Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Ranger District will soon begin construction of a new day use area at the intersection of Highway 20 and High Deck Road.
The project is one of a number of moves that are results of the Governor’s Solution’s Team meetings two years and, more recently, the Livability Initiative effort.
Both the Solutions Team, which has been replaced by the Sweet Home All-Lands Collaborative, and the Livability Initiative have brought together representatives of a wide variety of local, state and federal government agencies and community leaders to create, among other things, increased tourism and recreation opportunities in the area. The Solutions Team has worked toward establishing a community forest, a primary feature of which would be a trail linking Sweet Home to the Willamette National Forest.
The district has been working with National Parks Service employees to develop conceptual plans for that new trail system, and efforts continue to provide permanent management and protection for Cascadia Cave.
Officials shared the news with residents and visitors to Cascadia at a meeting on June 8 at Cascadia State Park, held to provide an update on the efforts of the Livability Initiative and SHALC/Solutions Team.
A recreation shuttle program, an initial result of the Livability Initiative, kicked off its first bus service from Sweet Home to Clear Lake Saturday, June 13.
Jon Meier, recreation planner with the Sweet Home Ranger District, said the trails project will be completed in phases.
Meier told a group of about 30 people, mostly Cascadia residents, in a meeting on Monday, June 8, that the National Parks team will develop a plan for the trail system. The first phase will run a trail from Sweet Home, roughly in the Clark Mill area, to Foster Lake.
The plan will identify locations for the trail, and when complete, officials will be able to talk to and work with property owners as well as go to the general public with a definite plan.
Planning up the South Santiam River will be less detailed, Meier said. Finding a place to run the trail between Foster Lake and Cascadia will be tricky, with steep terrain to the south of Highway 20 and nothing but the South Santiam River below to the north.
Meier said he has ridden his bike to Cascadia, and the path is really tight. To be cost-effective, the trail would need to include a highway easement in some places.
“It’ll be a pretty loose concept at this point,” Meier said, but “we’ll be able to build off the Parks Service plan.”
Day Use Area
The new day use area will be constructed to the west of High Deck Road between the South Santiam River and Highway 20, the site of the original Ranger Station. High Deck Road crosses the river over Short Bridge.
It will include parking and a new trail system, Meier said. A platform will provide a place to view Short Bridge from the side. The bridge is a part of the covered bridge route, but it is only easily viewed from its ends.
The day use area doesn’t provide access to the river there to discourage people from swimming and making noise there all day, Meier said. While people use it and will still use it as a swimming hole, based on residents’ feedback, the Forest Service didn’t want to encourage more of it.
Cascadia Cave
Cascadia Cave, a rocky overhang under which is located a wall full of petroglyphs important to local Native American tribes, has been one of the key areas of interest in the SHALC and Livability Initiative process. The site, located on private land, has been the subject of treasure hunters and vandals, and discussions have continued for years on how to best protect it while making it available to the public for viewing.
Participants and local tribes have identified its protection as a high priority, and efforts continue to find a way for property owner Cascadia Timber Consulting to swap the land with someone else, such as a government agency.
CTC is not interested in selling the property, said President Dave Furtwangler. It is interested in swapping the land. It’s something CTC has explored before, but while a swap is not imminent, a deal is closer than ever before.
CTC’s goal is to grow trees, Furtwangler said.
Officials have been talking to the local tribes, Siletz, Grand Ronde and Klamath, said Sweet Home District Ranger Cindy Glick. “And they all want to see it protected at the highest level of the law.”
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said it would make an exchange, Glick said, but it wouldn’t manage the site. Other options include the Forest Service, Parks Service or Bureau of Indian Affairs, although the tribes do not want the BIA to manage the site.
CTC may be able to exchange it to a third party faster than the federal government and make the process quicker and easier, Furtwangler said.
“We’re the closest to doing it as we’ve ever been,” Glick said.
“I feel cautiously optimistic,” Furtwangler said.
It’s one piece of a “cultural corridor,” Glick said, noting the existence of the nearby Santiam Wagon Road, the site of the Geisendorfer Hotel and the path of the first transcontinental race, held in 1905.
Recreation Shuttle
As part of this ongoing process, said Laura LaRoque, planning services manager, a recreation shuttle provided by the Linn County Shuttle program is running two buses into the forest seven weekends this summer.
It includes stops along the way to Clear Lake, including Cascadia State Park. The first bus of the day leaves Sweet Home at 8 a.m. A second bus leaves Sweet Home at 1 p.m. to bring people back to Sweet Home.
The bus stops at every campground and trailhead, LaRoque said. The service costs $5 round trip, making the forest more accessible to families that might not be able to afford a drive up the mountain or people who want to hike or bicycle.
Ken Bronson, who directs the Linn Shuttle bus program that is offering the service, said the initial “shake-down cruise” Saturday, June 13, went well.
“It was good,” he said. “Our biggest challenge will be getting the word out that we exist.”
Bronson said he rode the bus himself on Sunday with his bike to the junction of Highways 20 and 126, where he disembarked and rode his bike to Fish Lake, then down the mountain to Mountain House. He said he took his time on the 5½-hour trip.
“It worked out pretty well,” he said.