1.0% and 0.6%.
TABLE 6: AFFECTED AREA POPULATION FOR COUNTIES
AND SELECTED TOWNS
MAJOR INDUSTRIES BY EARNINGS
Earnings are the sum of wage or salary income
and the net income from self-employment. A person’s earnings represent the
amount of income received regularly before deductions for income taxes, social
security, etc. In 2001, the most important industries for earnings in Douglas
County were Manufacturing, Local Government, and Health Care and Social
Assistance. These industries accounted for 44.2% of the total of $1.34 billion
in earnings by county residents. Earnings for Klamath County were concentrated
to a somewhat lesser degree (34.4% of the total of $0.79 billion) in these same
three industry sectors. Jackson County had the most earnings at $2.82 billion;
which represented 57% of all earnings in the three- county region. The largest
sectors in Jackson County were health care and social assistance, retail trade,
and manufacturing. The regional total earnings were $4.95 billion. Douglas
County contributed $1.34 billion or 27% and Klamath County accounted for about
16%, or $0.79 billion.
Regionally, the top industry sectors were
health care and social assistance (12.6% of the total), manufacturing (12.3% of
the total), local government (11.5% of the total), and close behind is retail
trade (at 11.0% of the total). This region accounted for nearly 7.2% of Oregon’s
$69,035,322,000 total earnings in 2001.
MAJOR INDUSTRIES BY EMPLOYMENT
The affected region provided nearly 187,000
full- and part- time jobs in 2001. This figure represented about 9% of the state
total of 2.1 million jobs. Retail trade, health care and social assistance,
manufacturing, and local government were the sectors employing the most workers
(about 43% of the total) in the region. Retail trade accounted for the most
positions in Klamath and Jackson Counties (12.1% and 15.9% of the total). Retail
trade was a close second in Douglas County providing 6,365 jobs (11.9% of the
total) verses manufacturing’s 6,365 (12.3% of the total). Over 55% of the
region’s jobs were in Jackson County; less than 18% were in Klamath County.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Oregon had an unemployment rate in 1990 that
matched the national average unemployment rate of 5.6 % (see table 7).
Unfortunately, each county had significantly higher unemployment rates. In fact,
all three counties have had higher unemployment rates than the state and
national averages for the selected years. The national average fell to 4.0% in
2000. However the next year it rose to 4.8%.
Unemployment rose and fell for the three
counties and Oregon during the 1990s and continued this pattern in 2000 and
2001. In 2001 the state average and that of Jackson County both rose to 6.3%.
Statewide, this unemployment rate represented about 115,300 persons being out of
work. For Jackson County, out of a workforce of 91,900, nearly 5,800 people were
looking for work but not finding suitable employment. Douglas and Jackson
Counties’ unemployment figures rose to 9.0% (almost 4,000 people) and 9.5%
(nearly 2,700 people). With over 12,000 persons out of work, the regional
unemployment rate for 2001 was over 7.5%, significantly higher than the state or
national averages.
TABLE 7: UNEMPLOYMENT RATES FOR SELECTED YEARS
POVERTY
The national average for persons living in
poverty in 1989 was 13.1% (table 8.). This figure represented 31.7 million
people out of a population of 242.0 million. The poverty rate for Oregon was
more than seven- tenths of a percentage point lower, at 12.4%. Over the years
shown, the poverty rate for Oregon was consistently lower than the national
rates. For the selected years, the poverty rates in the three counties were all
higher than the state rates. For the most part the poverty rates in the counties
were also higher than the national figures. In 1999 poverty in the three
counties ranged from one person in eight in Jackson County to one person in six
in Klamath County. These figures represented more than 47,500 people living in
poverty in the region. This region accounted for more than 12.5% of all people
living in poverty in Oregon in 1999.
TABLE 8: PERCENT OF PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY
