C.O. tree climbers delight in magnificent views

Central Oregonians love their outdoor recreation, from skiing to hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. But there’s another sport that’s less known, and that’s tree climbing. There might even be a “prize” waiting at the top, courtesy of a related sport.
Brett Huet is a certified arborist and skilled tree climber. He’s been climbing for nearly two decades and said Tuesday that with an ever-growing amount of efficient tree-climbing equipment, this is an exciting time to be part of the tree-climbing community.
There’s no short of equipment needed for tree climbing. The gear includes; ropes, harnesses, helmets, ascenders, carabiners, gloves safety glasses, lanyards and many more safety gadgets.
Also, a tree is needed.
In this case, the tree is a 100-foot-tall Ponderosa pine, 15 minutes from Bend and 150 years old.
“This tree is fantastic,” Huet said. “Not only is it a great specimen to climb, it’s a very old Ponderosa. It just lends itself for a recreational climb. And again, the views here are spectacular.”
And those views are spectacular, in part, because they’re not easy to reach.
“Certainly there’s a feeling of accomplishment. It’s not too easy. You have to exert quite a bit of energy to get to the top,” Huet said.
Arborists have been climbing trees since the 1800s, while recreational tree climbing has only been around since the 1980s.
Since then, a unique branch of the sport has grown, called Tree-O-Caching.
“Super-cool, creative idea, where tree climbers install caches, and the deal is that you resupply the cacheh with something having to do with tree climbing and whatnot,” Huet said.
In the canopy of more than 60 trees around North America are buckets filled with goodies.
But even without the goodies, the trees are still worth climbing.
“You lose all track of time,” Huet said. “For some, it’s a really great way for them to hyper-focus on the task at hand.”
The tree-climbing community is growing, and for the already established arborists, the hope is that appreciation for the environment grows with it.
“The intent is to be able to climb a tree, but to really value the tree as an asset and you respect it as such, and hopefully folks will embrace that,” Huet said.
Because, as they say, the views are worth it.
The city of Bend has recently reinstated it’s Tree City, USA status, joining the ranks of Central Oregon cities Redmond, Madras and Sisters. This honor is bestowed by meeting four core standards of sound urban forestry management: maintaining a tree board or department, having a community tree ordinance, spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry and celebrating Arbor Day.
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On Thursday at 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central Oregon STEM hub will be hosting an event at Shevlin Park to expose students to careers in natural resources:
2018 Central Oregon Natural Resource Field Day — The city and Park District will join Career & Technical Education, Discover Your Forest, Children’s Forest, and the U.S. Forest Service to offer this hands-on, activity based event, targeted at students. There will be career awareness and advanced career exploration workshops led by industry professionals. High school students from across Central Oregon, and youth from COIC and Heart of Oregon Corps, will be in attendance from 9:30 a.m. through 1 p.m. We are anticipating about 200 students.
Students will be participating in activities based on a set schedule. Our goal is to expose students to different careers in natural resources, and excite them to pursue learning related to natural resources.