Mount Hood

Why should it be a National Park?

Oregon has a reputation for being outdoorsy and using green technology, but despite this association with environmental culture, Oregon only has one National Park, Crater Lake. Its neighbors California and Washington have nine and three, respectively. Even with its lack of National Parks, Oregon has an array of incredibly diverse landscapes that deserve to be better preserved.

Many attempts have been made to turn Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge into a National Park. Surprisingly, most locals already think this majestic landscape is a National Park, but it is actually a national forest. The logging industry is one of the reasons why there is only one National Park in the state, as there is an abundance of old-growth timber west of the Cascade Mountains.

Below Mount Hood's snowy peak lie thick and lush pine forests. But in these tree-covered valleys and hillsides, a systematic logging operation is destroying vast swaths of forests at an unsustainable rate. There are approximately 3,000 miles of roads in Mt. Hood National Forest, and 73% of them are logging roads. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the USFS had an aggressive logging policy and old-growth forests were decimated.

At higher elevations, the forests remain intact because of tourism around the historic Timberline Lodge and its ski area. Well-traveled areas that attract visitors are safe from the devastation that happens just beyond the view of cars and trails. Meanwhile, several lawsuits and environmental groups have challenged the USFS management practices, citing landslides and stream pollution from loose soil caused by deforestation, which has severely reduced local fish populations.

The Columbia River Gorge below the mountain extends for 50 miles along the northern edge of Mt. Hood National Forest along the border of Oregon and Washington. This geologically and ecologically interconnected river valley has often been paired with campaigns to turn the Mount Hood region into a National Park, including four such attempts from the late 1800s into the 1980s.

The cliffs of the Columbia River Gorge dominate the scenery, some of which tower 4,000 feet over the river below. The Columbia River carved its way through the Cascade Mountains over millions of years, most recently with the Missoula Floods that resulted from the last Ice Age. The gorge is also famous for an abundance of waterfalls. Multnomah Falls is the most popular and astounding at 620 feet high, but hundreds of others cascade down Mount Hood into the gorge. Many tourists visit only the most famous and accessible falls, ignoring the maps, roads, and trails that offer greater access to lesser-known features and overlooks. Because this land is not a National Park, out-of-state travelers treat this region as a roadside attraction rather than an expansive environment that connects rivers, forests, and snow-capped elevations worth a visit all on its own.

Mount Hood has long been considered for National Park status, with campaigns and legislative attempts dating back to the early 1900s. An ongoing Mount Hood National Park Campaign carries forward a century-old vision for protecting Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. This active proposal is focused on finally converting the landscape into a National Park.