The moment presents an opportunity for someone who has the resources to endow the Rogue River Trail and secure it for future generations
11 NOVEMBER 2025 | MARIAL, OR. – A long section of the Rogue River National Recreation Trail on Forest Service land impacted by the 2025 Moon Fire Complex will be closed indefinitely, according to local fire officials.
The fire compromised or completely burned six bridges between Clay Hill and Foster Bar and incinerated retaining structures that held the trail in place along impossibly steep slopes.
“We’re waiting on a new official closure that will include the trail and camping along the river bank,” says Fire Public Information Officer Livia Stecker. This was also confirmed by other officials and the order should be issued which “should be any day now,” Stecker adds.
The fire made a late-season run, growing about 12,000 acres in a period of just two days along with a heat wave that hit the forecast area. “That explicit fire behavior late in the season set them [the incident management team] back on their heals,” Stecker mentions. “It caught them off guard,” and they didn’t have enough time to wrap the structures in a fire retardant material.
The fire-retardant wrap often seen adorning buildings, lookouts, and other assets doesn’t always necessarily save the structure, especially in the heavily-wooded areas adjacent the trail that provide heavy fuel and sustained torching.
Stecker also confirms that the Forest Service has submitted requests for bridge funding. “I think we’ll be able to reopen the trail before the bridges are rebuilt,” she says. “There will be stream fording.”
Her thinking may be quite ambitious. We've been maintaining this section of the trail with the Gold Beach Ranger District for the last 10 seasons. Logging the trail out and digging out landslides after winter storms is always a lift.
Add some miles of a cute fire damage and, yes, opening the trail in 2026 is possible -- sans bridges -- if funding was fast tracked and mobilization efforts could start now. Keeping it open is quite another, because fire damage is a long process with many influencing factors.
According to our Rate My Burn maintenance forecasting tool, the ideal peak of needed maintenance will be around six years after the fire for brush and tread operations, and about 10 seasons after the fire for logging out trees that fall on the trail. Different species fall at different rates, and large diameter snag patches will take the longest to topple.
In the meantime, growing conditions will ripen as root systems take hold and the brush enjoys newfound sun after loss of forest canopy. The worst erosion will occur within the first few years following the fire but persist as it always has in these clay slopes.
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Rate My Burn Maintenance Forecast |
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Tread |
Brush |
Logout |
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Ideal interval until stable in years |
2.88 |
2 |
3.17 |
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Ideal peak of maintenance in years |
6 |
6 |
11 |
By the time the trail is at the peak need for labor to keep the trail sustainable, any federal funding that does get secured will likely have lapsed and the Moon Complex will be far in the rear-view mirror of budget officers.
“This trail has a remarkable profile. This may be an opportunity for someone who loves the Rogue canyon to fund an investment that provides restricted revenue to work the Rogue the trail, in perpetuity,” says executive director Gabriel Howe. “There’s an opportunity for someone who has the resources to endow the Rogue River Trail and secure it for future generations.”
Howe says he’s reticent to launch a community fundraising campaign in fear of cannibalizing operating funds. “It’s a seven-digit idea. If we had a lead gift, we could make a big difference, but that's what it would take.”
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