TKU Tread School – Wildfire Recovery Edition – Santiam

Hosted by Trailkeepers of Oregon with support from the Bureau of Land Management & Travel Oregon, we are pleased to offer out annual Tread School weekend. Nestled along the Santiam Canyon within a corridor that includes many public land agencies that were affected by the historic 2020 Labor Day Fires, TKO Crew Leaders, as well as partner and agency instructors, will deliver a comprehensive trails training themed in wildfire recovery.

TKO Tread School – Fire Recovery Edition aims to set a foundation in risk management while restoring trails that have been damaged by wildfire. We’ve got the fun training all figured out, plus food/refreshments and a beautiful place to stay – grab a bunk, pitch your tent, or rent a room for the weekend and get ready to rebuild some trails!

Your registration includes:

• 2.5 days on the trail building topics in large group and breakouts.
• Meals from Friday dinner through Sunday lunch (vegetarian/vegan/gluten free options available).
• Lodging – you have the option of bunking in a shared 4-8 person cabin (bring your own bedding) or tent camping (bring your own tent and camping gear).
• If sharing a room or sleeping in a tent is not going to work for you, you are more than welcome to commute &/or we are working on a discounted stay at the Bridgeway Inn & Suites 5 minutes from Camp Taloali!

Our Tread School – Fire Recovery Edition sessions include concepts on:

• Guest speakers providing an introduction to understanding Burn Area Emergency Response reporting, informing the severity of areas affected by wildfire. Focus will be on a review of the BAER report from the Beachie Creek fire within the Santiam Canyon.
• TKO’s Burn Area Safety Checklist, founded in a deliberative risk assessment that acts as a job hazard analysis to measure our risk tolerance to perform trail stewardship.
• Using a unique set of “Trail Eyes” to accurately survey a trail corridor for logs, brushing, and tread needs and the safe use of hand tools to perform basic brushing and tread restoration on fire-affected trails.
• Share TKO’s methodology in entering a burn area to perform different Levels of Service that starts with first access and ends with a trail corridor ready to welcome the public to return.

Weekend Program:

Friday, May 17th, 5PM:

• Arrival
• Set-up camp
• Welcome and Orientation
• Dinner and a special guest presentation
• Registration for classes

Saturday, May 18th, all day:

• Breakfast and morning training sessions
• Carpool to stewardship sites
• Afternoon session in the field
• Return to basecamp for hot dinner and camaraderie

Sunday, May 19th, ending no later than 4PM:

• Breakfast with morning info session, pack up
• Carpool to stewardship sites
• Full day session in the field
• Return to basecamp and head home

Camp Taloali is located just east of Stayton, OR – 10-20 minutes from trailheads affected by the historic 2020 Labor Day Wildfires – Santiam State Forest, BLM Little North Fork Recreation Area, Mt. Hood National Forest, and Willamette National Forest – where work/learning sites are on nearby hiking trails. Further information about locations, accommodations, carpooling, what to bring, etc will be sent to registrants in the month leading up to the event.

We recognize that the registration cost can be out of reach for some participants. Thanks to the support of our generous sponsors, we are excited to be offer a limited number of free or reduced costs scholarships for this event. If the cost of attending this event is a barrier for you, please reach out to our Engagement Manager, Natalie, at natalie.ferraro@trailkeepersoforegon.org to inquire about available scolarships.

We are grateful to the following partners and sponsors:

Bureau of Land Management ~ Oregon Department of Forestry ~ US Forest Service ~ Oregon Trails Coalition