This past summer beginning in September, the Bachelor Complex fires, in particular the Little Lava Fire (15,541 acres) and Lucky Butte Fire (548 acres), burned a large swath of forest from Sheridan Mountain, just south of Mt. Bachelor, to the Edison Sno-Park along River Summit Drive (Forest Service Road 45). The 30 total fires forming the Bachelor Complex were lightning-caused and grew rapidly due to winds and dry conditions. Because of these fires, the Deschutes National Forest issued a temporary emergency closure for the Edison Sno-Park for this winter.
“That fire got in there fairly late in the season, and then the snow came,” said Kevin Stock, Bend-Fort Rock District ranger for the DNF. “Our chance to get in and survey hazards was pretty limited.” With the fire burning a lot of organic material that got down into cracks in the old lava folds, the fire hasn’t been declared out as of late December. “People mucking around in there might have a bad outcome, especially those with a dog,” added Stock.
The Edison Sno-Park sits at a little over 5,000 feet in elevation and has an extensive network of winter ski, snowshoe and snowmobile trails that are maintained by volunteers with the Central Oregon Nordic Club and Moon Country Snowbusters. This sno-park is also popular with dog owners who like to ski or snowshoe the trails with their dogs.
“The fire and loss of Edison for the season is very disappointing, especially with 8.5 miles of dog-friendly snowshoe trails being impacted and/or taken offline,” said Bob Timmer, CONC volunteer. Timmer and other volunteers maintain snowshoe trails throughout the DNF and had been working with the Forest Service on some trail reroutes in the Edison area.
“Fire is our main disturbance here in Central
Oregon, which the forests are adapted to. Now we, the population that lives
here, also has to adapt when a fire occurs.”
In addition to the loss of trail signage and trees falling over the trails, the old Edison Shelter burned in the fire — not a total loss since it was slated to be demolished.
“Before the fire, we were working with the Forest Service to determine a good location for the new shelter, since the location of the old shelter was not good from a defensible space point of view,” said Sue Sullivan, CONC vice president. “Now that the area has been burned, we will likely start from scratch to determine where to site the new shelter.”
The mixed severity of the wildfires in the Edison area will also have a lasting impact on snow conditions in the future.
“With this being a lower elevation sno-park, the tree cover has provided valuable shade that helped to retain snow cover,” said Sullivan. “Even once we clear the downed trees and re-establish the markers and junction signs, that lack of shade may result in a shorter ski and snowshoe season for this trail system.”
Fortunately, the Bachelor Complex fires did not impact the AC/DC Shelter (named for electrical currents, not for the Australian rock band formed in 1973), which is accessed by either the Edison or Kapka Butte sno-parks.
“The AC/DC Shelter is open and trails out of there to the north are open, but anything heading south towards the sno-park is closed,” said Stock. “Basically, if you’re surrounded by black trees, you’re in the fire perimeter closure.”
The Forest Service is concerned that dog owners may start using some of the sno-parks north of the Cascade Lakes Highway, such as Vista Butte, which is currently closed to dogs. “That’s just a wide-open conflict there with snowmobiles, and we don’t want to see any animals get hurt or cause conflicts with users,” added Stock. Dog-friendly trails may be accessed at the Wanoga and Skyliners sno-parks, as well 6 Mile and 10 Mile sno-parks along the road to Newberry Volcano.
“Our plan is to get in there next spring when the snow melts off and survey the trees and see what type of workload we’re looking at and removing the imminent hazards, especially those hazards along the trails,” said Stock. The DNF wants to have a reasonable expectation that the trails through the recreational portion of the area will be safe, but realize that there will be hazard trees within the whole area that will fall over time.
“Fire is our main disturbance here in Central Oregon, which the forests are adapted to. Now we, the population that lives here, also has to adapt when a fire occurs,” said Stock.
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 16, 2025.
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The article states “The AC/DC Shelter is open and trails out of there to the north are open, but anything heading south towards the sno-park is closed,” but I am unaware of any trails heading north from the AC/DC shelter. Can someone clarify this statement, that is, how to access the shelter when the Edison SnoPark is closed?
The information about the AC/DC shelter is from the Forest Service and mostly pertained to snowmobile trails. There are not any marked ski or snowshoe trails to the shelter from the Kapka sno-park, yet. The CO Nordic Club and Forest Service are working on that.. Sorry about the confusion, should have mentioned the Kapka sno-park access.