Waldo Lake, Fall Creek area to have limited access for years to come, officials say

Fires of unprecedented size and heat take years for areas to recover enough to ensure public safety.

“The Willamette National Forest has had so much fire since 2020,”Lowell Evans, a fire recovery project manager, said at a recent U.S. Forest Service Middle Fork Ranger District meeting in Lowell. “Over 400,000 acres burned in four years, that’s a quarter of the forest and 190,000 acres on the Middle Fork District since fall of 2021.”

The severity of the fires means that some places, including Waldo Lake and the Fall Creek area, will have limited access and closed roads for at least the next two and a half years due to projects dedicated to recovering from the massive Cedar Creek and Bedrock fires of 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Even when full public access is granted, "it'll take lifetimes for the forest to look like it used to," acting District Ranger Cameron Mitchell said. “The amount of ground burned in the last four years on the Willamette National Forest is more than the amount of burning area 100 years prior to that."

"What’s uncommon is the almost 100% tree mortality for 10,000 to 15,000 acres. Just that area of 100% mortality is larger than our large fires were years ago,” he said.

The Forest Service wants to mitigate risk by clearing hazardous fire-killed trees within striking distance of the road for hundreds of miles before granting public access. The goal is to make the area a “reasonably safe place for everyone to access,” Mitchell said.

“You can go and clear your way through a road and trees are falling behind you as you work your way out,” he said. “A lot of people going out there aren’t prepared to cut their way out. They’re going out there to gather mushroom and birdwatch, not to do forest work.”

Cedar Creek, Bedrock fires cause Oregon recreation area closures

The Cedar Creek Fire torched 127,311 acres in the late summer of 2022. The megafire burned outside Oakridge and around popular recreation area Waldo Lake. The fire didn’t take any lives or destroy any homes, but suppression and repair costs reached at least $132 million.

The Bedrock Fire began 10 miles northeast of Lowell in late July 2023 and burned 31,590 acres in the Fall Creek area. Eleven percent of the acreage was designated with “high soil burn severity,” which is when all or nearly all of the pre-fire ground cover and surface organic matter (litter, duff, and fine roots) is generally consumed, according to the Forest Service.

Waldo Lake, Fall Creek area closure details

The Forest Service reduced the size and scope of the Cedar Creek Fire closure in June 2023 by reopening access to the Waldo Lake area, some of its campgrounds and other popular areas.

The agency reopened the Pacific Crest Trail to through hikers and Shadow Bay campground on the southern end of Waldo Lake.

However, while the forest surrounding Waldo Lake area is technically open and can be visited on foot and by boat, most of the roads and many of the campgrounds remain closed. This makes the ability to get to some trailheads a nearly impossible task. And anyone exploring the burn area may find danger and difficult travel. It can feature very difficult terrain.

Public reaction to long closures

“I have been going to Waldo Lake since I was 14 months old,” Kirsten Ricketts, whose family had been recreating at the lake for four generations, said during the meeting. “When it burned, I was horrified, but I knew they had to save Oakridge.”

Ricketts was reassured of recovery efforts after taking a trip to the Waldo Lake with the Forest Service last year. She appreciated the education from the meeting and doesn’t believe any hard time given over recovery efforts is warranted.

“They want it beautiful too,” she said. “The Forest Service cares about it like we care about it."

Elliott Deins is an outdoors journalism intern for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at edeins@salem.gannett.com