To Protect & Preserve the Outdoor Experience
By Scott Penzarella
Pioneering is nothing new to Sisters Country, and the Sisters Trails Alliance seeks to lead the way on responsible recreation. Our organization’s work is planning, building, preserving, and maintaining trails, but our reason for doing this work is our deep connection to our wildlands and wildlife. We’ve been thinking about the undeniable connection between recreation, and our impact, which can harm wildlands and wildlife. As trail stewards, we’re thinking about how we can help preserve nature through recreation.
Cold, clean water, an essential for the perfect fly fishing experience
As we’ve read lately in the Nugget, our respected local paper, there’s no one accepted, or proven, strategy in the ‘fight’ to protect our forests and our recreational experience. At times, we must lean on our personal experiences to guide us. Last spring, I departed the Pole Creek parking lot on my way to ski the Middle Sister and lamented the lack of shade at the end of the suddenly hot and sunny day. The area had been affected by a high intensity fire just over 20 years ago. Post fire, many saw the forest as dead, but now, years later, without salvage logging (that is, post fire logging and spray treatments), we see how the forest has recovered and we relish in the abundance of birds, flowers, and regrowth. It’s remarkable how quickly a forest can restore itself even after the worst forest fires. With a greater focus on ecological restoration vs. vegetation management that is tied to commercial logging, our forest can thrive and so will our experiences.
Cold, snowy days at Jeff View Shelter, something to cherish.
STA sees its success in recreational stewardship in relation to nature’s success. We can’t comfortably recreate without thermal cover during hot days, and we certainly can’t fish or hunt if few healthy fish swim in our creeks and rivers or low mule deer populations roam our lands. It’s been pointed out over and over that subsidized commercial logging under the guise of fire risk makes forests drier, hotter and more susceptible to climate change in general. The protection of our larger ecosystem is a critical component to the recreational experience on our network of trails and wildlands. To protect our local ecosystem (here on our trails) we must also demand more of our partners who manage it. One particular logging project here in Sisters backcountry has been brought to our attention. This project may irreversibly destroy one of Sisters Country’s most pristine areas where an abundance of wildlife, including the Northern Spotted Owl, reside. This is Green Ridge, an area that has been earmarked for “thinning and restoration,” which includes the commercial logging and removal of 5.25 million board feet of mature and old trees.
Protecting safe, quiet enjoyment.
Over the past few years, Central Oregon Land Watch, Oregon Wild, Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project, and other organizations and individuals have voiced their formal objections to the Green Ridge logging project directly with the Forest Service. Many have even asked the local Forest Service to vacate the project, in hopes of bringing a more restorative, ecologically-friendly approach to the land. Upon reviewing the objections and getting up to speed, STA has also expressed deep concern over the lack of transparency with the project details, and the general lack of public understanding. What does “thinning and restoration” actually mean and how will it affect the Green Ridge area in particular? From the presence of one (and maybe more, per a recent discovery) of the last remaining Northern Spotted Owls in Sisters Country to the loss of old, mature trees, the outdoor experience for anyone who hikes, bikes, rides horses, bird watches, mushroom hunts, fishes, or hunts in general will be greatly affected.
We’ve found that our public forests are being lost to constant pressure and, in some cases, unnecessary logging of medium and large trees, directly impacting the outdoor recreation experience of our members, not to mention the impacts on wildlife. As such, we’ve also asked our partners at the Forest Service to vacate the Green Ridge project and work with the multiple objectors to explore a rewilding project so current and future generations can recreate in ways we enjoy today. If these thinning and restoration projects are not about the money or the corresponding jobs anymore, but rather about “forest health,” then we would ask our public officials to vacate the commercial logging portion of the project and focus rather on the promoted task at hand.
The question that continues to surface is what does it mean to be a responsible recreationist? What role does STA play in deciding how our public forests are being managed in light of our other working relationship with the Forest Service?
There’s a unique opportunity for the Sisters community and all of its recreationists to protect and preserve a small sliver of the wild, unmanaged area called Green Ridge. We believe our partners at the Forest Service have the best intentions in mind and can work with the public and the objectors specifically to vacate or severely alter this commercial logging project. Please join us so we can protect your outdoor experience now: Become a member, make a donation, and write a letter to the local forest manager to show your support of our work and concern for the protection of your outdoor experience.
