Floating a new park plan.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

With a snappy lift and smooth push, Ed Fredette casts himself and his kayak into the canoe canal in Alton Baker Park for another encounter with `24/7,' the name given to a constant and predictable hole for play-boaters created where the canal spills over a low concrete dam.

Since the early 1990s, Fredette has led a legion of beginning kayakers to the canal to learn, to practice and often to develop a passion for paddling.

"It gets people in direct touch with nature and a lot more aware of water resources, development impacts and pollution," Fredette says. "People who like paddling really like it, are really passionate about it."

Fredette and other paddling enthusiasts are hoping their passion will translate into an overhaul of the canoe canal when the Eugene City Council sets priorities for the city's long-range park plan, which will be up for public hearings in February.

The redesigned canal would put Eugene in the company of more than three dozen U.S. cities that have reshaped and promoted their rivers as whitewater parks for recreation, competition and celebration.

Those who champion the plan see an even grander vision, one that includes whitewater features in the Willamette River for wave surfing that would make the proposed whitewater park a one-of-a-kind attraction for every type of watersport and every level of skill.

The growing popularity of river surfing, along with accessibility to Eugene's other amenities, would be a big tourism draw, says Elijah Mack, a river surfing enthusiast and local barber.

"I think it will bring the biggest percentage of tourism, other than UO sports programs," Mack says. "Eugene is a nice place. People are not trying to bring big-time corporations here. This is a good way to bring tourism."

Habitat and humanity

The basic proposal - the one being considered in the city's comprehensive park plan - centers on the canoe canal. Constructed through Alton Baker Park in the mid-1970s, it was intended specifically for boating and passive recreation.

In a nutshell, the plan would replace the canal's hard-edged concrete structures with natural river boulders and other debris to create fish habitat while producing waves and currents for recreational paddling.

But the driving aspects of the proposal - the features that will carry government funding - are the habitat restoration, storm water treatment and pollution control that will come along with the new stream design, city parks officials say.

"We're not trying to do Disney World," says Fredette, who is trip facility manager for the University of Oregon Outdoor Program and an avid paddler who wrote his master's degree thesis on the whitewater park proposal.

"This used to be the river. We put all these things in it. What we're trying to do is return it back to a more natural river state. It's better for wildlife, paddlers, fish, aesthetics and safety," Fredette says.

Although simple in concept, the project is destined for an expensive and prolonged planning, engineering and permitting process, city parks officials say. But first, city leaders must weigh the community's interest in the whitewater park among the many parks and open spaces projects in the new comprehensive plan.

"It would really depend on the community's will, how much priority this gets. We would need to see a fair amount of community will pushing for it," says Carolyn Weiss, the city's interim parks planning manager.

If the plan moves forward, a long list of state and federal agencies would have to assess how it would affect fish, wildlife, and other river users before granting permits to alter the canoe canal or the Willamette River.

The plan would offer an opportunity to address some long-standing problems with the canoe canal, says Trevor Taylor, natural resources planning manager for the city's parks department.

For example, the concrete duck pond at the downstream end of the canal collects a big load of fecal bacteria from ducks that are drawn there by people who feed them.

The A Street Canal, a drainage ditch of largely unfiltered Springfield storm water, enters the canal just upstream from the duck pond.

Grand vision, long process

One vision of the whitewater park project would be to build wetlands to filter the storm water and a naturalized streambed to replace the duck pond.

A concrete dam near the Autzen Stadium footbridge could be redesigned as a complex series of drops in the canal that spectators could access easily for competitions, demonstrations and everyday recreation, Fredette says.

Public involvement would be essential to any new design for the park, Taylor says.

Interest certainly would be high among residents who have worked hard to spare the Whilamut Natural Area on the east side of Alton Baker Park from intrusive development.

David Sonnichsen, a former chairman of the natural area's 15-member citizen planning committee, says the waterpark proposal appears in line with the natural area's mission. While most of the changes would be outside the natural area, he says he needs more information about safety for stream users, parking and other potential effects from added visitors.

The entire project is so new and unstudied that cost figures have not been calculated. But it's certain to require intense engineering to prevent erosion, to protect the landfill beneath the Whilamut Natural Area, to improve fish habitat and to provide good stream features for recreation.

"It's not a little thing, where you throw a few logs in there. It would take a lot of engineering," Taylor says. "Streams are systems. We would need to do it end to end. It's a big project. It's worth having a long process. You get a better project in the end, one that is sustainable."

Successful idea elsewhere

The whitewater park proposal is not unique. European cities pioneered them, and more than 40 U.S. cities have created one of their own, according to Mike Harvey, an engineer with Recreation Engineering and Planning, a firm that has designed a majority of U.S. whitewater parks.

Communities find that their parks draw paddlers from near and far, as well as families, hikers and picnickers who enjoy the easy access to a whitewater setting in the heart of a city, he says.

"The whole appeal of it is accessibility. Families come in one car. The parents play one at a time while the other watches the kids," Harvey says. "Every community you talk to will say it's the best investment they've ever made. It's low maintenance. The return on investment is really tremendous."

The city of Golden, Colo., for example, made its $200,000 waterpark the cornerstone of downtown in 1998. An independent analysis found an economic benefit of between $1.3 million and $2 million for the local economy in 1999, according to city documents. The city expanded the park in 2003. Users range from competitive paddlers to inner tubers.

In other cities, conflicts arose over attempts to alter stream flows. That wouldn't happen in Eugene because the flow in the canoe canal is strong enough for recreation, Fredette says.

The existing bike paths, trails and parking in Alton Baker Park will complement the proposed whitewater park. The idea also blends with the city's new slogan, "The World's Greatest City for the Arts and Outdoors," says Bob Jensen, general manager of Big Green Events, which puts on the Eugene Celebration, Freedom Festival, Filbert Festival, Art and the Vineyard and other popular community events.

Jensen says he was struck by the crowds he saw attending a charitable fundraising race on Reno's whitewater park on the Truckee River during a visit he made last year.

"I think we haven't necessarily celebrated and recognized the great outdoors we have," Jensen says. "I think it's a great statement for our community. Part of it is getting a vision and a concept. The core of downtown really has a great opportunity."

Rallying the community

If the whitewater park proposal gets strong public support, proponents hope the vision can expand to include river surfing on the Willamette.

Their hope centers on the low concrete dam upstream from Interstate 5 that formerly fed water to the historic Eugene Millrace. The structure no longer serves that purpose, but remains a navigation obstacle with dangerous currents that can capsize and trap boaters who venture over it.

Mack, who has surfed rivers on several continents, looks at the hazard and sees "a wave park that is 90 percent built."

Mack, Fredette and others propose changing the configuration of the structure to shape the current into standing waves that can be enjoyed by surfers, body boarders, kayakers, rafters and other river users. The site could produce three to five constant waves for surfing that are much safer than the current conditions around the dam, they say.

With the canoe canal waterpark and river waves, the Eugene proposal would have something for every type of whitewater enthusiast of every skill level, Mack says. The biggest obstacle for proponents may be to convince the community that the whitewater park isn't just for the small percentage of river users who are expert paddlers, says Guy Santiago, co-owner of Oregon River Sports in Glenwood.

"It's an uphill battle. I'm not opposed to it. I think the canoe canal is a fine recreational place to paddle right now," Santiago says.

The project also faces stiff competition from other parks and open spaces projects that have been on the city's long-term projects list for a long time, says Tim Patrick, the city's youth and family services manager for Library, Recreation and Cultural Services.

"It would have to compete against a bunch of other great projects," Patrick says. "I think fundamentally it is an excellent idea that would add a useful amenity to our community."

With public hearings on the parks and open spaces comprehensive plan tentatively scheduled for February, Fredette and others are working to raise community awareness and support.

"What we need to do now is some coalition building," Fredette says. "The whitewater park isn't for the elite. My idea for this is to have it much more open to a wide group of people, including kids, alter-abled people, novices up to expert. We don't want to build something that isn't environmentally friendly or what people want. I don't know where the interest is or where it might go."

CAPTION(S):

Ed Fredette launches into the canoe canal at Alton Baker Park. Fredette is an avid paddler who wrote his master's degree thesis on a proposal for a whitewater park at Alton Baker that would create fish habitat while producing waves and currents for recreational use. Kevin Clark / The Register-Guard Karl Moser tackles "Cotton Candy," a kayak run on the Willamette River. Proponents say the Eugene plan would have something for every type of whitewater enthusiast of every skill level. Mike Thurber does a roll in the Alton Baker Park canoe canal at "24/7," a popular spot for kayakers.