NW Trail Alliance says Metro purchase puts Rocky Point access at risk

Metro is considering using money from its $475 million 2019 parks and nature bond measure to purchase the Rocky Point Recreation area near Scappoose.

Portland-based nonprofit Northwest Trail Alliance says that, as it stands, this purchase could put trail and nature access at Rocky Point at risk. The NWTA has done a lot of recent work to improve and build hiking and mountain biking trails at Rocky Point, and the organization says Metro has not yet indicated that maintaining the current level of trail access would be a priority if the property was under its jurisdiction.

“The way Metro is currently prioritizing its objectives for the purchase, it could eliminate access to the trail system NWTA created and managed at Rocky Point,” the NWTA says in a call to action.

The NWTA says that Metro is “selectively emphasizing water quality and fish/wildlife habitat objectives for the purchase, and downplaying broader Bond Measure objectives like investing in trails for biking and walking, and expanded access to nature.”

NWTA members support Metro’s acquisition of this property if it will maintain access to trails at Rocky Point as a priority.

The NWTA has managed this property since July 2019, when they signed a lease agreement with Weyerhaeuser to oversee the site.

This was a big deal, because there aren’t a lot of other off-road bicycling opportunities near Portland. When the NWTA began managing the 3000 acre site, Portlanders could go mountain biking without having to travel very far. We’ve reported before on why this is meaningful, especially for people who don’t want to or can’t drive to other mountain biking trails.

NWTA is asking community members to fill out a Metro survey about the bond measure and ask the council to prioritize biking and walking trails and access to nature at Rocky Point.

“Tell Metro you love the Nature Trail Access you currently have, and you don’t want to lose access to those trails,” The NWTA says.

Some of the points the NWTA says it’s important to tell Metro in the survey include that “recreating 25 miles of biking and hiking trails elsewhere in the Metro region would be very costly” and that “losing 25 miles of trails would displace over 5,000 trail users to other overcrowded trails.”

“This is one of the most critical advocacy opportunities in the last decade for maintaining access to mountain bike trails,” the NWTA says.

The Metro survey is open until Feb. 20 and can be found here. The Rocky Point area is listed as Multnomah Channel Headwaters in the survey, which is number 17 in the survey’s target areas of interest list.