Prospect, Ore May 22, 2024—Many forest visitors look forward to spending time at Forest Service campgrounds in the summer to enjoy a relaxing, peaceful time with their families and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has scores of campgrounds to choose from, whether it’s spending time along the upper Rogue River corridor, in the Applegate Valley, near the Illinois River, or the Coquille or Chetco Rivers.
A favorite campground for many on the High Cascades Ranger District is known as “Farewell Bend”, located along the upper Rogue River corridor. This summer season, campers at Farewell Bend will notice large amounts of limbs, brush and other slash in and adjacent to the campground. The debris is the result of a recent timber sale that was necessary to remove diseased and dying trees that threatened the health of the forest and were a safety concern for the public. Although the timber sale is complete within the confines of the campground, treatment of logging slash and fuels reduction will continue through the Fall of 2024. A notification has been sent to all campers who have reservations at Farewell Bend on Recreation.gov.
Currently the water system at the Farewell Bend campground is down and will require professional repair. Water pressure is low, and the water is currently not safe for drinking. This issue could also potentially impact several local businesses in the recreation corridor. To address this issue, the campground is being temporarily closed and all reservations through Rec.gov will be cancelled; all who made reservations are being notified. Those who are looking for an alternative location to camp are encouraged to take advantage of the plentiful dispersed camping opportunities in the area.
“This was not an easy decision, but for public safety reasons and in an effort to limit potential impacts to local businesses, this closure needs to happen,” said High Cascades District Ranger David Palmer.
“We will open the Farewell Bend campground as soon as possible after we remedy this issue, but unfortunately, it will be closed for the Memorial Day holiday,” added Palmer.
On another note, Farewell Bend Campground does not currently look its best due to necessary and recent logging activity in the area.
“We want our forest visitors to know that we’ll continue to work on cleaning up the debris and expect the clean up to be completed by this fall,” said District Ranger David Palmer.
The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is committed to providing a safe environment for visitors to recreate. Due to changing climates and an increase in diseases and pests, we have witnessed increased damage and mortality to trees within our campgrounds. Trees within the Farewell Bend Campground began exhibiting symptoms of forest pests and diseases resulting in tree mortality, creating an unsafe environment for visitors of the campground.
We have taken a proactive approach to prevent the spread of disease by removing poor growing, unhealthy trees and trees that promote the introduction of diseases (due to being present in locations they historically wouldn’t have been located). Our intent is to promote healthy, well-formed trees by removing the unhealthy competition to improve the safety of our visitors and provide a healthier forest, more resistant to diseases and pests. This treatment is also beneficial across the landscape, resulting in a decrease in fuel loadings and overall trees per acre, allowing the campground to better withstand the effects of catastrophic wildfire should one occur.
Forest visitors can help by not damaging trees in the campgrounds with hatchets or nails. We appreciate your understanding as we continue to restore the landscape to a state that can be enjoyed for future generations to come.
