Sean C. Morgan
The effort to turn the former Knife River/Morse Bros. quarry property, which may one day house the Oregon Jamboree, has boots on the ground – thanks to a bunch of local teens.
The South Santiam Youth Watershed Council is the first local group to put the property, which may one day house the Oregon Jamboree, to use. The youths are turning it into a gigantic living classroom, since Linn County foreclosed on the property at the end of 2010.
Student members of the council spent Friday morning observing and recording water levels and other data about the ponds located on the northern edge of the property, along the South Santiam River and the northern edge of Sweet Home.
Linn County is considering deeding the 220-acre property to the Sweet Home Economic Development Group. The property was previously owned by Western States Land Reliance Trust. Prior to that, it was owned by Knife River, formerly Morse Bros., which sold it to WSLRT.
Linn County foreclosed when WSLRT failed to pay property taxes for six years. The land represents approximately half of the property owned by WSLRT, which also included the former Willamette Industries Sweet Home Mill, owned by Weyerhaeuser prior to the sale to WSLRT.
WSLRT had planned to develop the properties for residential and commercial use.
Since then, at the urging of a commissioner, SHEDG requested that the Linn County Board of Commissioners deed the property to SHEDG.
SHEDG owns and operates the Oregon Jamboree as a fund-raising tool to pay for economic development projects. SHEDG officials hope to use what has become known as the Knife River property as camping for the Jamboree and then eventually as a permanent location for the Jamboree.
The SHEDG Property Committee and Linn County officials continue to hammer out legal details to allow the transfer of the property.
The Oreogn Department of Environmental Quality has indicated that the property poses no unacceptable risks and requires no further remedial action, said Rachel Kittson-MaQatish, who leads the Property Committee. SHEDG is finalizing a prospective purchaser agreement with the DEQ that provides additional security for SHEDG.
In the meantime, SHEDG and the county have allowed the Youth Watershed Council to begin working on the property.
Jamboree Festival Director Robert Shamek spent Friday morning with the small group of students on their second trip to the property.
“We just thought it was a unique opportunity for the students to get down on the property and do some observing of water levels,” Shamek said. SHEDG doesn’t have a lot of historical data about the site and its ponds.
The students will track what happens with water levels at the ponds, which are fed by the river itself, as well as surveying plant and animal species on the property, he said.
“The kids seem really excited to be at the property,” he said. “I was just curious to what they were actually doing.”
The teens used cameras, positioned using compass and GPS data, to photograph water levels at specific points.
“They look at both erosion and the foliage on the bank,” he said.
“We’re using the Knife River property as a kind of learning lab,” said Coordinator Angela Clegg. The students are monitoring six points with photography. They’ll monitor the water levels and its impacts over time on the banks.
As they travel to the site monthly, they’ll begin monitoring more. They’ll record temperatures and begin habitat surveys.
“It’s a big space,” Clegg said. “It’s like a big classroom.”
And it provides a variety of opportunities for activities, she said. Experts in birds, amphibians and more will join them to start cataloging what is on the property.
As the property is developed, possibly with trails, the Youth Watershed Council might install interpretive signs to tell visitors about features on the property, Clegg said.
What the council will do with the property is wide open, she said. “A lot of our projects are very specific.”
Shamek gave Clegg and Watershed Council Coordinator Eric Andersen a tour of the property early on, and the possibilities began emerging as they started talking about bank stabilization and improving the ponds.
“We can do this for years to come,” Clegg said. “With photo-point monitoring, we’ll have a history of change, a visual tool to see how an area changes. I’m very grateful to them for letting us do this. It’s literally our outdoor classroom.”