Update: Cultus Lake boat launch will open Friday

(Update: Boat launch to open Friday; boat-in campsites also open)

The Deschutes National Forest said Monday it will open the Cultus Lake boat launch to the public on Friday, also noting other open campsites around the lake. The move came in the wake of a controversial decision to close the campground and day-use areas for the summer, until hundreds of dead or diseased trees in danger of falling can be removed.

Parking will be first-come, first-served at the boat launch, officials said. Due to the hazardous trees, visitors will no longer be allowed to park on Forest Road 4635 that accesses the Cultus Lake area.

The Forest Service said it was “looking for solutions” to address the hazard trees in the campground and day-use areas and will remove them “as soon as possible.”

The forest said in its Sunday announcement, “An in-depth review of tree stand health at the Cultus Lake Campground, Day-Use and boat launch areas by Hoodoo Recreation and the Forest Service uncovered at least 160 dead hazard trees and 300 diseased ‘green’ trees that might fall on a family or individual camping or recreating in the area.”

On Monday, the agency’s update said they “will be able to mitigate the hazards in the vicinity of the boat launch area and encourage the public to use it in the summer season.”

They also said all boat-in campsites around the lake — Little Cove, Big Cover and West Cultus — will be open for the summer, as well as Cultus Lake Lodge.

But in general, they said, removing that number of trees in the Cultus Lake area will be a large project that requires an environmental analysis.

A factor in the environmental analysis will be that the Cultus Lake area is within habitat identified for the northern spotted owl.

The owl is considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act and its habitat is protected under the Northwest Forest Plan and the Deschutes National Forest Plan. These protections require the Forest Service to remove trees in the fall, outside of the owl’s breeding season, officials said.

“Because of the presence of the northern spotted owls, we are required to wait until after the owl’s breeding season is over,” Bend District Ranger Kevin Larkin said. “That’s typically around September 30, so any tree removal will have to take place after that date.”

The Forest Service said it’s planning to remove the affected trees this fall, in anticipation of reopening the campground for the 2018 season.

Word of the closure late Friday was a blow to Cultus Lake Resort, which reached out on its Facebook page for people to call the Forest Service and lawmakers to lodge complaints about the move.

A co-owner of the resort told NewsChannel 21 on Sunday she wonders why the diagnosis couldn’t have happened sooner.

“I think it’s pretty awful that this wasn’t caught at the end of the season last year,” Sandie Campbell said. “It’s going to affect so many people.”

Larkin said he didn’t want to hurt business for the resort — he just wanted to do right by the Forest Service’s mission.

“In the end, we didn’t find the decision available to us that would meet our safety and our wildlife obligations and be able to keep that campground open,” he said.

Forest spokeswoman Kassidy Kern said most of the diseased trees were afflicted with Indian paint fungus, though she said one large pocket of trees has laminated root rot, the same disease that recently prompted closure of an area near the Walton Lake Campground.

Every year, campgrounds and day-use areas are reviewed by Hoodoo Recreation, the Deschutes National Forest’s campground concessionaire and special use permit-holder. The reviews often lead to identification of a small number of trees to be removed, the agency explained.

In addition, each campground, day-use area and boat launch on the forest is reviewed more thoroughly by individuals trained in plant pathology at least once every five years. Many of the hazard trees mentioned above were identified through this in-depth review, the announcement said.

Though Cultus Campground and Day-Use area will be closed for the summer, there are more than 80 other campgrounds on the Deschutes National Forest that will be open. The Forest Service said it “regrets the inconvenience this closure will cause, but hopes that visitors will find an appropriate substitute location to enjoy public lands.”

For more information, the agency said to contact District Ranger Kevin Larkin at 541-383-5300 or klarkin@fs.fed.us .