Penns return as camp hosts at Spring Recreation Area near Huntington

Ron and Linda Penn were back at Spring Recreation Site on April 1, giving campers and boaters a steady point of contact at the Bureau of Land Management site about three miles northeast of Huntington.

The couple returned for a second season as volunteer camp hosts at the recreation area on Brownlee Reservoir, where their work goes well beyond greeting arrivals. Camp hosts help answer questions, keep watch over the grounds, improve campsite conditions and help make the place feel orderly and welcoming for people using the campground and boat launch.

That matters at Spring Recreation Site because the shoreline campground draws a mix of RV travelers, tent campers, day users and boaters who often need basic guidance when they reach the water. The site sits on the banks of Brownlee Reservoir, a 52-mile-long reservoir on the Snake River, at the south end of the Hells Canyon Recreation Area.

Spring Rec is the Baker Field Office’s only fee site and includes 25 campsites, five restrooms, a boat launch and a fish cleaning station. The BLM says the site also has a boarding dock, drinking water, dumpsters and portable toilets, but no RV hookups. Vehicles are expected to display the fee-envelope stub in the windshield.

Money collected there helps keep the place running. According to the BLM’s recreation fee spending plan, fee revenue pays for cleaning supplies, toilet paper, trash service and a camp host. In fiscal year 2021, those fees also helped fund boat-launch upgrades and installation of a new boarding dock.

The site also has seen how quickly conditions can change in this corner of eastern Baker County. In 2021, Spring Recreation Site was partially closed because of wildfire, and extra patrols were needed to assess damage. Volunteers have remained part of the site’s upkeep since then, including a National Public Lands Day cleanup at Spring Recreation Site in 2022.

The Penns’ return fits that larger volunteer pattern. The BLM says campground hosts and other volunteers can help with one-time cleanup work or season-long service, including visitor information and facility maintenance. At Spring Recreation Site, that kind of hands-on presence is a practical part of keeping one of Baker County’s reservoir-side public recreation areas open, clean and usable as spring traffic builds toward summer.