Sauvie Island braces for one million visits, most crowds during hot weather

Jammed traffic on Reeder Road during a hot summer day can delay or prevent emergency vehicles from reaching the scene of a fire, accident or medical dilemma.

Warm summer weather brings plenty of attention to the Portland metropolitan area's overcrowded rivers, but there's another, potentially deadly, elephant in the room.

On June 24, Oregon State Police posted a news release letting everyone know they and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office would saturate Sauvie Island that weekend with safety patrols among boaters, drivers and beach users.

Their two-day roundup included nine arrests for driving while under the influence (of alcohol and marijuana), one for boating under the influence, the arrest of one intrepid seller of $117 worth of vodka jello shots (some to minors) and numerous traffic, parking, boating and minor-in-possession/selling-to-a-minor citations. Several vehicles were towed and ambulances had to thread heavy traffic to reach patients.

The melee attracted momentary media attention (especially the jello-shot sales), but as the publicity blush waned, police, fire officials and the beleaguered staff of the Sauvie Island Wildlife Management Area are bracing for more problems in the warm months ahead.

Just how much more loving can the island's public playground take? Will they have to sell tickets?

Mark Nebeker, manager of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's 12,000 acres, said the management area will see about one million visits this year.

We've reached critical mass," he said.

Reeder Road, the only access to Sauvie's sandy Columbia River beaches, has already been closed once this summer, during early June's near-100 degree weekend. So many vehicles jammed the crumbling pavement it would have been impossible for an emergency vehicle to reach anyone in trouble, much less save a life.

The public is in jeopardy," said Norvin Collins, chief of the Sauvie Island volunteer fire department.

On a typical weekend, the department's volunteers respond to two or three emergencies per day - brush fires started by illegal campfires, car accidents, medical incidents, etc.

Collins said no one has lost their life yet because of the crowds, but if a medical or life-threatening emergency occurs on a hot weekend day, it might be impossible to quickly reach the site other than by helicopter or boat.

Nebeker said beaches attract about 65 percent of the visits with the remainder split between anglers, birders, hikers and bicyclists, horseback riders, field trials and hunters.

Regulated hunting, which paid for the area's purchase and supports its staffing, is one of the area's lowest uses, spread across fall and winter months.

Multnomah County maintains Reeder Road's access right up to the county line at Willow Bar and the pavement and shoulders are in good shape.

Beyond that, however, only a handful of Columbia County residents draw less road maintenance attention and the pavement, while adequate for the area's fall and winter hunting crowd, was never meant to accommodate thousands of vehicles on a warm summer day.

I cannot work along the 400' feet of frontage I manage, or walk or bike on the road during summer weekends because of the speeding, reckless driving, and narrow road," said Gary Kish, one of the Columbia County homeowners.

Although the area's parking fees -- $10 per day, $30 season -- have risen for using limited lots, the state cannot justify carving more parking out of valuable wildlife habitat to satisfy summer partying.

Nebeker said a core of dedicated volunteers, many of them senior citizens, patrol the area

Over-loaded trash bins and portable toilets are emptied and cleaned regularly, but problems still pile up.

daily on an individual basis, while organized groups visit monthly to clean up beaches and parking lots.

He said nearly 20 portable toilets, cleaned weekly, are adequate to meet the demand, although volunteers foray into closed forests to retrieve diapers and drunken beach-goers don't always make it to the outhouses, often leaving human waste along trails or within sight.

The area's unique nude beach ("clothing optional," as the department prefers to call it) is routinely policed by users and isn't much of a litter problem, Nebeker said.

The department has been historically reluctant to tackle alcohol use on the wildlife area.

Nebeker said State Police and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office will continue to step up enforcement efforts. On busy traffic days, he said, plans are in the works to erect signs, conduct more saturation patrols and even close roads again when they get too crowded and endanger public safety.

Eventually, we'll need to regulate the parking," Nebeker predicted. "Ultimately it will have to be a control on access."

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