State Parks: Bear Arms And Bare Buns? -- Panel Considers Nude Beach, Guns For Rangers

ISSAQUAH - The topics were as diverse as the audience: creating nude beaches and arming park rangers.

But as unlikely as it might seem, the impassioned 50 or so people who packed the usually staid state Park Commission meeting yesterday had one thing in common: They were a sign of changing times in the state's 125 parks.

Most notable were the many park rangers in the crowd at Tibbett's Creek Manor, each with a story of interaction with a public now more inclined to experience the great outdoors in tandem with drugs, alcohol, violence and related crimes.

The 250 park rangers in the state park systems are commissioned law-enforcement officers within the boundaries of the park. Unlike other officers, they carry batons and pepper spray but no guns.

In the 35 states that have park rangers with law-enforcement commissions, only Michigan and Washington don't give their park officers guns, the rangers testified. Other states have civilian park rangers without police authority.

Although there hasn't been a park-ranger fatality in the state, the rangers urged the commission not to wait any longer before training them in the use of weapons and arming them.

Ranger Jerry Johnson of Curlew State Park, near Spokane, told of stopping a car with four gang members and arresting one for an outstanding warrant.

"I was scared," he said. "A firearm would be the save-all. I'm a person who wants to keep the park beautiful, a person who wants to be Mr. Friendly." But, he added, the commissioners should either make the park rangers civilians - with no requirements to enforce the law - or give them guns.

Michael Wood, Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act manager for the state Department of Labor, told the commission his department may even cite the commission for unsafe labor conditions if it does not arm the rangers.

He said The Evergreen State College campus police were unarmed. But after being issued three citations for hazardous working conditions Evergreen opted to arm its officers, he said.

However, Cleve Pinnix, Park Commission director, warned that the cost of arming and training could be so high it could force park closures. Already, many of the state parks have reduced staffing and are closed parts of the year, he said.

And Commissioner Melvin Wortman asked whether arming park rangers would change their public image from "Smokey Bears" to "Wyatt Earps."

The Park Commission yesterday also heard testimony on allowing some beaches to be designated clothing optional.

"Used to be a lady didn't even dare show her ankle," said Commissioner Clyde Anderson. "What about morality?" he asked a woman who specifically asked that a portion of Clayton Beach in Larrabee State Park, south of Bellingham, be designated clothing optional.

She, like physician Lloyd Sparks and many others, argued that nude sunbathing, volleyball and barbecues were family activities and not lewd conduct.

"If I were on a beach watching a sunset, would I be more offended by a nude body or a person on a motorized watercraft?" Commissioner Mickey Fearn mused.

The majority of the testimony was in favor of the clothing-optional beach. Many of the speakers are members of the nudist Naturist Society, which has lobbied for a clothing-optional beach for the past three years.

The commission will continue to study the issues when it reconvenes today.

Nancy Bartley's phone message number is 206-515-5039. Her e-mail address is: nbar-new@seatimes.com