Hood River Mt Trail...Closed

[-Q-]

I never heard back from SDS but Friends of the Gorge posted this earlier. Looks like the closure isn't permanent!

"We're passing along a now-current trail alert - SDS Lumber Company, which owns much of Hood River Mountain including the publicly-accessible Hood River Mountain Trail and Whoop Dee Trail Systems on the Old Dalles Highway and Elder Road, has announced two timber cuts will be taking place on Hood River Mountain. During this time portions of the mountain will be off limits. Please respect any and all closure signs on their private property. The Hood River Mountain Trail area will be reopened when all operations are complete later this spring or early summer. "

YIPPEE!!


Thanks for the update!!

[kmcdade]

But, what will it look like when they're done?

[Splintercat]

Well, if this is any indication, we should brace ourselves for the worst.

Tom

[miah66]

Tom, I remember when that happened. Sad indeed. An interesting quote from the article you posted:

"The hope from the BIA is that the type of issues caused in the 80 acres of tribal land in the Gorge will become a one-time problem, and that tribes will communicate better with general public before beginning off-reservation logging project, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas, in the future."

Ironic that an indian tribe, who used to be so close to the land, needs to be asked to not log in sensitive areas, or to put a casino in the Gorge.

[mattisnotfrench]

Ironic that an indian tribe, who used to be so close to the land, needs to be asked to not log in sensitive areas, or to put a casino in the Gorge.

They log pretty heavily within the Reservation too, I believe.

[sprengers4jc]

I never did hear back from the Lumber Company on this but this update was posted earlier on the PH Facebook group:

From William Sullivan's website, RE: Hood River Mountain: "#157 Hood River Mountain -- The SDS Lumber Company which owns the trail system here replaced the popular 0.9-mile trail from the Pass to the Summit with an active logging road in April 2015. Bulldozers flattened the mountain's summit viewpoint for use as a log-yarding deck. This is private land, so this is their right. The new logging road is closed to the public during the operation, but is likely to reopen for hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians within a year. The summit and road itself will recover somewhat with time. Meanwhile, the trails along the ridge south of the summit are still intact and open to the public, so you can start your tour at the gated road to the radio tower instead. "

There are usually some wildflowers running south from the tower but still, sounds fairly devastating to that nice meadow that used to be north of the tower .

[romann]

Got a good look today at HR Mountain from WA side. Seems like only the first meadow is obliterated (and the forested part of course ), but other meadows to the south remain unaffected.

[wraithevolution]

I was up there a little over a month ago and frequent it a lot as I live in Hood River. All I can say is that the initial hike through the woods is completely gone. Its unrecognizable, just gone. It looks just terrible, obviously. We drove past the original parking area a mile or two and found another place to begin. More or less a 10 minute walk to the tower. Really takes all the fun out of it, no trees at all. If you stay south of the tower, its still quite nice and the view is great. Head north towards where the trail was and you can see the ugly. They plowed all the way up to the false summit. This was a good hike for my 4 year old until the removal of the trail. Its still a nice viewpoint of the valley but not really a hike anymore.

[Splintercat]

As ugly and irresponsible as the SDS logging methods are (and clear-cuts are an out-moded, highly unsustainable harvest method), it could be worse: SDS could simply sell off their various parcels now that the trees have been logged of for trophy homes. Oregon land use law would allow one per 40 or 80 acre parcel, typical, and this area has no protection from the Gorge act, unfortunately. I wrote a blog article on the subject six years ago:

Hood River Trophy Homes

Tree usually grow back, though surely not in our lifetimes. But trophy homes would almost surely be forever. Count me as one who believes that not everything can (or should) be "owned" and spoiled at the whim of those who have the fattest wallet.

Tom

[markesc]

As ugly and irresponsible as the SDS logging methods are (and clear-cuts are an out-moded, highly unsustainable harvest method), it could be worse: SDS could simply sell off their various parcels now that the trees have been logged of for trophy homes. Oregon land use law would allow one per 40 or 80 acre parcel, typical, and this area has no protection from the Gorge act, unfortunately. I wrote a blog article on the subject six years ago:

Hood River Trophy Homes

Tree usually grow back, though surely not in our lifetimes. But trophy homes would almost surely be forever. Count me as one who believes that not everything can (or should) be "owned" and spoiled at the whim of those who have the fattest wallet.

Tom

Sad, and pretty pathetic how they lack just some very basic common decency to not even understand what an amazing place that was; all while just chopping all the way to the top with zero buffer near the summit. Just a classic take the money n run. Was there any conversation with the city/state as far as donating a portion of the land in return for some sort of tax breaks? I'd think that some of us would drive to hood river, and spend money there post hike. Funny how compartmentalized the decision making process is I presume. I'd love to hear the family politics on that one....

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