Conservation note for May
Conservation Note: Trailkeepers of Oregon
As the spring hiking season kicks off, many of us will be heading for the Gorge. Therefore we are featuring the Trailkeepers of Oregon (TKO) in more detail this month. It is because of TKO, The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) folks, and our own US Forest Service, that trails have been repaired and reopened after the Eagle Creek fire. I volunteered with TKO for trail work on Public Lands Day, and was impressed by how friendly, how efficient, and how much fun their work crews are, and how welcoming TKO is to volunteers of all ages and skill levels. I have signed up for their Tread School in May, to learn more about trail maintenance and repair. When I set my foot on a Gorge trail now, I know what went into making it a trail I can walk along and enjoy. I asked TKO Board President, Paul Gerald, to give me a brief description of the TKO mission and their work:
Trailkeepers of Oregon began as an idea in 2007, when a group of hikers who met on oregonhikers.org decided to reopen an abandoned trail on Mount Hood. That trail was the Old Vista Ridge Trail, which leads to several viewpoints north of the mountain, and it was under the threat of a proposed off-road vehicle area. These hardy folks cleared more than a hundred logs so that people could enjoy the trail and views once again — and also keep the motorcycles out.
They liked trail work and advocacy so much they started a new nonprofit, and TKO was officially born in 2008. For the next 9 years it was a scrappy little all-volunteer outfit, which eventually came to own and operate oregonhikers.org and the Field Guide there. Then, in 2017 — with financial support from REI — TKO decided to hire its first Executive Director, a former Oregon State Parks ranger named Steve Kruger. And right after Steve started, the Eagle Creek fire took off, raising the profile of our scrappy little nonprofit to levels we never dreamed of.
In 2018, TKO performed 259 work parties with 2,491 volunteers covering 140,109 feet of trail; that’s more than a marathon of trails! Many of those were — and continue to be — in the Eagle Creek Burn Area, but we continue to expand our reach beyond northwest Oregon. The momentum and growth at TKO are astonishing, and they are confirmation of a few things we always believed: that there is a tremendous hunger for a statewide trail organization in Oregon, that our trails need work and support, and that there exists an army of volunteers and other supporters who have been waiting to strap on their work boots, write a check or just show up for a meeting on behalf of Oregon’s trails and trail users.
If you are one of those people, and you would like to support TKO’s mission “to protect and enhance the Oregon hiking experience through advocacy, stewardship, outreach and education,” head over to trailkeepersoforegon.org to join, donate, sign up for a trail party or our annual Tread School at Mount Hood in May, or find some other way to help us give back to the Oregon trails that have given us so much.
Participants heading out on the Salmon Butte trail at the 2018 TKO Tread School. Photo by TKO board member and volunteer Cheryl Hill
On a related note, Ralph Bloemers of Crag Law Center will be repeating his presentation on the Eagle Creek fire, Challenging Our Beliefs to Meet the Challenges of Wildfire, which he gave at Patagonia last month. This will be at Mazama Mountaineering Center at 527 SE 43rd Avenue in Portland on Friday May 17th from 7-8:30 p.m. Trailkeepers is featured in some of the film clips. I attended the presentation at Patagonia, and highly recommend it. Hope to see you there!
Wishing you all the enjoyment of spring in the woods, in the mountains, on the trails!
For the love of our forests, mountains, streams, rivers, and wetlands,
Your Conservation Committee