The camping season is well underway at Hendy Woods State Park and visitors and locals alike are enjoying the recently renovated Day Use Area. Hendy Woods Community is again sponsoring the Second Sunday free day use entry for local people. We will pay the day use entry fee for residents of Yorkville, Boonville, Philo, Navarro, Comptche, and Elk. To take advantage of this offer, know your zip code! Hendy Woods is Anderson Valley’s only large public open space and we feel strongly that everyone should have access to the park regardless of their ability to pay a fee. The program was very popular last summer and we look forward to another great year.
We are thrilled to be able to report that the waterline replacement project is complete and it has made a huge difference! The water that comes out of the faucets is clear! Wow, how about that! Also, there has been no need to shut down campsites or other facilities because of pipe break flooding—quite an improvement. State Senator Mike McGuire and Assembly Member Jim Wood were instrumental in getting this project off the sidelines and onto the home run tally. We owe their staffers Kerrie Lindecker and Ruth Valenzuela a big Thank You as well.
Replacing the big water holding tank will happen after this camping season concludes. The tank is already on site so there is no going back! We are confident the project will be completed as designed.
On another really good note, the Sector found some money to do an interim fix on the awful bathrooms in the Wildcat campground loop. Toilets were replaced, the key to the project. Stalls were also replaced and the walls and floors painted. A huge improvement! The Sector still has to find some money to replace the roofs, which are probably the original wood shake from 1963 based on the looks of them. The moss is basically holding the shakes together.
The park’s seasonal staff is up and running and we will have a new ranger in the Fall after he completes his training with our current ranger Natasha Morris, who has taken a transfer to elsewhere in the Sector. Unfortunately, our own organization’s cadre of volunteers has been heavily impacted by health issues, both the volunteers’ and their families’. We are actively working to rebuild our volunteer base. Please give us a call at 895-3746 or send a message from the website HendyWoods.org if you have time to help out. Possibilities include leading interpretive walks, staffing the Visitor Center, and helping with invasive weed eradication.
We would love to be able to say that the permanent Maintenance position has been filled, but the Sector has so far been unable to get approval to fill the position. Our long-time maintenance person died a year ago April and had also been out on sick leave the previous summer. With all the wonderful improvements that have been made in the last couple of years, it would be a real shame if things were allowed to deteriorate for lack of a consistent eye on maintenance. We are truly hoping that approval for the hire will happen immediately after the beginning of the new fiscal year July 1.
We hope to host a visit this summer with Acting District Superintendent Mike Lair, who was appointed after the tragic accidental death of Superintendent Liz Burko. We think it is important for him to see what a wonderful park we have at Hendy Woods. He is based at the District office in Duncan’s Mills, Sonoma County.
Come take a walk at Hendy Woods, on the trails, in the old growth Redwood Groves, or along the river. You can bike along the roads too. Although paying the day use fee or coming on the subsidized Second Sundays of the month will get you much closer to Big Hendy Grove, you can always park at the Greenwood Road bridge and walk or bike in for free. Little Hendy Grove is not far from the bridge. It’s a beautiful day in the park no matter how you arrive!
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