State park and marina use this summer increased, state-wide, although use in the Upper Peninsula was down this year and was less than expected, possibly owing to a bad economy and soaring fuel prices, say state administrators.

In some parks, mostly along the southeastern and southwestern shores of the Great Lakes, use increased as much as 10 percent, which is attributed partly to hot summer weather, said Colleen Steinman, a public relations and marketing coordinator for the Parks and Recreation Division of the Department of Natural Resources.

“We’re not sure yet why numbers in the U.P. were down,” she added. “It could be due to travel costs. We’re analyzing information cards filled out by campers now, and we’ll be doing it throughout the winter.”

At Straits State Park in St. Ignace, manager Wayne Burnett said, “We were down four to five percent, but we were very busy over Labor Day. We’re down, but not that much.”

Mr. Burnett described 2005 as a good year for the Straits. He attributed some of the downturn to the fact that the park was closed nearly all of 2004, owing to an overhaul of the electrical system. He speculates that many tourists were not aware that the park had reopened.

Mr. Burnett also considered the general economy, layoffs across the state, and gas prices as other possible explanations for the drop in visitor numbers, a line of speculation mirrored by officials from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U.S. Forest Service.

“This is not a ‘gloom and doom’ situation,” Mr. Burnett said. “State Parks have been 100 percent self- sufficient for the past three years. We rely completely on revenue produced by visitors. This gives us enough to operate, so there will not be cuts in staffing.”

The infrastructure at Straits State Park needs work, though, he added. Toilets, paved roads, electric lines, water lines, and sewage systems are all in need of repair, and to pay for that, the park needs more visitors.

“Typically, state parks draw the majority of visitors from the western side of the Lower Peninsula,” Mr. Burnett said, “from Traverse City down to Kalamazoo. However, the majority of the population in Michigan is found on the eastern side of the Lower Peninsula, including dense minority populations in urban areas.” State parks, he said, are promoting themselves to those dense urban areas.

To educate more Michigan urbanites about the virtues of the natural world, the DNR instituted the Learn, Appreciate, Preserve (LAP) program in 1999. Packets of information are distributed to fourth grade classrooms around the state and contain information about plants, animals, natural history, and significant people, such as Father Jacques Marquette. At the end of the program, free passes to state parks are given to students.

“We’ve seen some LAP passes this year,” Mr. Burnett said.

In another attempt to bring people outdoors, the state instigated Project GO, a day of activities designed to get as many people outside on July 23 as possible. Project GO, however, did not produce a high turnout this year at Straits State Park. According to Mr. Burnett, it was the first year of the effort, and the weather was extremely hot July 23.

As Mr. Burnett walked through his campground this season, he noticed more out-of-state license plates than usual, including many from Canada.

In general, about 150 of the park’s 255 campsites are in use at a given time, he said. Even with the slight downturn, Straits State Park remained 85 to 90 percent full in mid-September.

To the north, Brimley State Park had a standard year, according to Burr Mitchell, the unit supervisor.

Like Straits State Park, Brimley offers a full range of modern facilities. The 237 campsites saw roughly the same usage as last year, although the beach area was busier than normal.

“Project GO produced a fair turnout,” Mr. Mitchell said, “and we had a parade through the campground with four members of the Honor Guard of the Michigan National Guard.” Brimley State Park also hosted a small car show during the summer.

The buildings at Brimley State Park are aging and require upkeep, but maintenance is within the budget of the park.

“Due to the financial situation of the state, however, there will be no new buildings,” Mr. Mitchell said.

State Forest Campgrounds, catering to visitors interested in more rustic conditions, saw a slight downturn in some areas also. In others, usage remained about the same.

According to Charlie Vallier, fire officer in charge of campgrounds such as Little Brevort Lake, Hog Island Point, Black River, South Manistique Lake, Millecoquins, and Big Knob, usage was down slightly in his area.

“Some people said increased costs for fishing licenses were the cause,” he said. “Others said it was the gas prices. It must be a variety of reasons that caused fewer visitors to come.”

Nevertheless, state parks appear to be getting a wide variety of visitors. There were the usual hordes of Michigan campers, Mr. Vallier said, as well as people from across the U.S. and Canada. Some campers came from Germany this year.

“Someone even dropped a $10 Australian Euro in one of the payment envelopes,” Mr. Vallier said. “We’re still holding on to that.”

According to Mr. Vallier, funding is sufficient to maintain staffing of state forest campgrounds in eastern Mackinac County.

In the rustic state forest campgrounds of the north, conditions varied, according to Patrick Hallfrisch, unit manager at Sault Ste. Marie.

Usage of the Munuscong campground on the St. Marys River remained roughly the same as the past two years.

“It’s down from 10 years ago, though,” said Mr. Hallfrisch. The reason is owing to low water levels on the river. Most campers at the Munuscong Campground this summer came to use small boats.

According to Mr. Hallfrisch, DeTour State Forest Campground held its own once again, and at Lime Island, things have been looking up.

“Things have been improving year after year,” he said. “A lot of people just didn’t know about Lime Island before.”

Lime Island was full during the herring run in July. Most visitors were Michigan residents, but tourists also came from far and wide, said Mr. Hallfrisch. Some arrived in large yachts and used the island’s large harbor, a facility which once served as a lake freighter refueling station.

Lime Island is equipped with electricity produced by solar panels. There are also cabins and regular camp sites, but to get there, visitors must have a boat.

Campgrounds in the Hiawatha National Forest saw the most dramatic decrease in visitation this year. In eastern Mackinac County, campgrounds such as Brevort Lake, Lake Michigan, Carp River, and Foley Creek saw a thousand fewer visitors this July compared to July 2004, according to Kari Stanley, recreation planner for the Forest.

Curiously, attendance at Hiawatha’s St. Ignace Visitors Center was up. More tourists arrived than last year for every summer month until September, she said, which had a sudden downturn around Labor Day.

In the Hiawatha National Forest near Sault Ste. Marie, only Three Lakes campground saw a serious drop in tourism. Monocle Lake and Bay View Campgrounds, which have been popular historically, remained consistent, Ms. Stanley added.

Forests and rivers were not the only recreational areas to see slight downturns in general, marked by highly variable spikes in visitation in certain areas. Regional marinas also reported mixed results.

“We had a really good year in St. Ignace,” Harbormaster Jeff Davenport said. “Ninety-nine percent of our visitors gave us compliments. This is the best year of our three-year expansion.”

Until 2002, St. Ignace Marina had a modest 20 slips for boats. The number has been expanded to 140 with the help of federal, state, and local funding.

Part of the marina’s success was owing to a series of rendezvous. Great Lakes Cruising Club filled the marina, as did Colony Marine.

“We saw a lot of new faces,” Mr. Davenport added. “Everyone said they’d be back.”

Hessel Marina had an average year, said Clark Township Treasurer Katie Carpenter, who oversees marina operations. Like most marinas, July was Hessel’s peak season. A rendezvous was held by Lansing Power Squadron during the month, filling 15 to 20 slips.

Hessel Marina is researching the feasibly of implementing a reservation system run by the DNR, said Mrs. Carpenter. If the project goes through, boaters will be able to reserve a slip via the Internet.

The Mackinac Island Marina had an average year, said Tom Paquin, a Parks and Recreation manager in Cheboygan, which oversees the state marina on Mackinac Island..

“We haven’t done our end-of-the-year report,” he said, “but we were full all of the time. We saw more larger vessels than usual, and a lot of day dockage.”

Mackinac Island Marina has 76 slips.

To the west, the fishing village of Naubinway enjoyed its first year of marina traffic since 2002, Harbormaster Larry Wyse said. A dredging project and new piers enabled 11 boats to dock during the summer, two of which were seasonal. The rest came and went throughout the summer.

According to Mr. Wyse, Naubinway is a “harbor of refuge.” Other than Port Inland, it is the only harbor between Manistique and St. Ignace.

“We’re kind of out of the way,” said Mr. Wyse. “You have to want to come here.”

To the east, after partial dredging concluded in the spring, DeTour Harbor enjoyed a great summer in terms of weather, Harbormaster Bruce Glupker said.

“We had 2,000 boats. The customers were happy, and we received a lot of compliments.

“In terms of numbers,” he said, “it wasn’t a boom, and it wasn’t a bust, considering fuel prices were high.”

This season, DeTour harbor hosted four soft-rock concerts, bringing a great deal of boats into the area, including schooner Appledore V , yachts up to 100 feet long, and a number of long range boaters traveling the “Great Circle.”

More came in sailboats than usual, said Mr. Glupker, a phenomenon he attributes to the rise in fuel costs. But fewer boaters arrived on weekend trips from Cheboygan, Mackinaw City, and St. Ignace.

The harbor has been busy for other reasons, also. The staff is working with the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs Department to establish a customs inspections capability, Mr. Glupker said. Eventually, the harbor will have a simple office operating during the heavy part of the season.

The deal is not yet finalized, however. Some residents of DeTour Village want the new office to operate more of the year, others desire less.

In Mackinaw City, Harbormaster David Paquet described a highly variable year.

“We were down during the second half of June,” he said, “but we were up considerably from last year in July.” Visitor numbers fell again in August, but in general, the marina had a much better year than 2004.

“Weather was night and day compared to last year,” Mr. Paquet said, reflecting on the cool temperatures that dissuaded boater traffic in 2004.

Concerns for the future of the marina have been brewing, though. Only two blocks away, the state is building another boating facility.

“It will have an impact,” Mr. Paquet said. “St. Ignace, Mackinac Island, and our marinas could all lose visitors.”