New Recreation Manager seeks to continue quality program with shrinking budget

Les Moscoso is the new recreation program manager at the Wenatchee River Ranger District. He comes from Rogue River/Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon. He’s been a recreation manager for the past 25 years. 

“I provide oversight and management of the recreation program which entails the wilderness program, trails, special use permitting, developed recreation: campgrounds, trailheads, day sites,” Moscoso said. 

He made the decision to come up here for two reasons. One, he’s been through this area a number of times and always thought it was spectacular country. If a job ever opened in the area, he thought that would give him the chance to see the area first hand. 

The second reason is because of his family in the Seattle area. He would like his 5-year old son to be closer to family. Moscoso has been with the district since late March, living in government quarters in Lake Wenatchee. 

The job, he said, is a challenge and busy, which he appreciates. 

“Everybody else loves this area too. Use is high. Demands are high. Expectations are high. It’s challenging but not overwhelming. I appreciate that people are here that love the area. There’s good ethics in regards to the resource. People respect it and take care of it,” Moscoso said. “The partners we are working with as well. There are a lot of good partners to help us with our mission, which is to provide good recreation opportunities for the public.”

For Moscoso, the biggest challenge is the budget. 

“I have a good staff here, very professional, very motivated, high quality. They make my job easy in that regard, somebody coming in new that doesn’t know the resources, as far as the on-the-ground stuff,” Moscoso said. “I have experience in the program, about 25 years of experience working as a recreation manager, so I know the ins and outs of recreation management aspect, but knowing the resource is key. I have good people here to help with that.”

The budget is a big challenge because things are always tight, he said. Moscoso said they must rely on a lot of outside sources for funding. Those pots are continually more and more competitive and shrinking. 

The challenge is trying to maintain the quality program with limited resources. With restricted budgets, he’s forced to maintain some things and not others. What is not going to get done? What are they going to do with less?

“In that regard, with our developed recreation program, the campgrounds and trailheads, we have a pretty good sized trail crew and a pretty good sized wilderness ranger crew. There are people in our developed recreation program, but it is not as large,” Moscoso said. “We do have partners. Thousand Trails has been partnering with us to operate a lot of our campgrounds and those that they aren’t operating, we still are. Those are ones we don’t frequent as much, so the standard level has gone down. I don’t like to see that. I want to maintain things to a quality standard for the public.”

Moscoso said they have several trail partners that help maintain and log their trails every year, such as the Washington Trails Association, the NW Youth Corps and locally, the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, which does a lot of the maintenance on the mountain bike trails. 

As a manager, Moscoso spends most of his time in the office, much more than he would like. 

“I just need to get out there and see my new ranger district to be of better service to the staff and the public,” he said. 

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.