Tillamook Bay Trails Coalition takes collaborative approach to recreation infrastructure

A group of governments and other organizations from around Tillamook Bay have come together to form the Tillamook Trails Coalition, with an eye towards coordinating efforts to enhance recreational opportunities in the area.

Dan Haag, the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association’s director of trails, is spearheading the effort and said that the group is working to assess the local trail inventory and will soon be gathering community input.

Haag came up with the idea of forming a coalition last fall, after meeting a member of a similar coalition in Sisters at an Oregon Trailkeeper’s conference. Haag had been working on an inventory of trails and recreational assets across the county for a year and a half prior to that meeting and said that the idea of a coalition immediately struck him as a good way to address challenges facing groups trying to build trails in Tillamook.

According to Haag, the biggest challenge facing governments and other groups that want to build trails is a lack of resources and fierce competition for those scarce dollars. Haag said that by forming the coalition members would stop competing against each other for the same grants and that the organizations awarding those grants liked to see interagency cooperation.

“The idea is for these organizations that we pooled together to get together and look at potential project we might want to work on in terms of trails,” Haag said.

The coalition is starting with a focus on the area around Tillamook Bay north of Bay City up to Rockaway Beach and the initial members are the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association, Port of Tillamook Bay, Port of Garibaldi, the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, Tillamook County Wellness and Parks Department, the cities of Rockaway Beach and Bay City, and the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad.

The coalition held its first meeting in early June, at which it discussed what the organization should look like and how they could collaborate.

Haag said that currently the member organizations are working on inventories of their ongoing projects and outstanding grant applications. The coalition will then host a series of listening sessions to solicit public input on the coalition’s direction.

Haag said that while he expects the coalition to grow and partner with other groups, like the Oregon Trailkeepers and Salmonberry Trail Foundation, in the future, the group is starting small to make sure it doesn’t overreach.

“I think we have the right initial players at the table here, so it’s really to see it come together,” Haag said.