The Tigard Chamber is partnering with Karate on Main to bring five free safety seminars targeted at kids, families and women. The series kicks off Thursday, Feb. 23rd and continues for five consecutive Thursdays from 7-8 p.m.  Doors open at 6:45 p.m., seminars start promptly at 7 p.m.  All seminars will . . . → Read More: Tigard Chamber teams with Karate on Main]]>

Karate on Main in Tigard

The Tigard Chamber is partnering with Karate on Main to bring five free safety seminars targeted at kids, families and women. The series kicks off Thursday, Feb. 23^rd and continues for five consecutive Thursdays from 7-8 p.m.  Doors open at 6:45 p.m., seminars start promptly at 7 p.m.  All seminars will be held at the Tigard Chamber’s Pearson Community Room (12345 SW Main Street, Tigard).

These seminars are free, and you can sign up to attend any or all that are of interest. If you have questions regarding the series or an individual seminar, contact Robert Ellis at 503-968-1600 or sensei@karateonmain.com

Nick Fochtman / Pamplin Media Group The Munger site is one of two being considered for a new boat launch on the Tualatin River.

The Munger site is one of two being considered for . . . → Read More: Tigard area Paddlers’ dream on Tualatin River]]> Water trail taking shape with first new launch sites

By Steve Law, Pamplin Media Group, Feb 16, 2012

Nick Fochtman / Pamplin Media Group The Munger site is one of two being considered for a new boat launch on the Tualatin River.

The Munger site is one of two being considered for a new boat launch on the Tualatin River. Recent snow melt and rain caused the waters to bulge.

Kayakers and canoers paddling the Tualatin River through Tigard and Tualatin often are amazed to discover this scenic little gem in the midst of suburbia.

But it’s not so easy continuing upstream of the Highway 99W Bridge in Tualatin, just as the river gets wilder and meanders through the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. There are no easy ramps to enter or exit the river — and no public restrooms — for the next 27 miles, until Hillsboro’s Rood Bridge Park.

It’s no fun being up a river without a paddle, but if you can’t enter a river you can’t paddle at all. And if you do paddle this stretch of the Tualatin, you may not want to venture far, lest “nature calls” in a different way.

The once-polluted Tualatin River has been gradually restored during the past half-century. For much of that time, kayakers and canoers have dreamed of creating a Tualatin River Water Trail, to provide easy access to the river all the way from Hillsboro to West Linn, where it feeds the Willamette River.

Now that dream is within reach, at least the first leg of it.

Digging in

A citizens advisory committee on Jan. 12 selected the two best sites to accommodate new small-craft launches: the Munger Natural Area, 12 miles upstream from the Highway 99W Bridge; and River Road, 10 miles upstream from that, and 5.5 miles shy of Rood Bridge.

Soon one of those will get the final nod, and fundraising will commence to develop one or maybe both sites.

“We see this as the domino theory — get one in and then get another,” says Brian Wegener, watershed watch coordinator for Tualatin Riverkeepers, a prime mover behind the river trail. The nonprofit will help raise the funds, collaborating with Metro, which owns the properties.

There’s no formula for what constitutes a proper launch facility. “You need parking,” Wegener says. “You need a way to get down to the river, like a ramp. Restrooms would be good, and picnicking would be nice.”

In the long run, there might even be camping.

Each site brings its own limitations and potential, but backers are thinking of modest facilities, with gravel paths to enter and exit the river instead of floating docks. They’re cheaper, easier to maintain and don’t require complicated land-use and waterway approvals.

Ultimately, supporters hope to add three to five launch spots, providing easy access every five to seven miles. The close together the launch sites, the more the river will be accessible to paddlers of different ages and abilities, says Rod Wojtanik, a landscape architect managing the project for Metro.

As the river trail develops, backers hope to attract more paddlers, birders, anglers and tourists.

“People don’t realize the jewel that is here; that may be the result of the limited access,” Wojtanik says.

“Most people think it’s just a ditch,” says Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka, who has championed the river trail. “In the late-’80s and early-’90s, it was heavily polluted.”

As a result, many people retain negative perceptions of the river that are outdated. Metro hopes that getting more people to appreciate and use the river will build public support to preserve and cherish the watershed and its natural environment.

“Unless you can be out and see it and hear it and touch it, chances are you don’t have as strong as a bond,” Wojtanik says.

Tualatin Riverkeepers formed in 1989, and its annual Discovery Day has encouraged hundreds of people to paddle the river. The idea for a formal river trail came from some “fanatical paddlers,” Wegener says.

In 1992, Metro crafted a Greenspace Master Plan, listing unprotected natural areas worthy of preservation in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. The master plan first put the notion of a Tualatin River Water Trail to paper, Wojtanik says.

In 1995 and again in 2006, voters approved Metro bond measures to buy green spaces and natural areas. Metro purchased nearly 400 acres near the Tualatin River, including five potential launch sites for a future river trail.

In 2002, Metro devised a plan to open one park a year on new lands it acquired, Hosticka says. Three were developed: Mt. Talbert in North Clackamas County, Cooper Mountain near Beaverton and Graham Oaks in Wilsonville.

“The river trail was supposed to be No. 4, but we ran out of money,” Hosticka says.

Tualatin Riverkeepers and others kept pushing. Last year, Hosticka convinced Metro to allot $100,000 to do site evaluations, helping decide which ones to target initially for boat launches.

Contending sites

A red-tailed hawk patrolled the River Road site during a recent visit to Metro’s 4.5-acre parcel north of Farmington Road, next to the Cruise In Country Diner south of Hillsboro. The Harris Bridge over the river provides sweeping views of the Tualatin and the lush mix of Oregon ash, red osier dogwood, alders and Douglas firs on its banks. It’s a relatively easy site to build a ramp, Wojtanik says.

The Munger Lane property, near Scholls-Sherwood Road west of Bull Mountain, is much larger, at 83 acres. But the 40-foot drop from the road to the river will require a steep access road. On a recent visit, mergansers and other water fowl graced the river, which had bulged from recent rains to engulf an old farm field that has been replanted with native grasses.

Each of the new launches will include interpretive displays about water quality and other environmental issues, plus maps and other guidance for paddlers on the river trail.

Metro’s other purchased properties include Gotter, 4 miles upstream of Munger; Morand, 2 miles upstream of the Highway 99W Bridge, and Borland Yard, only 5.5 miles from the Willamette

A citizen’s committee all but ruled out Gotter because there’s been a significant restoration of the prairie there, and river access would require a three-quarter-mile road cutting through the natural area.

The 145-acre Morand site has great potential, “something of regional significance,” Wojtanik says. Three bicycle/ pedestrian trails in various stages of development could intersect there: the Tonquin Trail, the Riverline or Westside Trail, and the Tualatin River Greenway Trail. That site likely will require more money and planning time.

Borland is considered a prime site, but there’s no shortage of launches in the lower stretch of the river. In Tigard and Tualatin, “we’ve got a four-mile stretch with six access points,” Wegener says.

River trail backers would like to see Metro acquire a sixth parcel between the Munger and Morand sites, but so far there are no willing sellers, Wojtanik says.

On a nice sunny weekend, perhaps 200 paddlers use the Tualatin River, Wegener estimates, mostly in the Tigard and Tualatin stretch. That’s expected to grow as the river trail takes shape.

Paddling on the river will give birders a better vantage point to see some species, such as osprey, as they pass through the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, says Kim Strassburg, visitors services manager. She expects the river trail will enhance public awareness of the wildlife refuge, which opened its visitor center in 2006.

Washington County already gets 2.2 million visitors a year, many of them for business trips, country drives and wine tours, says Sylke Neal-Finnegan, marketing and communications director for the Washington County Visitors Association.

Kayaking and bicycling are appealing diversions for people here on business, she says, so the river trail is a nice complement to existing attractions, and may become a destination of its own.

On Feb. 23, Metro hosts an open house to gauge public views on which launch should be built first. Supporters hope it kickstarts a multiyear effort to build out the river trail.

“This is not just ‘one and done,’ says Hosticka, who owns three kayaks. “You have to just keep on it.”

Open house

What: Learn about the Tualatin River Water Trail and give feedback on which of two finalists should be chosen for the next launch site

Where: Clean Water Services Administration Building Complex, 2550 S.W. Hillsboro Highway, Hillsboro

When: Thursday, Feb. 23, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

More information: ” target=”_blank”>www.oregonmetro.gov/tualatinriverstudy

Violinists George Shiolas, Casey Bozell and special guest cellist Levi Manselle will perform a variety of music selections from around the world on Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 7 p.m. in the Library Community Room.  The performance will feature solos, duos and trios from Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Haydn, Bartók and Piazzolla.

Shiolas was has been a . . . → Read More: Tigard – Classical Violin and Cello Trio Will Perform at Tigard Library]]>

Violinist George Shiolas

Violinists George Shiolas, Casey Bozell and special guest cellist Levi Manselle will perform a variety of music selections from around the world on Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 7 p.m. in the Library Community Room.  The performance will feature solos, duos and trios from Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Haydn, Bartók and Piazzolla.

Shiolas was has been a soloist with numerous American orchestras, including the Oregon Symphony. He has released four solo recordings. Bozell is currently an active orchestral chamber and solo performer. She performs with the Portland Opera, Oregon Ballet Theater and Linfield Chamber Orchestra. Manselle is one of the Northwest’s leading young cellists as well as a musical entrepreneur.

This program is sponsored by Friends of the Tigard Library. Admission is free.  For information, please call the library at 503-718-2517 or visit the Library’s website at www.tigard-or.gov/library and click on Programs & Classes.