CONCRETE — The Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Festival, which had attracted tourists to eastern Skagit County for the past 22 winters, has been canceled to ensure the Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center can remain open.

The board of directors of the Skagit River Bald Eagle Awareness Team, the nonprofit organization that operates both the interpretive center and the two-day festival, has only enough money for one of those, board President Judy Hemenway said Friday.

The recession has cut the amount of money donors and sponsors have given to the festival, she said.

“It’s tough,” Hemenway said. “It’s been awful to make this decision. … It’s going to hurt. The community’s going to hurt.”

Sponsors pulled out or reduced their level of support, with some diverting funds to social services charities, Hemenway said.

“So many of our donors and sponsors are feeding people and keeping the heat on,” she said.

Faced with dwindling donations and not knowing whether they could make up the difference, the board met Oct. 6 and decided to eliminate the festival, normally held at Concrete High School.

The board sent a letter Oct. 14 to its donors. The Skagit Valley Herald received a copy Friday.

“We just hope people who have supported us will continue to do so,” she said.

Each year the festival and the center have attracted about 10,000 people who come to see scores of bald eagles that arrive to dine on spawned out chum salmon carcasses. Most of the eagles are from Alaska and Canada and return home in the spring to breed.

The board’s decision was particularly painful because festival organizers had been planning for an increase in visitors because of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., Hemenway said.

Valerie Stafford, president of the Concrete Chamber of Commerce, said that her members understand the eagle board’s decision because the center brings visitors for three months and the festival is just for a weekend.

“We’re trying to be positive about it,” Stafford said. “What we hope to do is to keep something going in the spirit of the eagle festival. We’re not sure what that is.”

The festival costs $40,000, and the interpretive center in Rockport costs almost $35,000, Hemenway said. Puget Sound Energy, the board’s major sponsor, is continuing to support the center.

The major costs for the festival included table and chair rental, advertising, insurance and buses that ferry visitors to sites where they can watch eagles. The festival also paid for performers, some speakers and high school students to help with setup and cleanup, Hemenway said. The board considered ways to could cut costs at the festival.

“It still wasn’t going to be feasible,” she said.

The center will be open from mid- or late December through President’s Day weekend in February. Hemenway said that the board hopes to continue offering bus tours and raptor shows, as well as speakers and interpretive walks.

“We’re just looking at becoming a different organization for this winter,” Hemenway said.

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