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Wednesday, August 18, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Nugget Newspaper Crossword
By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service
PHOTO COURTESY SISTERS TRAILS ALLIANCE
New interpretive signs are the finishing touch on a project to refurbish
and enhance the Tollgate-to-Sisters High School Trail created and
maintained by Sisters Trails Alliance.
— Last Week’s Puzzle Solved —
Interpretive signs
provide guide to trail
Sisters Trails Alliance
(STA) volunteers have put
the final touches on the reha-
bilitation of the Tollgate to
Sisters High School (SHS)
trail.
In 2019, thanks to a gen-
erous donation from Sisters
trail-lover Mike Ilg, STA
resurfaced and widened the
trail that connects Tollgate
with SHS and installed two
benches along the way. The
rehab plan called for the
installation of two interpre-
tive signs to share informa-
tion about student projects
and the flora and fauna in
the area. Those plans were
derailed in 2020 as COVID
struck, but came to fruition
this year.
Sisters High School
teachers Bethany Gunnarson
and Rima Givot were
instrumental in creating the
content for the two signs.
Gunnarson and her students
provided artwork of the
birds, plants, animals, and
trees that inhabit the forest
while Givot crafted the con-
tent for the signs. There was
so much information that an
online brochure was created
to give readers a deeper dive.
The brochure is available
through a QR code on each
sign or on the Sisters Trails
Alliance website.
The frames for the signs
were donated to STA by the
Forest Service and refin-
ished by Kris Calvin. Kris,
Mark Thompson, and Greg
Vandehey installed the
frames next to each of the
benches and last weekend
Clyde Dildine, with help
from a small pack of corgis,
mounted the signs.
The trail passes
through what is officially
known as the Trout Creek
Conservation Area, 161
acres of pine forest owned
by the Sisters School
District and protected by the
Deschutes Land Trust via
a voluntary land protection
agreement known as a <con-
servation easement.= The
Sisters School District owns
and manages the land in the
easement, but their manage-
ment is guided by the land
protection agreement they
established with the Land
Trust. Sisters School District
permits hiking, bird watch-
ing, and other non-motor-
ized, low-impact activities.
The trail is a well-used
connector between the
Tollgate subdivision, the
middle and high schools, and
downtown Sisters.
Trout Creek Conservation
Area offers refuge for rare
species including white-
headed woodpeckers and
flammulated owls, and is
habitat for the rare Peck9s
penstemon, a flower that
only grows in a small region
of Central Oregon and
nowhere else in the world.
The Tollgate-to-Sisters
High School trail exempli-
fies STA9s mission to con-
nect people and communi-
ties to each other and their
natural surroundings. STA
is a nonprofit organization
whose volunteers maintain
close to 200 miles of trails,
including the Peterson Ridge
Trail System. A free map
of the local trails, produced
by STA and supported by
local businesses, is avail-
able at the Sisters Area
Chamber of Commerce,
Sisters City Hall, and many
businesses in Sisters. Trail
users and trail lovers can
support the work of STA
by volunteering, becoming
a member or donating at
www.sisterstrails.org.
This Week’s Crossword Sponsors
Greg Wieland L.Ac.
Practicing since 1989
352 E. Hood Ave., Ste. E
Sisters Acupuncture Center
CCB#220624
D ESIGNERS & B UILDERS of D ISTINCTION
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