West Harrison campsites to fully reopen this week

WEST HARRISON – The company that manages several campgrounds west of Harrison Lake says all of its campgrounds will be open for the Victoria Day long weekend, following a multi-site closure in late April.

In a statement posted to social media and its website, West Harrison Camping and Reservations says group sites, Chehalis River, Grace Lake and Ten Mile Bay sites are now open.

Weaver Lake will open today (Wednesday, May 13) at noon.

Twenty Mile Bay will open this Thursday, May 14 at noon, while Wood Lake will open Friday, May 15 at 2 p.m.

“We really appreciated all the support we received from campers, and we are sorry for any inconvenience these closure have caused,” the management company said. “Thank you from the Management and Hosts at West Harrison Reservations.”

On Monday, April 27, the Chehalis River, Grace Lake, Twenty Mile Bay, Weaver Lake, and Wood Lake campgrounds were ordered to remain closed for safety reasons by Recreation Sites & Trails BC (RSTBC).

The order mentioned 400 danger trees in the area without mentioning where they are, adding that an “entire campground will need to be closed until [they] are able to treat the area and remove the trees.”

“The decision by the Province to wait until now–when the camping season is well underway–to inform us that it identified trees that could be dangerous is deeply concerning, frustrating, and costly,” said Sts’ailes in an earlier statement.

Sts’ailes has been managing six recreation sites on the west side of Harrison Lake for the past 15 years, but said the band has had “almost no support” from RSTBC since it took stewardship of the land.

“These closures are a direct result of insufficient funding available to RSTBC and years of negligence,” Morgan Ritchie, heritage and environment manager with Sts’ailes. “So even when we are able to reopen campgrounds, we may continue to face challenges until the Province places more value on recreation in British Columbia.”