A Seattle web pioneer's planned Kalama area nature camp has cleared a significant land-use hurdle after his proposal was granted preliminary approval from a local quasi-judicial official — despite concerns raised about the area's remote, log-truck heavy location.
Cowlitz County Hearings Examiner Mark C. Scheibmeir largely approved plans to green light transforming a roughly 25-acre section of rural riverfront property into a private campground near Kalama to be known as Wandering River Retreat. His decision last month followed heavy scrutiny and numerous written and spoken comments between September and December.
The project, being developed by Jeremy Irish of Seattle, seeks to transform riverfront rural property at 4311 Kalama River Rd. into a 37-site private campground.
Irish is an entrepreneur who is best known for his early role founding the website that popularized the online-outdoor treasure hunting and exploration activity known as geocaching.
Wandering River, according to Irish's website, is "both a passion project and a part of his long-term retirement plan." He describes the private campground he wants to build as a "quiet riverside retreat" offering guests "peaceful stays, time in nature and a calm environment where guests can slow down and enjoy the outdoors."
The proposal for camping sites on 12.76 of his nearly 25 acres of land, however, attracted a groundswell of written and spoken public comments from neighbors, fish biologists and Weyerhaeuser raising concerns about the proposed campground's location.
In hearings conducted Sept. 15 and Dec. 4, the comments were wide-ranging. They touched on evacuation plans for a rural area described as 10 minutes from a cell signal and 30 minutes from the nearest fire truck, along the area being downriver from the Kalama Falls Fish Hatchery and close to private forestlands.
Irish's career included cofounding Geocaching.com in the early 2000s, which served as the first official website for the outdoor treasure hunting activity in which participants use coordinates and clues posted online to find logbooks and boxes of small trinkets hidden in public places.
The pastime first rose to popularity with the rise of GPS-enabled smartphones in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but it remains popular today. According to the Geocaching.com blog, more than 1.6 million participants around the world logged finding at least one geocache in 2025.
Irish's website describes the new venture off the Kalama River as another extension of his legacy building communities around "curiosity, discovery and time spent outside."
"As the owner of Wandering River and a pioneer in outdoor recreation, Jeremy Irish remains dedicated to exploring, protecting and celebrating the landscapes that have shaped his life," his website states. "His focus is on stewardship, community and creating a place where people can enjoy the outdoors responsibly and respectfully."
The proposal seeks to develop the 37 camping sites on 12.76 of the 23.54 acres that Irish owns on two parcels, according to the proposals and property records through the Cowlitz County Assessor's office.
As proposed, the camping spots include 10 elevated premanufactured geodesic pods, similar to clear yurts, known as Hypedomes; nine premanufactured cabins; four camping pods each containing spaces for three tents; four individual camping sites; and two spaces for recreational vehicles.
The land currently has a house, barn, shop structure and paved parking area. Irish's proposal calls for repurposing the house into a "caretaker residence" and redeveloping land — a portion of which is on a flood plain — into parking space for up to 43 vehicles.
The proposal also sought to transform the barn into an event center, a request Scheibmeir denied. He concluded that "no set of conditions can be imposed" that could make the event center compatible with the county's code for rural areas and highlighted the spotty cell service, the "narrow, winding dead-end road with substantial logging traffic," long distances from fire and emergency services, and the potential for "significant noise, light traffic and increased alcohol consumption into a secluded river valley where none of this currently exists."
A campground could be consistent with county code and the right ordinances and restrictions, the hearing examiner determined.
Those recommended restrictions include a prohibition on entering the river between March 1 and June 30 in order to protect spawning fish, and signage warning campers that use of the river beyond property boundaries is prohibited.
Because requests for an event center were denied, the findings instruct Irish to ensure the facility is not advertised or marketed as such in any way.
Further, it instructs any outdoor audio systems only be used for public service and emergency announcements. They "shall not be utilized for entertainment," the hearing examiners' finding show.
Scheibmeir issued his 53-page land-use determination on Dec. 16 granting the bulk of Irish's requests to develop on his rural property. More specifically, he approved a shoreline development permit, a conditional-use permit and a campground binding permit related to the project.
"More than most of this has been a thoroughly discussed application with tremendous amounts of articulate comments and understandable concerns as well as good responses," Scheibmeir said near the conclusion of the Dec. 4 hearing. "This has been thoroughly thought through."
Scheibmeir has been the county's hearings examiner for the past 20 years and is a practicing Lewis County land-use lawyer. He carefully scrutinized the plans for Wandering River while listening to residents' concerns, but he emphasized during the Sept. 15 that his decisions were focused solely on ensuring that the proposed campground fit within county code and local land-use laws.
"This is not a political process, it is a legal process," Scheibmeir said.
His approvals are not the final word, but they followed roughly five hours combined of hearings at the county administration building along with dozens of written comments.
Scheibmeir's decision on the requested Shoreline Substantial Development Permit will be referred for review to the state Department of Ecology, and his decision on a requested shoreline conditional-use permit serves as a recommendation to the Department of Ecology.
However, his decision on the campground binding site plan is a county decision, and thus disagreements or grievances must be filed with the county under the Land Use Petition Act.
