Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission visits South Beach
Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 23, 2025
Recently, six of the seven members of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission visited all three state parks in the South Beach area — Grayland Beach State Park, Twin Harbors and Westport Light State Park.
The Commission, appointed by the governor, consists of Chair Laurie Connelly, Vice Chair Holly Williams, Secretary Ali Raad, Michael Latimer, Sophia Danenberg, Scott Merriman, Alfie Alvarado-Ramos and Diana Dupuis. All but Raad made the trip.
The purpose of the visit was to bring the Commission up to speed on planning, projects and development, as well as discuss issues facing the parks including flooding at the Twin Harbors campground ranger station. The Commission had the opportunity to meet with mayor of Westport, Ed Welter, as well as park staff including area managers.
According to the executive director of the Westport South Beach Historical Society, John Shaw, it was important for the Commission to see park issues first hand.
“Twin Harbors was recognized in the old days as one of the top tier parks in the state, and now it’s just a ghost (compared) to what it used to be,” Shaw said. “It’s a wonderful park, but it now has problems with its trees.”
The Commission visited Grayland Park and got a look at where the new mechanical shop is going to be and discussed what’s happening at Westport Light State Park, including the Westport Golf Links project environment.
Staff members answered questions from the Commission on several topics. Half the group took a tour of the 107-foot-tall Grays Harbor Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in Washington state, and surveyed the park from the lantern room.
“It was a really great event for everybody to get boots on the ground. It is very much informational for the Parks Commission. You’ve got a group of commissioners who need to understand or want to understand what’s going on in these parks. The South Beach is pretty unique in an area, a small area to have three mainline state parks,” Shaw said. “There’s a real commitment and at times it feels like we need them to focus on what’s going on there and on the beach. The beach is also a really interesting interface where it’s dynamic for them. What does the future look like? What does the future look like when we’re having these discussions about erosion, sea level rise, and the environment when they own several miles of Pacific oceanfront? The south side is predominantly where State Parks has a position and they also have a position purely on seashore conservation and what’s going to happen to protect the beaches.”
Washington has more than 140 state parks, historic sites, trails, marine parks and properties and the Commission helps guide the policies that steer the agency. The Westport/South Beach area is home to three of the nine state parks located in Grays Harbor County.
