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A hiking organization’s efforts to convince the U.S. Forest Service to at least temporarily end a nearly decadelong policy of closing the Lower Cape Horn Trail during peregrine falcon nesting season has alarmed biologists at the Audubon Society of Portland.

Since 2009, the Lower Cape Horn Trail in the Columbia River Gorge closed each year from February to July to protect nesting peregrine falcons on the cliffs above. The birds are perhaps the most impressive success story of any creature listed on the Federal Endangered Species Act. Around 50 years ago the birds teetered on the brink of oblivion, but successful conservation and breeding programs helped their populations recover dramatically. They are still protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and remain listed as a protected species in Washington state. But in December 2016, they were lifted from the Washington State Sensitive Species list.

“They have had great success in their recovery and it seemed to be time to go, ‘OK, we’ve been doing the extra precaution of keeping the trail closed. Now might be a good time to see if hikers and the peregrines can coexist in a healthy way,'” said Teresa Robbins, vice president of the Cape Horn Conservancy.

The Conservancy, a non-profit focused on the stewardship of the Cape Horn Trail, is in talks with the Forest Service to allow hikers year-round access to the trail during a two-year trail run. The organization believes hikers and nesting falcons can coexist in the area — so long as hikers are educated about the birds and tread quietly. The organization proposes having volunteer docents stand at both ends of the hiking trail to inform hikers as to why they should not disturb the nesting birds and hand out small informational cards with more details. The group also plans to monitor the birds’ nesting and fledgling activity from the Oregon side of the river using high-powered scopes. None of the monitors are trained biologists, but they have been trained by Forest Service biologists.

Uninterrupted, the trail is a 7.5-mile loop, but with the lower trail closure in place, it becomes an out and back.