Back in 2006, opponents scuttled the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ plans to build a “nature inn” at Erie Bluffs State Park.
That hardly was the end of the matter for the DCNR.
The state’s first “nature inn” — that is, a $7.5 million, 18,500-square-foot, for-profit hotel on taxpayer-owned land — had its grand opening today at Bald Eagle State Park. Cost for rooms ranges from $110 to $300.
This is considered a pilot project. Sierra Club Pennsylvania indicated plans also have been discussed for an inn at Parker Dam State Park in Clearfield County. Earlier attempts to place them in S.B. Elliott State Park in Clearfield County and Prince Gallitzin State Park in Cambria County were shot down by the DCNR itself.
Pennsylvania’s state parks are held in trust for the people of the state. According to Section 27 of the state Constitution:
“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and (a)esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
These lands belong to residents, not to government officials. The notion that the money generated from inns and other private entities is necessary to fund the parks is a laughable, cyclical argument; once infrastructure is built, of course upkeep is needed. But the state parks and other public lands in their native (or at least second-growth) skins are the draw. Bald Eagle State Parks’ inn boasts of Blu-Ray players. How about blue sky?
I’ve stayed at aged hotels in our grand national parks. I plan to do so again. But I’d argue against any proposal to put up new buildings. Modern convenience isn’t the reason I visit national or state parks. The occasional glance around suggests other visitors aren’t in it for in-room movie rentals either.
Pay-to-play fees arrived at federal and state recreation sites over the past two decades. Pay-to-stay ought not to get the same chance in Pennsylvania’s public lands.