Rep. Maxine Dexter treks on Mt. Hood's Timberline Trail, talks local and regional policy

“It feels like our environment is at critical risk, and things are in really dire straits. Just sitting back and not doing anything is a decision, and that doesn’t usually end up well, so we’ve got to create momentum,” Dexter said while hiking. “We want people to be able to use the recreational spaces, but not to the point that we just decimate it.”

She explained there was much discussion during the roundtable about establishing a hub in Sandy and the Hood River Valley to improve public transit and reduce congestion as part of the Mt. Hood Multimodal Transportation Plan. Workforce housing was another major focus.

According to Dexter, the mountain needs an additional 1,500-2,000 affordable units to adequately house both seasonal and permanent employees, but fewer than 100 exist today. Some suggested leasing land owned by the United States Forest Service and converting buildings closer to downtown Hood River. Mt. Hood Meadows alone employs approximately 1,200 people during the winter months, and the company has pledged to build workforce housing in Government Camp, should the land dispute be resolved.

Separately, two leaders from Grand Ronde, comprised of more than 30 tribes and bands with ancestral territory stretching across Western Oregon, parts of Washington and Northern California, described to Dexter the impact of losing its federal recognition status from 1954 until 1983, which caused a diaspora and subsequent loss of culture. They also talked about the Grande Ronde potentially taking on the management of some federally owned forests.

“The way they manage forests is healthier,” said Dexter. “I just think we should be using the opportunities we have to do things that we know work.”

Oregon State University, for instance, documented how Indigenous cultural burning improved forest resilience, and other research shows that forests governed by Indigenous peoples, or even local communities, lead to both better ecological and social outcomes.

On the trail

Last Wednesday morning, Dexter and several of her staffers awoke to the sound of Ramona Falls, described by one as the “ultimate white noise machine.” Once two advocates from the nonprofit Save our Wild Salmon joined at around 7:30, the group departed, aiming to reach Top Spur Trailhead by lunch.

Always on the lookout for thimbleberries, Dexter made her stance on backtracking clear throughout the hike, choosing to push through a section riddled with trees downed by a 2020 windstorm instead of turning around. After crossing the Muddy Fork twice and passing Illumination Rock, a special moment for a staffer who had it tattooed, the group crested Bald Mountain.

Conversations varied during the six-or-so-mile leg. Despite the provision being struck from President Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, Dexter reiterated the threat to public lands. She further questioned the Bonneville Power Administration’s choice to sell its excess power to a market based in Arkansas at the expense of Northwest ratepayers, which segued into the ecological impacts of data center development. More specific legislative priorities came up as well.

Back in March, Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington’s 4th Congressional District introduced the Defending our Dams Act, which would prevent federal funds from being used to breach, or even study the functional alteration, of the four Lower Snake River Dams. As previously reported by Columbia Gorge News, there’s sufficient flow to meet all municipal and agricultural water demand without the old, run-of-the-river dams, which also provide no flood control and produce a fraction of the Northwest’s total energy supply.

“It essentially limits the ability of the federal government to invest or fund any of the things that would bring our region into more modern times,” said Sarah Dyrdahl, regional director for the nonprofit American Rivers, after the hike. “It’s pretty short-sighted for a lot of people in our region, especially tribal nations, who are not seeing their treaty rights upheld.”

Dyrdahl also raised concern over the Roadless Rule, which Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins rescinded in June. The regulation restricts road building, a precursor to logging, mining and other resource operations, in the least-developed areas of national forests, and it’s the only protection in place for 2,000 miles of rivers in Oregon, according to data gathered by American Rivers.

In the days to follow, representatives from the Oregon State Fire Marshall, Nature Conservancy and other groups joined Dexter on the Timberline Trail.

“I just want [Mount Hood] to be protected. This is such an important place,” said Dexter. “We should definitely continue the summits and bringing people into conversation.”