{"id":34739,"date":"2018-06-05T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=34739"},"modified":"2018-08-14T10:37:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T17:37:09","slug":"starting-anew-eagle-creek-fire-raises-questions-about-future-of-forests-hikes-and-tourism-in-the-columbia-river-gorge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/starting-anew-eagle-creek-fire-raises-questions-about-future-of-forests-hikes-and-tourism-in-the-columbia-river-gorge","title":{"rendered":"Starting Anew: Eagle Creek Fire Raises Questions About Future of Forests, Hikes and Tourism in the Columbia River Gorge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time summer sun gave way to fall rains in Oregon, it was clear the state had experienced one of its worst-ever years for wildfires. According to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, wildfires charred more than 665,000 acres in 2017\u2014nearly equaling the size of the state of Rhode Island\u2014all at a cost of $454 million.<\/p>\n

Most of the summer wildfires struck remote wildernesses, but one of the largest, most visible blazes ignited just 40 miles east of Portland\u2014in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, on September 2, 2017.<\/p>\n

A teen\u201415 years old at the time\u2014admitted to throwing the fireworks that started the fire, which ultimately threatened numerous lives, along with some of the most popular destinations and communities in the Columbia River Gorge. The charges stem from the teen \u201ctossing a couple of fireworks while hiking on the Eagle Creek trail,\u201d according to court documents. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) says the Eagle Creek Fire burned more than 48,000 acres and forced the closure of 116 miles of trail in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and surrounding national forest lands.<\/p>\n

In May 2018, a Hood River County Circuit Court judge ordered the teen to pay $36.6 million in restitution (although the debt will be considered paid in 10 years if the teen completes probation, does not commit additional crimes and complies with a payment plan).<\/p>\n

Many of the Gorge\u2019s best-loved trails remain closed\u2014and aren\u2019t expected to open for several months. So as you plan your springtime and summer hikes, here\u2019s what to know about the fire\u2019s impact on the Gorge, what to expect over the coming months, and how the fire may ultimately lead to a new era in Oregon tourism.<\/p>\n

\"Eagle

\u200bThe Eagle Creek Fire burned more than 48,000 acres of the Columbia River Gorge, including Angel\u2019s Rest, one of the most popular vistas in the 85-mile Gorge. (Photo Credit: \u200bU.S. Forest Service)<\/p><\/div>\n

Future of the Forests<\/h4>\n

Hikers have long enjoyed the Columbia River Gorge. Some of its walls tower 1,000 feet or more above the Columbia River and, according to Russ Jolley’s book Wildflowers of the Columbia Gorge: A Comprehensive Field Guide<\/em>, more than 700 species of wildflower bloom throughout the 85-mile-long Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Multnomah Falls<\/a>, among the dozens of waterfalls within the region, draws four million visitors each year, making it one of the state\u2019s most popular tourist attractions.<\/p>\n

Yet the forests hikers know and love will never again exist as most people remember them, at least not within their lifetime, says John Bailey, a forest scientist with Oregon State University. The Eagle Creek Fire initially closed more than 100 miles of trails (more on that later) and set the stage for winter mudslides that may take years to mitigate\u2014but experts say it\u2019s not all bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was far from ruined,\u201d Bailey says. Hikers will certainly walk through areas of high severity fire<\/a>\u2014meaning, masses of trees were outright killed\u2014but the burn generally followed a mosaic pattern. Mixed in with those burned-out areas were patches of low to no severity fire activity, where Bailey says, \u201cYou\u2019ll forget that you\u2019re walking within a fire.\u201d These patches of forest, mostly still green, will help spur recovery in the neighboring burned-out patches going forward.<\/p>\n

In all, Bailey estimates that roughly a third of the 48,000-acre burn was high severity, meaning hikers might encounter more greenery than they\u2019re currently anticipating. \u201cThey\u2019ll be pleased with how much green is still out there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Even in areas where the burns wiped out large swaths of trees, shrubs and foliage, Bailey encourages hikers to find the silver lining. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be beautiful in its own way, in terms of wildflowers, butterflies, new vistas and the ecological recovery as you walk through there,” he says.<\/p>\n

How Hikes Have Been Impacted<\/h4>\n

First the good news: There are still plenty of doable hikes on the Washington side of the Gorge<\/a>, which remained mostly unscathed. Hikers are already flocking to Dog Mountain\u2019s wildflower meadows, Cape Horn\u2019s panoramic views and the grueling Hamilton Mountain trail as hiking season gets underway.<\/p>\n

The prognosis for your favorite trail on the Oregon side of the Gorge is, unfortunately, a bit murkier.<\/p>\n

In October 2017, the Forest Service\u2019s Burned Area Emergency Response Team unveiled its report about the severity of the burn and hazards. Following those recommendations, the agency has worked for months to stabilize roads, remove hazardous trees, remove the Eagle Creek suspension bridge (which was damaged in the fire), install warnings signs and put in place rockfall fencing above Multnomah Falls Lodge to protect the historic structure.<\/p>\n

But for all the agency\u2019s work, don\u2019t expect to hike the likes of Angel\u2019s Rest<\/a> or the Wahkeena Trail<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n

\"\u200bThe

\u200bThe Angel\u2019s Rest Trail was among the areas most impacted by the Eagle Creek Fire. (Photo Credit: \u200bU.S. Forest Service)<\/p><\/div>\n

Various regions of the Columbia River Gorge are expected to open gradually throughout the year, according to Lillian Palmer, public affairs specialist with the USFS. (Note that all estimates are weather-dependent.)<\/p>\n

The USFS aims to reopen the westernmost area of the Gorge\u2014between Multnomah Falls and Portland\u2014by December 2018. Popular trails in this area include Angel\u2019s Rest and the Larch Mountain Trail. (Note that some <\/em>trails in the western edge of the Gorge, such as Latourell Falls, are already open.)<\/p>\n

The Forest Service hasn\u2019t yet established a timeline for reopening trails between Multnomah Falls and Cascade Locks\u2014an area hosting many of the Gorge\u2019s most popular hikes, including Eagle Creek, Wahclella Falls, Horsetail Falls and Oneonta Gorge. The wildfire originated in this area, and Palmer warns about the potential for landslides and debris flow. \u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten in there to assess conditions and bridges,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Heading east from Cascade Locks, Palmer says the Forest Service hopes to open up the remaining trails this summer. Several popular trails in this area weren\u2019t burned through so severely, and crews have already done extensive trail restoration to improve conditions. A few trails in this area, including the Mount Defiance and Starvation Ridge trails, as well as several short hikes leading to lakes in the Mt. Hood National Forest\u2014including Black, North and Warren Lakes\u2014reopened in May 2018.<\/p>\n

Wherever hikers wish to go, Palmer suggests checking with the USFS website on fire closures and restrictions within the Columbia River Gorge<\/a> before heading out. \u201cIt\u2019s important that people understand that trails aren\u2019t closed because of downed trees,\u201d she says. \u201cSome of those trails, you can\u2019t even see anymore, because there\u2019s been so much rockfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prolonged closures present a unique opportunity to rebuild some of these trails to withstand increased popularity, according to Renee Tkach, project manager for the Gorge Towns to Trail effort at Friends of the Columbia Gorge<\/a>. Tkach points to the now-charred Eagle Creek Trail<\/a> as an example. According to Tkach, the Eagle Creek Trail was constructed a century ago and wasn\u2019t built to withstand modern demands. When people talk about the Columbia River Gorge being \u201cloved to death,\u201d<\/a> they\u2019re tacitly imagining Eagle Creek\u2019s overcrowded parking lots and single-file lines that bottleneck at some of the trail\u2019s most popular vistas.<\/p>\n

So, as government agencies and advocacy organizations look at rebuilding key trails in the wake of both wildfires and <\/em>winter weather, they\u2019ll have the rare opportunity to assess and account for the region\u2019s explosive popularity: \u201cWe have the opportunity to rebuild these trails in a fashion that gives them the ability to be sustainable for the next 100 years,\u201d Tkach says. \u201cWe have some opportunities, and the timing is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Multnomah

\u200bThe Eagle Creek Fire burned much of the forest surrounding Multnomah Falls, but fire crews were able to preserve the historic Multnomah Falls Lodge. (Photo Credit: \u200bU.S. Forest Service)<\/p><\/div>\n

Reimagining Tourism<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Tourism is big business in the Columbia River Gorge, and, until the Eagle Creek Fire, it had been growing. Visitors spent $421 million on trips to Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge in 2017, up from $290 million in 2010, according to a 2018 study prepared for Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism agency. In all, that amounts to a 45 percent growth in travel expenses.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early to say what kind of impact the fires will have on the 2018 tourist season, but some see an opportunity to reimagine the relationship between the region\u2019s delicate beauty and throngs of visitors.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Tkach says the fire gave travel planners the chance to step back, pause their efforts and reassess their work\u2014all with the goal of creating a new experience that steers visitors away from well-worn destinations.<\/p>\n

Tkach is a member of the Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance, which convened before the Eagle Creek Fire to reexamine how to best promote the Gorge as a sustainable destination. Those conversations obviously took on a different significance as the fire grew, and planners are now grappling with an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

One idea, which had been discussed prior to the fires, might be to more aggressively promote some of the smaller towns that might be otherwise overlooked as tourists visit the Gorge.<\/p>\n

The opening salvo in that effort came in fall of 2017 when roughly 20 Gorge communities teamed up for the \u201cShow the Gorge Some Love\u201d campaign. The effort showcased the region\u2019s restaurants, art galleries, boutique shops and the Hood River County Fruit Loop (a 35-mile scenic drive through the Hood River Valley’s orchards, forests, farmlands and communities).<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, Tkach sees the rare opportunity to start anew and think critically about how to serve tourists from throughout Oregon and around the world. \u201cOut of the ashes, these phoenixes are kind of rising,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the time summer sun gave way to fall rains in Oregon, it was clear the state had experienced one of its worst-ever years for wildfires. According to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, wildfires charred more than 665,000 acres in 2017\u2014nearly equaling the size of the state of Rhode Island\u2014all at a cost of $454 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":34743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[387,685],"tags":[1519,727,120,1541,656,1596],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-34739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hike","category-news","tag-columbia-river-gorge","tag-latest-posts","tag-oregon","tag-pacific-west","tag-public-lands","tag-wildfires"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/news\/starting-anew-eagle-creek-fire-raises-questions-about-future-of-forests-hikes-and-tourism-in-the-columbia-river-gorge","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Starting Anew: Eagle Creek Fire Raises Questions About Future of Forests, Hikes and Tourism in the Columbia River Gorge","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/starting-anew-eagle-creek-fire-raises-questions-about-future-of-forests-hikes-and-tourism-in-the-columbia-river-gorge","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/news\/starting-anew-eagle-creek-fire-raises-questions-about-future-of-forests-hikes-and-tourism-in-the-columbia-river-gorge"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/06\/eagle-creek-fire.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/06\/eagle-creek-fire.jpg?fit=1600%2C1069"},"articleSection":"Hike","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Flandreau"}],"creator":["Michelle Flandreau"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["columbia river gorge","latest posts","oregon","pacific west","public lands","wildfires"],"dateCreated":"2018-06-05T17:00:47Z","datePublished":"2018-06-05T17:00:47Z","dateModified":"2018-08-14T17:37:09Z"},"rendered":"