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The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Residents celebrate trail system plan
By Tom Chace

Nearly 100 hiking, riding and cycling enthusiasts gathered at Sisters Village Green on Saturday morning, November 8, to celebrate the completion of the Sisters Community Trails plan.

The extensive plan, which will take years to complete, envisions a total of 36 trails running 143 miles and covering the entire Sisters School District. It is proposed as a trail system for everyone from residents of Cloverdale and Tollgate to the citizens of Crossroads and Aspen Lakes.

"We are also celebrating the announcement that our trails committee will now be a part of SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation), said Jeff Sims, lands and special use forester with the Sisters Ranger District and master of ceremonies for the public meeting.

When finished, the system will tie into the Camp Sherman bike trail and reach Black Butte Ranch and beyond.

The goal, according to the committee, is to provide safe walking and bicycle trails; reduce traffic congestion and pollution; promote health and wellness with non-motorized trails for walking, jogging, bicycling, skiing and horseback riding.

Advocates believe that the local economy will be improved, citing evidence from other areas where such a system of trails is established. They hope the system will provide a connection between home, town and schools that is off the major thoroughfares.

The first of the three dozen trails is scheduled to connect the Tollgate residential area to the new high school on McKinney Butte Road. A meeting will be held shortly with the Sisters School Board, the Forest Service, the Deschutes Basin Land Trust and the Tollgate property owners to start obtaining rights-of-way across public and private lands.

The participants in the "Discover a Trail Day celebration were not content to merely talk about trails.

After the short ceremony, most of the crowd went hiking, biking or horseback riding. Leading the hikers, Sims took the majority on a walk along Squaw Creek. Gerry Jimerson led nine horseback riders on the tie trail to Indian Ford for a two-hour ride.

About a dozen bicycle riders, with Brad Boyd in the lead, headed out Pine Street from the downtown area for a ride on the Peterson Ridge Trail.

All returned to Village Green shortly after noon for a hosted picnic.

The trails plan, two years in the making, was spearheaded by Lorri Craig of CATS (Community Action Team of Sisters).

"When she first presented this idea to our Central Oregon Partnership, said Nancy Knoble of Redmond, executive director of the seven-city organization, "we knew it would improve life here and, consequently, reduce poverty. That is the goal and purpose of our partnership.

"Sisters is in the lead in this type of project, she said.

Initial funding came from a grant of $3,750 from the National Parks Department, solicited by Craig.

A number of other organizations then became involved. The Rotary Club of Sisters donated $5,000 which was matched by a grant from Cycle Oregon.

That was sufficient to get the project started and to pay for the minimal overhead and printing of the first draft.

One of Cycle Oregon's directors pointed out to the crowd, huddled in the outdoor barbecue area built by the Sisters Rotary Club, that Oregon is one of the few states that, by law, gives one percent of the monies raised from the gasoline taxes to the development and maintenance of bike and hiking trails.

Sue Abbott, with the Rivers and Trails division of the National Park Service, has been advising the local trails committee. She was here from Seattle for the celebration ceremony.

"We act as an extension service giving technical assistance, she said. "It's a form of public outreach.

She has been meeting with the local committee as a consultant an average of once a month.

"We have a very small office in Seattle, she said, "and this will probably be my last official trip to Sisters, where I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting.

Among those on the Sisters Community Trails Committee are Bill Willitts, Sims, Jerry Norquist, Jim Craig, Jim Yuskavitch, May Fan, Tom Coffield, Dave Marrow, Lorri Craig, Bryn Hazell, Lee Hicks, Eugene Trahern and Judy Trego.

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