Forest Park Goes With Scaled-Down Approach

By Fred Leeson, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Apr. 6–When members and friends of the Oregon Road Runners Club scampered the entire length of Forest Park late last month — some of them twice — it marked the last large-scale event in the sprawling park’s north end.

The Bureau of Parks & Recreation has eliminated big events in so-called North Management Unit, considered the most sensitive habitat for wild plants and animals. Further, the new policy would prefer that informal group runs or walks that involve more than 20 participants stay out, too, between Northwest Germantown and Newberry roads. “Protecting natural resources and wildlife habitat is of utmost importance in this management unit,” the policy states.

The City Council endorsed the restriction more than a decade ago in a Forest Park management plan, but it never was implemented.

Jim Sjulin, a Parks Bureau nature zone manager, says the new policy stems from increased human use in the past decade and lobbying from the Friends of Forest Park.

“The Friends has been asking us for a couple years to look at our event policies, and to make the policies consistent with the management plan,” he says.

The new policy also restricts events to a maximum of 100 people and only in May through October in the Central unit, between Firelane No. 1 and Northwest Germantown Road. In the South unit closest to the city, between West Burnside and Firelane No. 1, it limits participants to 500 year-around.

Gail Snyder, director of the Friends, has seen “an explosion” of racing and other events since the 1995 plan. “I think it’s a positive step,” she says. “It does help protect the north end.”

Snyder, who also is an ultramarathoner, notes that the new policy does not restrict individuals from training or from riding horses in the North Unit. But she notes that the most remote area should be reserved mostly for passive use such as hiking and bird watching.

“We’re trying to maintain the North Unit as a natural area park, and not have it perceived as an arena for events,” Snyder says. “We have plenty of other places for events.”

Snyder counts at least 20 kinds of group activities that occur in Forest Park. Some, like geocaching, were unheard of when the City Council adopted the park management plan. Geocachers use global positioning devices to search for hidden items. Sjulin says people leaving trails do the worst damage in sensitive habitats such as the North Unit.

Monika Gold, race director for the final “March Mudness” road run, says she accepts the rule.

“You want the public to utilize this treasure,” she says of Forest Park, “but at the same time you don’t want to trample all the plants. If you take out a single trillium, it can take years to come back.”

—–

To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.