The U.S. Forest Service proposed a project to improve heavily used trails west of Bend and Sunriver. The proposal includes a variety of suggested improvements aimed at connecting and improving trails in the area. The Forest Service is accepting public comments on the project through April 13.
The package proposes changes to several areas of the popular trail system that starts on the west edge of Bend and extends west to areas around Mt. Bachelor. The West Bend Trails project would add approximately 17.5 miles of new system trail to provide better connectivity and increase the types of trail opportunities.
It would also reroute 8.8 miles of trail to improve confusing intersections and trail sustainability, and decommission approximately 17 miles of unauthorized trail to make the areas safer for wildlife.
According to Kaitlyn Webb with the Deschutes National Forest, the changes will create opportunities for trail users of all types, including hikers, mountain bikers, skiers and others. The Deschutes National Forest proposed this project due to the heavy use of the trail system.
“Really, the goal of the project is to provide quality, trail-based recreation opportunities for all types of users and experience levels while minimizing disturbance and negative impacts to other resources like wildlife,” said Webb.
Some of the proposed changes include rerouting sections of trails such as Pine Drops and Swampy Loop, and adding a formal connector trail between Shevlin Park and Phil’s Trail. A few new connectors would allow people to put trails together in new and different ways and create shorter or longer loops. One of the proposed actions includes a new trail that would create a route between Swampy and Wanoga sno parks, providing trail connectivity and loop options. Another new trail, Ridge Loop, would provide system connectivity and loop options out of the Swampy area.
According to Webb, people also want more winter fatbike trails, and more variety. The proposal would create a new trail, Yeti Winter Fat Bike Trail, adding 5 miles of trail, providing more diverse terrain and challenge just southwest of Kiwa Butte.
Central Oregon Trail Alliance staff and volunteers have been working with the Forest Service and advocating for a lot of these changes, said Emmy Andrews, COTA’s executive director. On this project, COTA has worked closely with wildlife biologists on staff at the Forest Service and other natural resource specialists to discuss ways to improve the recreation experience.
The package also proposes creating more advanced trails, which is something COTA, which advocates for and helps to maintain and build trails, gets lots of requests for, said Andrews. Improvements would offer more challenging terrain, increasing steepness and technical trail features for mountain bikers.
COTA is particularly excited about the upgrades at Wanoga Sno-Park, a popular mountain bike hub and a good place to practice skills, Andrews said.
The proposal would add approximately 5.3 miles of new trail to the incomplete mountain bike route on the unnamed butte above Wanoga Snow Play. These new trails, including multiple downhill trails, feature varying levels of difficulty.
“We’re looking for ways that we can incorporate more downhill and technical trails so that we can meet that need for the growing demand for that here with mountain bike populations,” said Webb.
The Forest Service is constantly evaluating what the needs are in a certain area, what types of user conflicts are present and how to improve recreation opportunities. Oftentimes, the public will make suggestions for ideas or opportunities to improve recreation. “We take that into account when we’re thinking about planning and future opportunities for trail improvement,” said Webb.
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This article appears in Source Weekly April 4, 2024.
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If you truly want trail improvement there needs to be accountability by the US Forest personnel, in particular Kevin Larkin and Holly Jewkes for allowing China Hat to be destroyed by people living in the forest. They also are letting Phil’s trail get destroyed by opening the gates and allowing people to live there from April 1-December 1. I have been an advocate for keeping the gates shut at Phil’s Trail due to the major destruction occurring at Phil’s Trail and there has been zero enforcement of stays over 14 days. They lie to the public about citing people but there are no citations happening at either location. I have a petition online to close the gates with over 3,400 signatures from strictly local residents and recreational users as they also see the misuse and destruction going on out there to include, black water dumping, destruction of the forest floor, disruption in animal behavior and destruction of their habitats, trash, micro-plastics, plastics and leaving behind all their obsolete items including furniture, speeding on fire roads and on the forest floor. I have over 500 pictures and videos of this evidence. If our public truly wants beautiful trails, connectivity and to be able to recreate peacefully, start holding our US Forest Personnel accountable to do the foundational work first.
Nicole, the problem isn’t going to get resolved anytime soon because NO ONE is willing to define exactly what this problem actually is. Kevin Larkin and Holly Jewkes are blind as everyone else. Public lands are getting destroyed. Why? Drugs! This is NOT a homeless (Lord help them, we cannot displace these unfortunate folks) issue.
This is a DRUG issue. Until people have the stones to admit that, nothing will change. The people that can put and end to destruction of public lands are too afraid to properly label this problem.
The time will come when we look back on what we let happen to public lands and our city and we will be ashamed and dumbfounded.
I agree with you Dragon to some extent but it’s not solely drugs. It’s drugs, mental illness (which came first the chicken or the egg) and a generation of people with entitlement issues and this creates the unhoused population. It is not only Kevin and Holly but our Bend City Council, Deschutes County Commissioners, Sheriff’s Department and City of Bend PD that all need to work together, put aside their agendas and political affiliations and treat this a a community issue. I have had in person meetings, letters, emails etc with all of these so called leaders and they all point the finger to one another and blame politics . They are not effective leaders. The lower barrier non accountable model is not working for the unhoused. They need to build a proper high barrier facility to help these folks with drug, addiction and mental health issues. We need to treat this from the root causes or it will just get worse. Non-profits that help these folks are still businesses and service providing is a huge money maker. Low barrier simply keeps them oppressed and doesn’t work. I am ready to move out of Bend as I feel overwhelmed watching this beautiful place get ruined by people who have not a clue of how to build a city. It’s heartbreaking to watch.
Bend does not need any more trails. Wild animals are already struggling to survive in the Deschutes National Forest because they are currently corralled by trails and roads . They are limited to tiny areas of undisturbed forest or forced to go into town. With these proposed new trail developments you will continue to encroach on their ever shrinking habitat. These are wild animals , not livestock, and they should not be herded around to appease some MT Biking community.
I was born in Bend in 1996 and have spent thousands of hours in the Deschutes forest. I have seen this problem getting worse and worse with each passing year. As more people move to Bend, deer fawns, elk calfs, coyote and fox pups, frogs, lizards , jackrabbits, wild turkey poults among many other wild animals, are assailed and murdered by hikers’ domestic dogs. Not to mention all of the wild animals that go crashing through the woods to escape mt bikers often resulting in collisions with cars , mt bikers, or unnecessarily exposing themselves to predators such as cougars or birds of prey.
Why would you need to create more trails that parallel pre existing ones? Shouldn’t the Forest Service prioritize the decommissioning of unauthorized trails to protect wildlife. And it seems that 90 % of these “trail upgrades” are for mountain bikers , rather than hikers and nordic skiers. One would have to assume that Visit Bend is donating money to COTA in an effort to make Bend a Mt. Biking Mecca to boost tourism. Don’t make accessing the woods easier at the expense of wildlife.
If these folks can’t figure out how to connect Phil’s trail to the back of Shevlin Park, maybe they shouldn’t be in the woods in the first place. And if they get lost at Dillion Falls because they cant follow the river they probably should just stick to walking or biking around the Old Mill. Learn to read a map or operate a gps and then go into the woods ,Not the other way around.
There is plenty of trails in the Deschutes Forest, no more are needed.