Friday, June 25, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Trail closures disrupt busy season at Oswald West
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Two trail sections at
Oswald West State Park,
including a popular route
up Neah-Kah-Nie Moun-
tain near Manzanita, could
be closed until 2023 because
of damage caused by high
winds last summer.
The trail closures come
at a time when visitor num-
bers to the coast continue to
surge, the summer tourism
season approaches and more
people are seeking outdoor
activities during the corona-
virus pandemic.
On the North Neah-Kah-
Nie Mountain Trail, the
damage is measured in trees
down. On a short, less well-
known section of the Ore-
gon Coast Trail near Arch
Cape, the damage is mea-
sured in acres.
The same east winds that
knocked down trees in Sep-
tember also fueled the cat-
astrophic Labor Day fi res
across Oregon. Smoke from
the fi res darkened the skies
at the coast, but the fi res
never threatened towns or
trees. The wind was a diff er-
ent story. It rushed through
private timberlands at the
back of state parkland and,
with little to soften the
blow, pummeled portions of
Oswald West State Park.
“I’ve never seen anything
like it,” said ranger Eric
Crum as he surveyed dam-
age on the Arch Cape trail
during a recent visit.
The trail, its entrance
blocked by a closure sign,
starts off normally enough.
Coastal woods close around
you. Salmonberry sends
a riot of new growth over
the trail. When Crum and
another ranger went to scout
out the damage, they hiked
along for a short while,
chainsawed through a few
downed trees and thought,
“This isn’t so bad.”
But as the trail climbed
into the woods, suddenly
there was daylight ahead, an
entire sky where before there
had been shadow-drenched
forest. Fallen trees — giant
Hailey Hoff man /The Astorian
A sign blocks the entrance to the North Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain Trail at Oswald West State Park.
Sitka spruce, hemlock,
Douglas fi r — piled on top
of each other, masses of
roots upended. Some trees
still stood in the clearing, but
the wind had snapped them
in half.
Crum reported back:
“The whole forest blew
down.”
The winds also damaged
a trail at Cape Lookout State
Park farther south, closing
down the entire North Trail
that connects a day-use area
to the Cape Trail, one of the
most popular hikes on the
North Coast, according to
the Oregon Parks and Rec-
reation Department.
All three trail sections
are impassable. The state
expects to use helicopters to
remove fallen and danger-
ous trees within 200 feet of
either side of the trail. But
these same crews are still
busy elsewhere in the state,
cleaning up damage caused
by the fi res. The North Coast
trails will have to wait their
turn.
And the state is not even
sure of the full extent of the
‘WE DON’T HAVE THE WHOLE
PICTURE BECAUSE WE CAN’T
GET TO SOME OF THE AREAS
TO ASSESS THE DAMAGE.’
Diane Navarrete, a spokeswoman for
the Parks and Recreation Department
damage on the trails yet.
“We don’t have the whole
picture because we can’t get
to some of the areas to assess
the damage,” said Diane
Navarrete, a spokeswoman
for the Parks and Recreation
Department.
‘We don’t have the whole
picture’
While costs are dif-
fi cult to tease out at this
point, helicopter removal
work will likely be the most
expensive portion. A rough
estimate of the work breaks
down to a cost of $47,000
per acre. Trail repair and res-
toration work is estimated to
cost $63,000 at Arch Cape,
$297,000 at Neah-Kah-Nie
Mountain and $89,000 at
Cape Lookout. The parks
department estimates that
just under 200 acres were
damaged across the three
trail areas.
“Steep and hard-to-ac-
cess topography is the main
challenge at Neah-Kah-
Nie,” Navarrete said. “The
sheer volume of down trees
at Arch Cape and Cape
Lookout means more plan-
ning and expense to haul out
all those trees.”
Until trees are removed,
the state will not know if
any trails will need to be
realigned. The trails were
already built in challeng-
ing terrain where reroutes
— moving large sections of
trail — are not feasible.
The Federal Emergency
Management Agency is
expected to reimburse 75%
of the costs of the helicop-
ter operation and other costs
will be off set by selling
marketable downed wood
removed from the trails,
according to Navarrete.
“We’re not sure of the
exact makeup of the aff ected
area, so we can’t speculate
on how much money we
could earn, but we can say
it won’t be enough to off -
set the helicopter costs,” she
said.
Some trees — like large
Sitka spruce — may be left
on site as nurse logs for hab-
itat, or given to partner agen-
cies for habitat, Navarrete
added.
Though
helicopter
removal is expensive, the
state ruled out using ground
crews to remove debris — it
would be unsafe and imprac-
tical and could cause more
damage to the forest, Navar-
rete said.
Oswald West State Park
is designated as critical habi-
tat for marbled murrelet — a
threatened seabird that nests
in old growth and mature
forests — while Cape Look-
out State Park is considered
potential habitat for the bird.
Both forests are considered
potential habitat for north-
ern spotted owls, also listed
as threatened.
The Parks and Recreation
Department is working with
the state Department of Fish
and Wildlife and U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service to fi g-
ure out what environmen-
tal regulations apply and
what work windows will be
allowed.
Other options
Both Oswald West and
Cape Lookout have a num-
ber of other trail options
for visitors. Hikers can still
reach the summit of Neah-
Kah-Nie Mountain by park-
ing at a trailhead farther
south on U.S. Highway 101
and walking the South Trail.
Still, the trail closures
could put more pressure on
other trail systems and will
impact the small trickle
of Oregon Coast Trail
through-hikers that rangers
and park managers some-
times see.
With the Arch Cape and
Neah-Kah-Nie trails closed,
there are not great options
for these hikers, said Ben
Cox, Nehalem Bay unit
manger for the Parks and
Recreation Department. In
this steep, cliff y area, hikers
can’t simply drop down and
walk along a beach to the
next available trail section.
The narrow highway shoul-
der becomes their only alter-
native if they remain on foot.
But trail closures due
to natural disruptions have
become a common concern
in the North Coast’s more
southern state parks. At
Ecola State Park, landslides
and stormy weather continue
to cause seasonal damage
to the park’s entrance road
while, recently, an entire
trail section between Ecola
Point and Indian Beach had
to be rerouted around a large
slide.
“We’ve had to, unfortu-
nately, be in this position for
a quite a while,” Cox said.
County aff ordable housing strategy takes shape
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
Clastop County
Commissioner Lianne
Thompson
federal housing programs and
also owning and maintaining
a housing stock over those
three counties.”
Consultant hired
The county hired Angelo
Planning Group, a Port-
land consulting company, in
December to facilitate meet-
ings with housing stakehold-
ers, including cities and non-
profi t housing developers.
Bohn said the purpose of
the meetings was to identify
a set of high-priority action
items.
“So our question to stake-
holders and partners was,
‘What can the county do to
move the needle on hous-
ing?‘” he said. “And knowing
that we have limited resources
and, frankly, we have lim-
ited expertise in housing
development.”
There were fi ve sugges-
tions, and fundamentally,
Bohn said, there was a desire
for the county to act as an
advocate and a convener.
Bohn laid out the
suggestions
to
county
commissioners.
One of the most vital
resources the county can bring
to the table is land, Bohn said.
He shared options that are
available for potential aff ord-
able housing development in
Astoria and Warrenton.
Beyond that, he said, the
county will work with cit-
ies and review codes, zoning
requirements and other regu-
lations that impact aff ordable
housing development.
“And then it’s to play this
continual role as we move
forward to have long-stand-
ing reciprocal relationships
with these nonprofi t hous-
ing providers so that we can
have a steady stream of proj-
ects within the county,” Bohn
said. “Because this isn’t a
one-time challenge. This is
an ongoing, sustainable chal-
lenge of building additional
units overtime.
“We’re also fortunate that
some of our nonprofi t part-
ners, like CBH (Clatsop
Behavioral Healthcare), are
also going to be getting into
the housing business, which
is great. And their focus is
really on permanent sup-
portive housing, which fi ts a
very important niche. But it’s
going to take all of us to do
our small part to make a dif-
ference that the community
needs.”
As far as who will facil-
itate the work on behalf of
the county, Bohn said there
are several diff erent options,
including funding a posi-
tion at the Northwest Ore-
gon Housing Authority that
focuses specifi cally on hous-
ing development in Clatsop
County. The housing author-
ity provides critical housing
assistance to low-income res-
idents in Clatsop, Columbia
and Tillamook counties.
“Whether that is ultimately
an idea that has legs is not fully
developed yet, but that’s one
of the options,” Bohn said.
“The other option is that we
hire a county staff to facilitate
these kinds of partnerships
or a consultant. So there’s a
number of options and we’re
still working through that.”
Commissioner support
County
commission-
ers were supportive of the
framework.
Commissioner
Lianne
Thompson said she would
like the board to have a role
in the process and serve on
an advisory committee for the
work.
Bohn said that while he
does envision an advisory
committee for ongoing col-
laboration, he wants to get the
ball rolling.
“And again, we just need
to put the shovel in the ground
from my perspective and just
start this process, because
there is muscle memory that
is important to these aff ord-
able housing projects,” he
said. “And we just don’t have
that muscle memory right
now because we haven’t done
it together. And so I think staff
is just eager to get the process
started.”
Commissioner
Pamela
Wev said she liked the idea of
the county being an ambitious
convener.
“I’ve been real disap-
pointed after we did the hous-
ing study, which remem-
ber was half-funded — 50
grand from the county and 10
(grand) from each of the cit-
ies — and I have seen very lit-
tle results coming from that,
including from our stand-
point,” she said.
Thompson was also happy
to see movement.
“County manager, assis-
tant county manager, thank
you for this work,” she said.
“It’s inspiring. It’s hopeful.
We are getting in the game.
As Commissioner Wev points
out, we had a housing study.
The board that existed then
was unwilling to have a com-
mission be involved with that.
So it really kind of cut the
legs off . Now you’re putting
the wheels back on the bus.
So we’re going to get on the
road.
“Now where we go and
how much horsepower we
have — if I can continue the
metaphor — we’ll see. But
we’re in the game. We’re in
the game long term. We’re
in the game to build capacity
locally, regionally, across the
state. We’re well begun.”
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E
RIL Y’
S
Clatsop County is mov-
ing forward with a strategy to
support new aff ordable hous-
ing projects.
The county and cities com-
pleted a housing study in 2019
that recommended the county
address an aff ordable hous-
ing shortage by doing more
to support diverse housing at
higher densities and control
vacation rentals.
Since then, the county
and cities have grappled with
how to balance the growth in
vacation rentals as the North
Coast becomes a more popu-
lar tourist destination, but lit-
tle progress has been made.
Meanwhile, homebuying has
surged during the coronavi-
rus pandemic as more people
have fl ocked to the coast, fur-
ther intensifying the issue.
“As staff has been discuss-
ing this topic, we’ve really
been refl ecting upon a role
for the county that would be
timely, that would be eff ective
and then ultimately would be
successful in facilitating new
aff ordable housing stock in
the county,” County Manager
Don Bohn said during a work
session of the Board of Com-
missioners on Tuesday.
“Here in Clatsop County,
as you know, the county does
not have any aff ordable hous-
ing staff , we don’t develop
housing, we don’t maintain
aff ordable housing. And if
you look at the full range of
36 counties, counties do it dif-
ferently. Sometimes housing
authorities fall within counties
and then they also have hous-
ing departments that do more
discretionary public housing
development with nonprofi t
and private partners,” he said.
“You have some where
the housing authority is the
only housing resource. And
what we have here is we
have a consortium of multi-
ple counties through NOHA
(Northwest Oregon Housing
Authority) who is providing
‘WE’RE IN THE
GAME. WE’RE IN
THE GAME LONG
TERM. WE’RE IN
THE GAME TO
BUILD CAPACITY
LOCALLY,
REGIONALLY,
ACROSS THE
STATE. WE’RE
WELL BEGUN.’
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