State releases Salmonberry Corridor Draft Concept Plan, opens comment period

Hopefully it won’t become a meth tweaker camp refuge.

I wouldn’t call an overgrown clearcut with miles of steel rails left to rust on top of creosote soaked wood “paradise.”

Given how much higher rainfall in the coast range is compared to Portland a surface treatment seems like a good idea, and it will probably be easier to pave it once rather than keep gravel from washing away.

The stormwater and human use impacts of trail development are an important issue. The Salmonberry is home to a relatively healthy population of Wild Steelhead and provides vital habitat for North Coast salmon populations. It would be tragic if this leads the Samonberry watershed to be loved to death.

But this may be a case where trail development and even some hardscaping actually can be a net environmental improvement if smart design can heal the open wounds of the existing degraded and eroding rail line. I hear and hope they are going to realign the trail away from the creek and do some active restoration where there have been repeated (or potential) washouts of the rail line.

And I think trail development along the Salmonberry can be a more environmentally friendly economic boom to Columbia and Tillamook Counties, more than most of the alternatives.

Still I hope that trail development sticks to a single alignment without side trails, meets the highest standards for environmental mitigation, and invests in restoration in order to ensure a net environmental improvement for the Salmonberry Watershed over the longterm.

Jim

I have been mountain biking in this area for almost 20 years. In many places the tracks are very overgrown. It would be slow going. There are also places close to the Salmonberry river west of Cochran where the tracks are completely washed out and impassible. In the slower flow times of year it would be pretty easy to cross the river but the rest of the year I would be wary. Roads cross the tracks in many places and there are some cool tunnels that I have been into on the bike.
Generally the area is very rugged with a lot of vertical getting to and from the tracks. Roads that show up on maps sometimes have been decommissioned or are completely overgrown so I would not trust anything I did not see personally. There are also old railroad beds in the area where all the ties and tracks have been removed. I have ridden sections where you can feel bumps where all the ties have been removed. They are typically short sections that had been used before there were roads.
It is a great place to explore gravel roads and the trails in the area are some of the best for mountain biking that the state has to offer (Wilson River trail, Gales Creek trail, Step Creek trail, Triple C, Story Burn, etc.).
My only worry about creating this trail along the old railway is that the railway was washed away twice in a decade. I can’t image that a bike/pedestrian route would do any better in a flood.
-Jon

B.S. people keep talking about the economic benefit to the surrounding area.As far as the west half of the trail I don’t see anypositive economic benefit. Actually I see the opposite. You can see many cara parked at the banks, Buxton, manning trailheads, but you don’t see to many bicycles in local business parking lots. It is many of our beliefs that you will get your gas, water, and food in Portland or Beaverton or wherever you come from. And then use the services that we pay for. Roads and emergency services. Putting more stress on our local economy. Also you will not only be disrupting the peace of the people who live there but the wildlife. You are talking about sending 200,000 people a year thru wildlife habitat and disrupting it all. It is ironic that so many people who ride bikes claim to be so environmentally friendly want to be so disruptive.