Trail volunteers celebrate Earth Day

About three dozen volunteers met at The Lodge at Suttle Lake to support Earth Day and work on the trail system on Thursday morning, April 22.

Kathleen Dowd-Gailey, of the National Forest Foundation (NFF) just started the Sisters Volunteer Bank in collaboration with the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce. The NFF is not only supporting work on our trails, but is partnering with several local organizations to clean areas around Whychus Creek and the Metolius River.

Rick Thomas, of Friends of the Metolius, secured a grant from NFF to do the work to complete the bike trail from Suttle Lake to Sisters. The $4,000 grant pays for signage plus two small kiosks.

"We had to commit in-kind volunteer labor to receive the grant," Thomas said. "About 30 volunteers also met last fall to work on the trails."

Sisters Country Co-op has been a major contributor to the cleanup and was the source of funds given to NFF.

"Each lodge in the co-op, Lake Creek Lodge, FivePine Lodge, Black Butte Ranch, Best Western Ponderosa Lodge, The Lodge at Suttle Lake and Sun Country Tours all ask their guests to donate $1 per night to our Forest Stewardship Fund," said Jennifer Severeide, of Lake Creek Lodge. "These funds go to the NFF and are strictly earmarked to build the trail system."

Volunteers spent the day installing posts, cleaning up the trail, and digging out trees that started to root along pathways.

"We want to connect Suttle Lake with Black Butte, Camp Sherman, and all the way to Sisters so people can ride a bike or hike from one to the other on either side of the highway," said Marvin Lang, who was there on behalf of Deschutes National Forest.

Lang brought two volunteers from Siberia, Russia.

"Sveta Savvateeva and Tanya Yurchenko are visiting the United States for three months from the Lake Baikal area and are here to learn about what's going on with our trails," Lang said. "They are part of the International Forestry Program and are building a trail system like the Pacific Crest Trail."