METRO FILE PHOTO
Metro arborist and ranger Howard Rasmussen talks about the damage to Oxbow Regional Park earlier this year. Behind him is the riverbank that was washed away in flooding earlier in the month.
The campground at Metro’s Oxbow Regional Park is expected to reopen by mid-May, four months after flooding on the Sandy River washed away land and facilities at that facility east of Gresham.
Justin Patterson, director of Metro's Parks and Property Stewardship Program, said the campground will have about 10 fewer spots than it did last year, before yet another year of flooding on the Sandy wiped out nearly a quarter mile of riverbank near the campground. Part of the amphitheater was lost in January’s flooding, and the bank was swept out so close to the campground’s main road and restroom that both had to be removed.
Patterson said he’s hoping for a May 7 opening date for the campground.
METRO NEWS GRAPHIC BY MARLON WARREN
The good news is that Metro won’t have to build a new road to the campground – another road into the area wasn’t affected by the flooding. The amphitheater will be relocated, so summertime programs can continue. The old road, sans asphalt, will become a walking path for the time being.
The bad news is nobody knows just what the Sandy has in store in coming years.
Metro took over Oxbow, among other facilities, from Multnomah County in 1994. For the 15 years that followed, the Sandy changed its course little in Oxbow, keeping a safe distance away from the campground and other facilities.
In late 2009 and early 2010, that started to change, and the Sandy started chiseling away at sand and ash deposited by a 231-year-old lahar from Mt. Hood. By January, the river had moved hundreds of feet from its pre-2010 bank.
The early draft of Metro’s 2012-13 budget has about $100,000 set aside for looking at Oxbow’s master plan, and assessing what the future holds if the Sandy continues to push in from its present banks.
“We need to begin to look at what could happen,” Patterson said.
That’s unlikely to include bank stabilization, he said. While that could be done, it wouldn’t be an appropriate way to react to nature doing what nature does, Patterson said.
“It’s a natural and scenic river, and there’s certain values that come along with that,” he said. “We’re not putting riprap (concrete rubble to protect the bank) in. We’re not just going to insert 'X.'”
The campground at Oxbow is a first come, first served facility.