12A • June 17, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
TRIAGE
on Tillamook Head
Maintaining Ecola State Park a group exercise
By Edward Stratton
EO Media Group
P
ark ranger Bo Ensign’s
day started off with a bro-
ken fee machine, followed
by a drive up a deeply
rutted forest service road
into the heart of Ecola State Park.
He was greeted near a hiker’s
camp by a snarling, wayward pit
bull loose from its owner.
After checking the camp, En-
sign was off down the Oregon
Coast Trail, carrying a chainsaw,
ax and wedges. Several hundred
feet in, he ran into the fi rst of
many uprooted trees laying par-
tially smashed across the trail. He
looked over the mess, and started
working his way from the smallest
branches to the main tree trunk. A
half an hour later, he was through
his fi rst tree trunk of the day.
“It’s kind of fun to have days
like this,” he said on a Saturday
in May. “It kind of makes some of
the other days worth it.”
As the only full-time ranger in
a lush temperate rainforest stretch-
ing along 1,000 acres and 9 miles
of rugged, slide-prone ridges and
dense foliage, Ensign and the state
park’s seasonal employees and
others keep the trails functional.
South Fork
Offi cer Sean Love showed up
with a 10-man crew from South
Fork Work Camp, a 200-bed,
minimum-security facility in Til-
lamook County that provides in-
mates to clear trails and fi ght fi res
on state forestlands.
The inmates, chosen for their
good behavior, wore T -shirts,
jeans and hard hats. They fanned
out into three teams, the fi rst saw-
ing their way through downed
trees, followed by the second with
hedge trimmers and a third to rake
up afterward. Following them was
Love.
“We’re just a wealth of re-
sources that’s waiting to be called
upon,” said Love, following the
cleanup crew as they work their
way along the trails.
Over two days, the workers
cut their way through several
miles of rugged trails over Tilla-
mook Head littered with blown-
over trees and dense spring foli-
age. The crews have also helped
construct a foot bridge between
Ecola Point and Indian Beach,
along with other trail improve-
ments. Love and Ensign said
some workers talk about bringing
their families back some day to
see the work they’ve done.
The inmates,
chosen for their
good behavior,
wore T-shirts,
jeans and
hard hats.
“I think they can relax a bit and
feel like a human being again,”
Love said. “We’re also teaching
them new work skills.”
Ensign estimates the partner-
ship with South Fork has been
going for more than 20 years.
Tasked with taking care of daily
operations and helping the more
than 550,000 annual visitors to the
p ark, Ensign said the South Fork
workers complete in two days
what it could take he and another
ranger a month or more to do.
Park triage
Last winter’s rain and wind-
storms left Ecola State Park bat-
tered and partially closed to the
public.
The park had to remove a
popular viewing deck overlook-
ing Cannon Beach and Haystack
Rock, because of a deteriorating
hillside, and use temporary lines
to reestablish water to the park.
Only last month were drivers
even able to reach Indian Beach,
after slides sunk multiple portions
of Ecola Park Road. Near Seaside,
another large landslide brought
down several more trees and cut
more than 50 feet out of the Tilla-
mook Head trail, leaving hikers to
make their own route around the
destruction.
Ensign said keeping the park
operating is a little like triage,
making the short-term fi xes to
keep it open and also understand-
ing that parts of the park will al-
ways be sliding. Once staff had
access to Indian Beach, he said,
they could start to take stock of
the wreckage on Tillamook Head.
The park used gravel fi ll to keep
Ecola Park Road passable. Just be-
fore the entrance to Indian Beach,
the state installed a large culvert
topped with gravel and rock, to
open the road and ensure fi sh
passage on Canyon Creek below.
Ensign said the state will decide
in the next year or two whether to
keep a culvert or put in a bridge.
P ark staff are getting every-
thing up and running before the
weather gets sunny and the crowds
start showing up. Ecola State Park
alone averages more than 550,000
annual visitors.
Ecola falls under the Nehalem
Management Unit, which also
includes Oswald West, Nehalem
Bay, Hug Point, Arcadia, Tolo-
vana and Saddle Mountain state
parks. Combined, they average
more than 3 million day use and
overnight visits.
“There’s as much visitation to
the North Coast ... (as) there is for
other entire state park systems,”
Ensign said.
PHOTOS EDWARD STRATTON/EO MEDIA GROUP
Park Ranger Bo Ensign uses a wedge to loose his chainsaw from a log crossing
the Clatsop Loop trail in Ecola State Park.
ABOVE: A large landslide
over the winter forced a
detour along the Tillamook
Head trail near Seaside.
LEFT: A 10-man crew from
the South Fork Forest Camp
chainsawed, mowed and
raked their way over Til-
lamook Head, clearing the
trail for the state Parks and
Recreation Department.
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