The type of place that most people in Oregon go to is the county park.
There are fishing ponds, horseshoe pits, and access to the sparkling water of Foster Reservoir at the 160-site campground.
Park officials said that this summer was not as tranquil as in the past due to the demand for campsites.
"Campsite pirates" reserved sites as their own. The original parties were confused and angry when they showed up and found that their campsite had been occupied.
First-come, first-served campsites caused tension. The question of who arrived first was a problem for the rangers. The director for Linn County Parks and Recreation stated that two people threw punches.
The people were fighting over campsites. A lot of people were not able to get to their campsite this year. It seems like there is less general courtesy.
Interviews with rangers and land managers show that there is growing anger and sometimes violence at Oregon's crowded campgrounds.
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department reported assaults and harassment of park rangers had increased to the point that they would seek legislation to give rangers added protection and increase the penalty for attacking them.
Rangers have reported being attacked by dogs and being followed by campers with guns. There was graffiti that said "die rangers" in a bathroom at State Capitol State Park.
Dennis Benson is the recreation manager for the Deschutes National Forest. 10% of the population doesn'tComply or adhere with rules, regulations, those kinds of things, which is lending itself to more problematic behaviors on public lands
Over the course of a decade, demand for campsites in Oregon has grown sharply, but hasn't let up, and often leaves a shortfall of available spots.
With the state's population boom, the number of campers has grown rapidly, but campsite capacity hasn't kept up in popular areas. Since 1972, just three new campgrounds have been opened in Oregon.
Demand for campsites is increasing and supply is declining.
The result has been a lot of sold-out campsites, along with the usual story of people waking early to reserve a campsite.
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department had a record year last year with an estimated 53.6 million day visits and 3.02 million campers who stayed overnight. Chris Havel is an associate director of the state Parks and Recreation Department.
"This summer we have been extremely busy, at 98% capacity, which basically means you might find a night here or there, but basically everything is taken." There is a lot of people new to camping this year. We are going to stay busy because the trend of people coming out for the first time is continuing.
There is a mix of sites open to reservations and first-come, first-served, with the idea of allowing for impromptu trips or planning options.
When all the reservation sites are taken in advance and people show up for a limited number of first-come sites, there can be trouble.
A growing number of people who have packed up their boat, trailer, camping gear and kids become desperate.
People take down tags for already-reserved campsites and replace them with their own. It's like taking a reservation card off a campsite and using it to your advantage.
It was very rare in the past. Has there been a dispute? That happened before. It wasn't on the scale that we saw this year.
People taking over campsites that have been reserved for someone else have been mentioned in posts in Facebook groups. Most campgrounds have a host, so campground piracy is rare.
Park staff could help resolve disputes. Campers were left to handle disputes on their own this summer because of a labor shortage at many Oregon campgrounds.
We rely on the public to be honorable because we don't have staff in more remote campgrounds.
Over the last three years, the interactions that our staff are having with the public have been difficult. People are angry and that is affecting our employees.
Kade Pulliam is a park Ranger. He worked at a number of parks this summer and said he has seen people become more frustrated.
Pulliam said, "Not everybody that's come and disrespected a Ranger really has it out for us rangers." They take their anger and frustration out on us when they are upset with something outside.
Havel said there are two trends in Oregon's state parks. By the law of large numbers, there are more encounters over rules violations since there are more people.
According to Havel, there is an increase in situations where people disagree with our rangers in ways that include threatening physical violence and sometimes following through. Rangers have been hit. Sometimes it is a person who is angry and threatening them in a very intense way. It's not an enormous number of incidents but it's growing and we see it as a critical issue.
According to Havel, the state Parks and Recreation Department is looking for a state legislator to introduce a bill next session that would give added protections to rangers by increasing the penalty for assault.
Most of Oregon's campgrounds are controlled by reservations during the height of summer.
Park staff can easily track who has rightful access to a campsite, and it eliminates the confusion associated with first-come, first-served sites. Havel said that disputes over campsites were limited this summer.
There aren't big lineups at the park entrance and there are no people rushing to get a campsite and running into other people also looking for a campsite because almost all of our summer camping is by reservation. The state park system takes care of it in advance.
It is not flawless. There are no first-come, first-served sites. It is possible for people to make summer plans in winter before they know about issues like weather or sickness. There is evidence that people don't use campsites. According to Outside Magazine, only half of the campgrounds are full.
Less than 1% of reservations at Oregon state parks don't show up, so that hasn't been a problem. In other parts of the state, no-shows have been a problem.
Oregon's outdoor boom has put stress on everyone. The situation is likely to continue because of limited options and funds.
"People are loving the outdoors to death, and I think we're at the point where, at least locally, that's come home" We were having difficulty meeting the demand because people were loving it.
Makenzie is an outdoors intern. She can be reached at MElliott@Salem.gannett.
He has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years. The Statesman Journal is a good place to subscribe. He can be reached at theStatesmanJournal.com He can be found on the social media site, at www.zacsORoutdoors.
The article was originally published in Salem Statesman Journal.
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