The Mt. Hood National Forest folks have been busy getting ready to open more amenities in time for summer recreation. Many of these sites were damaged in the 2020 Riverside Fire.
The Clackamas River Ranger District also promoted Phil Monsanto, a CRRD veteran, as its new leader.
Shellrock, Raab, Kingfisher and Hideaway campgrounds will reopen at the end of May, a forest service announcement said.
Camping at these spots will be on a first-come, first-served basis in 2024.
Mt. Hood National Forest, the National Forest Foundation and a local contractor are redesigning and repairing the popular Rainbow Campground, the announcement said.
Once finished, Rainbow will have upgrades to its pull-ins, picnic tables, fire rings and site layouts. Rainbow Campground should reopen sometime this summer.
Parking for the Riverside Trail is also being improved and will provide hikers better trail access.
Rainbow Campground is the first of many more sites that will undergo repair and redesign over the next few years.
Forest staff are using feedback gathered from community meetings and surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023 to plan the work.
The Clackamas River Corridor is tightly constricted by the state highway, steep canyon walls, federal wilderness, cultural sites and a scenic byway designation, the announcement said.
“While all these features make the Clackamas a special place, they limit recreation site expansion or creation of new sites,” it added.
Sadly, although repair work is beginning, Ripplebrook, Riverside, Riverford and Armstrong campgrounds will remain closed for this year.
But, the Forest Service expects that the Ripplebrook Store will reopen by Memorial Day.
The popular, old camp store suffered a lot of damage in the 2020 fires, but was renovated in 2023 by the new operator, Bagby Preservation.
After months of repair work, Bagby Hot Springs and Bagby Campground will be reopening around May 1. The Mt. Hood National Forest folks will announce more details on Bagby as the May 1 date gets closer.
Road Repairs
The 2020 fire and usual winter weather wreaked havoc with some roads on the Clackamas River Corridor of the Mt. Hood National Forest.
There are multiple hazard tree and road repair contracts still underway on the district.
The work, including cutting and removing fire-killed hazard trees, replacing damaged drain and stream culverts and repairing pavement, will continue into 2025.
The forest service noted that “all of these contracts are with companies based within a couple hours of the forest.”
Contracts for Forest Roads 57, 5710 and 4630 have a completion deadline of Dec. 31.
“Solid progress is being made and we’re hopeful these roads will open earlier, but several variables can impact those dates,” the announcement said.
While the mild winter allowed hazard tree work on FR 57 to start much earlier than expected, culvert and road repair work can’t start until the ground dries out in late spring or early summer.
The contract for hazard tree and roads work on FR 54 will be advertised this spring.
The good news is that most roads are already open.
New ranger named
Phil Monsanto has been named as the new district ranger for the Clackamas River Ranger District.
“I am humbled to be selected as the Clackamas River District Ranger,” Monsanto said in a statement.
“I hope while in my position I can provide support to a great group of people who really care about natural resources management and public recreation.”
He’s a familiar face. Monsanto has worked on Mt. Hood National Forest since 2016 and has been acting as the district ranger since late last summer.
Monsanto’s “leadership has helped continue to balance the extraordinary fire recovery work from the 2020 and 2021 wildfires with the ongoing complex work carried out every year by recreation, fire, silviculture and timber, fisheries and wildlife, engineering, and other staff areas on the district,” the announcement said.
Monsanto grew up in Washington and his family spent their summers exploring public lands while hiking, boating and fishing.
He spent summers in college working as a wildland firefighter, including two seasons as a smokejumper.
He then joined the Peace Corps and served in the Dominican Republic helping local farmers develop their tree nursery program.
After that, Monsanto joined the National Park Service as a firefighter while working on two Masters of Science degrees, one in forest ecology and one in forest resources.
He worked on both the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Wash. and Mt. Hood as a silviculturist. Silviculture is the science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition and health of forests and woodlands.
Before starting his tenure as district ranger last summer, he was the Mt. Hood National Forest timber program manager.
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