BEND, OR -- Bend Park and Recreation park stewards, Bend Police officers and Sheriff’s Office Marine deputies will patrol together at Riverbend Park Wednesday. "This time of year, we always want to be ramping up our river safety information," says the parks district's Julie Brown, "We are heading into the season where we are going to have a lot of visitors, and a lot of residents also want to be enjoying the river and the activities associated with that."

Brown tells KBND News, "We really want to encourage people, if you are going to be recreating in the water: Take precautions, be prepared, have a life jacket with you; on your body is absolutely the best place for it."

Bend PD's Sheila Miller says it’s important for police officers to help reinforce the efforts of park stewards, "Our CSOs - our Community Service Officers - will be walking and talking with people, just making sure they understand dogs aren’t supposed to be off-leash. There are specific off-leash areas. Alcohol is not permitted in the parks unless you have a permit."

As KBND News reported earlier this week, there's also a big effort this season to curb bridge jumping. "It’s a hard one to quantify, except to say that when it is warm out, we get pretty consistent calls from people saying, ‘there are kids jumping off the Colorado Bridge.’ Or, ‘there are kids jumping off the bridge at Reed Market'," says Miller, "But it is super dangerous and the last thing we want is for a kid to jump into a place he’s jumped in 20 times before, and this time hurt himself or we have to do a water rescue. Or, God forbid, somebody dies; but that does happen." She notes, "I think it’s obvious to people who live here, hopefully, that our rivers have different depths; some places where it’s really deep and some places where it’s really shallow. And that can change."

Wednesday's patrols at Riverbend Park are aimed at educating users at the beginning of the season. “The summer season is busy with activity in parks, on trails, especially near the Deschutes River,” park steward manager Jeff Hagler said in a statement. “This collaboration is an opportunity to inform community members about park rules and expectations and encourage safer enjoyment of the season.”