Local News

Local Trail Work Nearly Complete

BEND, OR -- Deschutes National Forest crews continue work on a number of high-profile projects during the height of the outdoor recreation season, much to the dismay of visitors. Kassidy Kern with the Forest Service acknowledges the frustration, but tells KBND the work is necessary to avoid problems later. "We have to put up with some closures right now. But the long term view of this is we’re going to have some really lovely overlooks, you’ll get back to be able to drive to Tumalo and Phil’s is going to have a great parking lot. So, these bumps in the road are really going to get us a nice forest."

 

She says one of the biggest involves tripling the parking lot at Phil’s Trailhead and installing a new kiosk and accessible toilet. "The real purpose of that is for better customer service, of course, but also, we’re seeing a lot of erosion and resource damage because people are parking along the side of the road. We can hardly blame them, everyone wants to go to Phil’s, but we really want to limit that resource damage. So, by putting this parking lot in, hopefully we’ll get people into the parking spots we have and make it a little bit safer and have better traffic flow." The Tumalo Falls Overlook remains closed while city crews finish work on the pipeline replacement project, and the forest service has closed Whychus Overlook while they create new trails.

 

All three projects are set to be completed in the fall. Kern says, "We do a lot of construction on the forest, whether it’s replacing bridges or doing trail work – we have to shore up an entire trail – it’s always being done all the time. It’s just that we happen to have some really high profile ones right now."

 

To hear our full conversation with Kassidy Kern, visit our Podcast Page

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