Crossing the Coast Range O

By Rocky Houston OREGON PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT

regon’s Salmonberry Corridor is an 86-mile corridor encompassing the Port of Tillamook Bay Railway. After the storm damage in 2007, the rail line was closed and will no longer provide a train connection from the coast to the valley.

The corridor is proposed to be a trail, a rail-to-trail, and a rail-with-trail along the 86 miles connecting the City of Tillamook to City of Banks. It links eight cities and two coun- ties while passing through farmlands, the rugged coast range, important fisheries, and skirting the Oregon coastline ending in Tillamook.

The Vision The Port of Tillamook Bay (POTB) railroad once connect-

ed the Willamette Valley to the Oregon coast on a corridor formerly owned by Southern Pacific, running through the canyon of the Salmonberry River and the Tillamook State Forest. Following a catastrophic storm with over 20 inches of rain falling over two days in December 2007, this rail connec- tion was cut off due to major damage, particularly in a 16-mile stretch of tunnels and trestles deep within the Coast Range. After detailed engineering assessments, the POTB decided not to re-establish the rail connection, due to the costs involved and a changing market for rail service. An undamaged portion of the line is currently being used by the Oregon Coast Scenic Railway to conduct tours between Garibaldi and Milepost 816 at the confluence of the Nehalem and Salmonberry Rivers, but the remainder of the corridor lies unused except by a few hikers, hunters, and fishermen. This unique passage, which has been named the Salmonberry Corridor, has a rich history, an outstanding sce- nic context, and the potential to connect urban and rural Oregon while tapping into a wide network of existing recre- ation trails and parks, educational opportunities, and heri- tage sites. This project will create strong economic opportuni- ties for Northwest Oregon and help revitalize communities along the rail corridor, including Banks, Timber, and the small towns along the coast from Wheeler to Tillamook. It will also define a new corridor for active, human-powered transportation, from the urban population of the Willamette Valley through the wild and wooded Coast Range to the beaches and farms of Tillamook County. There is increasing demand for this sort of trail. The Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) includes survey data for recreational activities in Regions 1

6 NEW YEARS 2015 AmericanTrails.org Illustration of a typical rail-with-trail portion of the Corridor Confluence

Rockaway Beach

Salmonberry Corridor

6 101

Tillamook Air Museum

3 MILES Map detail

US 26

L.L. “Stub” Stewart State Park

Salmonberry Corridor would convert 86 rugged railroad miles to trail

Banks

OREGON Portland

(NW Coast) and 2 (Portland Metro), which brackets the length of the Corridor. Recent survey results (November 2012) note that the top two activities in both Regions include “walking on local sidewalks” (61.6% of population participat- ing in Region 1 and 68.9% in Region 2) and “walking on local trails/paths” (59.9% and 62.1% respectively). The population is aging rapidly, so low impact activity such as walking is increasing dramatically in popularity, with biking and day hiking also gaining. Accordingly, the highest priority needs noted by the SCORP surveys are walking paths, public access

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