COTA 2024 Accomplishments
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COTA built 6 miles of new trails at Cline Butte and Cascade View, thanks in large part to the grant from the Visit Central Oregon Future Fund and COTA’s Redmond Chapter volunteers. The trails range from beginner (green) to high intermediate (blue) and are named Rattler, Whiptail, Chainbreak, Return Policy, and The Goat. Check them out! We also held our Spring Trail Love at Cascade View to work on the trails and had a huge turnout.
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COTA hired Dirt Mechanics to refresh the degraded jump sections of this much-love trail while providing better progression and flow. Paul Lissette and his crew worked hard for nearly 2 months to complete this work. Once the winter moisture does its magic, Tiddlywinks should be riding better than ever before. Thanks to the Recreational Trails Program for a grant that made this work possible.
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The Prineville Bike Park got a big upgrade this year thanks to a grant from Meta and the hard work of COTA staff and volunteers. Two jumps were reinforced with metal and wood ramps and the pump track was reshaped. Also a big thank you to Crook County Parks and Recreation for controlling invasive weeds at the park.
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It’s official, COTA has officially adopted the trails in La Pine State Park through Oregon State Parks Adopt-A-Park program. There’s an official sign with our name on it and everything! Join volunteers from COTA’s SoDeCo Chapter to help keep these lovely trails in great shape.
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Our Women of COTA Program has been creating a fun, community-centered way for anyone to get involved in trail work for 4 years. This year they raised the bar even higher with the first annual Women of COTA Trail Love. Seventy people did maintenance on the Swampy Lakes trails and enjoyed a community potluck after. Thanks so much to our partner groups: Girl Get After It. Stay tuned for the 2025 event!
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COTA led two youth classes at Bike Park 242 in Sisters: Intro to Pump and Intro to Jump. After spending 2022 and 2023 making huge physical improvements to Bike Park 242, in 2024 we were able to offer these clinics through the Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD). Huge thanks to Steve and Michelle Smith, Kevin Formalarie, and COTA’s Sisters Chapter volunteers for all your hard work. Casey Meudt, co-owner of Blazin Saddles and co-founder of Bike Park 242, provided free bike safety and helmet fitment checks before each clinic. All participants received a free water bottle and Bike Park 242 T-shirt sponsored by Blazin Saddles, and a free ice cream certificate donated by Dairy Queen in Sisters. A good time was had by all!
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Behind the scenes, COTA upgraded our membership database, migrating to Neon One’s platform. It was a ton of work to set up this platform and migrate all of our data to it, and we’re glad it’s done. The transition saves us a lot of time on the backend.
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COTA’s sawyers are the unsung heroes of the trails, chasing the spring snow melt in the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests so that you can ride the trails without having to lift your bike over a ton of fallen trees. It’s shocking how many trees fall across trails every year! Sawyers are required to meet substantial initial and continuing education requirements, as this is a dangerous job. In July 2024, COTA’s Saw Program became nationally-recognized by the U.S. Forest Service, with Joe Myers as our designated Saw Program Coordinator. Joe has attained one of the highest levels of certification a sawyer can receive and will be working to bring training opportunities for both chainsaws and crosscut saws to Central Oregon.
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Item descriptionCOTA welcomed our fifth employee, Kira Sandiford, in January 2024. Kira became our Development Director and is responsible for our fundraising efforts. Our spring membership drive, our improved monthly newsletter, and all those cool stories during our end of year fundraising drive--Kira is the mastermind behind it all. COTA’s budget is a fraction of that of other well-known nonprofits in Central Oregon, and we look forward to Kira helping us grow our resources so that our trail stewardship and trail community initiatives can be outstanding.
