Arlie & Company

Valued vistas Purchase of a 200-acre slice of land south of LCC adds an inspiring piece to Eugene’s long-sought Ridgeline Trail

Last summer, standing among gnarled, moss-covered oaks in a hilltop meadow southeast of Eugene, Teresa Bishow felt inspired.

A planner with Eugene-based developer Arlie & Co., Bishow and co-workers were surveying the firm’s 1,200 acres of rural property near Lane Community College. The land is outside Eugene’s city limits and cannot be developed with suburban neighborhoods and shopping centers, though Arlie could seek county approval to sell 80-acre homesites.

But there on the ridge, with spectacular views of Mount Pisgah to the east and Mount Baldy and Spencer Butte to the west, Bishow and her colleagues were captivated by the idea of preserving the land for the public.

“We had this revelation,” she said. “It’s such a unique and wonderful place that we imagined it being preserved for future generations.”

Bishow’s inspiration led to Eugene’s $3 million purchase last week of a two-mile corridor that will expand the Ridgeline Trail southeast of the city, nearly to Lane Community College.

The 200-acre acquisition from Arlie & Co. is the largest single addition to the Ridgeline Trail, the popular network of hiking and biking paths and open spaces that ring the south edge of Eugene.

As part of the transaction, Arlie has agreed to give the city $600,000 to build and maintain the trail. However, it will take a couple of years to develop a master plan and create the path that will extend from one end of the corridor to the other, city parks officials say.

Runners, hikers, bikers, bird watchers and other outdoor enthusiasts are excited about the trail addition. And they are eager to help the city.

“I’ll definitely be up there with a pick and shovel,” said John Ticer, a south hills resident who regularly runs on the Ridgeline Trail.

Parts of the 200 acres are covered in impenetrable thickets of blackberry and hawthorn. Poison oak is common.

Ticer, a firefighter-paramedic and ultra-marathon runner, is familiar with the corridor. He has run on the dirt roads that cross the hilly terrain. Other intrepid runners, hikers and mountain bikers also visit the area.

The city’s acquisition is another step toward the long-term goal to extend the Ridgeline Trail from Fern Ridge Lake west of Eugene over the south hills to Buford Park and Mount Pisgah on the east, south of Springfield.

Extending the trail from its present end on Mount Baldy’s Dillard-Skyline Park off Dillard Road, along the new corridor, to a spot one-half-mile south of LCC, will be particularly beneficial for residents who live east of Eugene, Ticer said.

“Just being able to access it from Lane Community College would be a terrific staging area and trailhead for people on that end of town,” he said.

Besides the magnificent views, the hilly corridor provides a home for many plants and animals.

A variety of delicate, native flowers thrive in the landscape, such as the rare Kincaid’s lupine, a flower that provides nectar for the endangered Fender’s blue butterfly. Other flowers and plants include the white flowering calochortus, or “cat’s ear”; nootka, a tiny, lavender-colored, roselike flower; and Roemer’s fescue, a rare upland grass.

The land is habitat for a variety of birds, such as quail and hawks, plus deer, western gray squirrels and possibly coyotes, said Bishow, Arlie’s planning manager.

Douglas fir and ponderosa pine are thick near Mount Baldy. The landscape eventually gives way to grassy meadows and stands of California black oak and Oregon white oak on the eastern end, near LCC.

Last week, Bishow visited the corridor with city landscape architect Philip Richardson and Jesse Cary-Hobbs, a city parks and open space employee who maintains natural areas.

Bending to examine a purple-petaled brodea, a small native flower, Cary-Hobbs said the land has a diverse ecosystem.

“It’s not just one habitat type,” he said. “It’s oak savannah, prairie and fir forest. And what that means is a lot of different creatures can live here.”

The corridor encompasses a hilly spine with five peaks, ranging in height from 874 feet to 1,084 feet.

Each peak offers sweeping views of area landmarks, including those of the corridor itself, stretching undisturbed in its natural state to Mount Baldy.

“What I appreciate the most are the vistas that, as far as you can see, will be parkland,” Cary-Hobbs said.

Bishow, following her inspirational visit last summer, attended a meeting put on by parks planners interested in working with landowners to extend the Ridgeline Trail.

Afterward, she mentioned the goal of extending the trail to Arlie Vice President John Musumeci. He suggested selling the land to the city.

Musumeci said he knew his employees and consultants were impressed with the area’s natural beauty. “There were these kind of emotional reports” from people “talking about how special the place was,” he said.

Negotiations took place over the several months, culminating in the May 22 announcement that a deal had been reached.

“The city of Eugene staff was incredible to work with,” Musumeci said. “You always hear how bad it is to do business with the city of Eugene, but the team from the parks department, all of the city people, were unbelievable to deal with.”

The city has cobbled together the Ridgeline Trail system over the previous decades by acquiring small to large parcels from dozens of landowners. However, it’s rare for a landowner to give a substantial gift to build trails, said Richardson, the city landscape architect.

In honor of Arlie’s $600,000 gift to build and maintain the trail, the city has agreed to name the trail segment after Suzanne Arlie, the firm’s president and Musumeci’s wife.

“I was very humbled by the city’s willingness to name the trail after the person that I care for most in this life,” Musumeci said.

Many details must be figured out before the bark-covered, 3-foot to 4-foot wide trail can be built, including where exactly to put it, and whether to open it for both hikers and mountain bikers.

“At present, I see no reason why we wouldn’t plan for this trail to include both,” Richardson said.

Trailheads and access points from LCC or Arlie’s adjoining land also must be determined. To restore or improve native habitats and make the trail safe for users, blackberry thickets and poison oak will need to be removed.

The city parkland now bisects Arlie’s holdings with a corridor that ranges in width from 350 feet to nearly one-half mile.

Parks officials don’t intend to fence the public land to keep trail users from wandering onto Arlie’s land, Richardson said. Instead, the city is likely to place park boundary markers along the corridor’s edges, he said.

“It’s more or less the same issue we face along the entire 1,200-plus-acre Ridgeline park system,” Richardson said. “We really just don’t encounter many problems with trespassing.”

Parks planners are eager to work on the masterplan, which will be influenced by comments from trail users and other members of the public.

Richardson and Bishow said residents should wait until the trail is built before they visit the corridor, mainly because questions about how the public will access the corridor have yet to be answered.

Without signs to guide users, there’s another reason to wait, Bishow said: “If people aren’t familiar with wilderness type areas, it’s easy to get lost.”

Richardson has no doubts the segment will be popular. “As soon as it gets built,” he said,“it will get a lot of use.”

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