Trail closed for logging

A McKenzie River favorite is closed as controversial logging proceeds.

Hikers heading up to the clear blue Tamolitch Pool this summer are going to have to take an alternate route for the next couple of weeks to make way for logging near the popular hiking trail.

Tamolitch Pool, also known as Blue Pool or Blue Hole, is a well-used destination along the McKenzie River. The most scenic trail to the pool, which starts near Trail Bridge Reservoir, winds along next to the river through old-growth Douglas fir and over lava flows until it reaches a quiet pool of bright blue water.

The pool used to be the base of a waterfall that flowed just south of Sahalie and Koosah Falls. An ancient basalt flow reduced the water, and when EWEB put in a diversion dam from Carmen to Trail Bridge Reservoir, the water to the falls was cut off almost entirely. Instead the pool is fed by icy water springing up from below the surface. Only during very high flow days does water spill over the now dry waterfall.

After a storm in 2006 blew down trees near the trail, the Forest Service proposed a salvage logging project to remove the fallen and damaged trees. Salvage projects are usually controversial because environmentalists say fallen trees are a natural part of a forest. “Down logs are an important part of the forest ecosystem,” says Chandra LeGue of Oregon Wild. She adds, “It’s unfortunate that the Forest Service has decided to close one of the McKenzie River Trail’s most popular sections in high summer to facilitate this controversial project.”

The Forest Service’s plan for the project called for the logging near the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail to happen in April in order to reduce the emergence of bark beetles, which the USFS says infest the blown-down trees.

The trail is closed from Trail Bridge Campground north to the pool from July 14 to Aug. 3 on weekdays. The route will be open Saturdays and Sundays, but hikers looking to avoid weekend crowds will be out of luck. The pool can be accessed by hiking along a longer, more arduous trail south from Koosah Falls.

Shadie Nimer, who is coordinating the sale for the Forest Service says, “The visible effects of thinning from the trail will be minimal.” Once the logging is completed, Nimer says, paint will be removed from the trees and exposed surfaces will be re-seeded with native seeds. The project will use “shovel-loading equipment” that minimizes ground disturbance, according to Nimer.

LeGue says, “The Forest Service should be focusing their logging in plantations that will benefit from thinning, not removing big habitat-forming trees along trails where wildflowers, soils and recreation will be disturbed.”