Oregon Trails Coalition 2026 State Legislative Session Recap

The 2026 Oregon legislative short session ended on Friday evening. We send our gratitude out to everyone who took action for trails by participating in Trails Day at the Capitol, submitting testimony, joining sign-on letters, and reaching out directly to legislators. Here's where our priorities landed.

Big Temporary Loss: Oregon Community Paths Funding

Last Friday the Oregon State Legislature officially passed a controversial transportation budget, opting to plug a massive funding hole by gutting programs that protect the state’s most vulnerable residents. Deep cuts from the current biennium's budget will now hit Safe Routes to School ($17 million) and Oregon Community Paths ($8 million). The decision has sparked particular outrage because it raids the Oregon Community Paths program, a fund largely supported by a $15 excise tax Oregonians pay when they buy new bicycles. More than 80% of Oregonians use local trails, yet lawmakers are abandoning the safest places in our communities to walk and bike. It is unconscionable to raid bicycle excise taxes to fill a highway fund hole. By slashing this budget, the state is making neighborhoods less safe for all of us, including the very people who funded these programs.

The proposed budget was not released until the last week of session, and there was no robust discussion about the impacts of making these cuts.

Win for Recreation Liability

The discussion around recreation liability continued through the last day of the contentious session with two rival bills with different, and at times, apparently opposing approaches to waiver reform in Oregon. Oregon Trails Coalition worked with legislators and a strong coalition of recreation and stewardship partners to pass a compromise recreational liability bill. We believe the final product will significantly improve insurability and decrease risk for trails organizations and other recreation and stewardship providers. While the compromise bill that passed, a heavily amended SB 1517, contains some exceptions to liability waivers that may prove to be concerning, we are celebrating that the bill explicitly includes stewardship activities, includes waivers signed by guardians, and clarifies that Oregon's recreation waivers are enforceable, which were our goals going into this session. We share our gratitude for this success with our legislative champions, Rep. Emerson Levy, Sen. Meek, and Rep. Helfrich, and with our many partners who worked on the bill.

Win for Oregon State Snowmobile Association

At the request of Oregon State Snowmobile Association, SB 1565 passed both chambers to increase Oregon's snowmobile fee from $10 to $30 every two years. Oregon’s snowmobile program has faced major cuts impacting volunteer stewardship to maintain snow parks and trails for both snowmobilers and non-motorized users. This modest fee increase (still less expensive than neighboring states) will ensure the state snowmobile program is not losing money from administrative fees, and can continue to support the safety and equipment needs of our volunteer snowmobile clubs that leverage hundreds of volunteer hours to maintain trails that benefit snowmobilers and other trail users alike.

Did Not Move: Transportation Accountability Bills

In coalition with our Move Oregon Forward partners, Oregon Trails Coalition was supporting two ODOT accountability bills that did not pass this session. Our hope was to improve transportation funding trust, transparency, and accountability in 2026 as we plan to advocate for a safe, green, and fairly-funded transportation package that includes funding for trails in 2027. We will continue to advocate for accountability and transparency for Oregon taxpayers as we advocate for trails funding.

Win for Wildlife

HB 4134, the 1.25% for wildlife bill passed including funding for the Wildfire Protection Program. While this bill does not invest directly in trails, it invests in a number of wildlife and wildfire protection programs that support public agencies, youth corps, and conservation partners in caring for the places where we recreate.

Win for Clarifying E-bike Standards

We were happy to work this session with both micromobility advocates and our partners at Oregon and Recreation and Parks Association (ORPA) on a compromise to the original bill to give local trail and park managers the flexibility to appropriately manage e-bike and other powered micromobility devices in a variety of trail contexts. HB 4007 standardizes definitions, sets safety standards, and creates penalties for marketing e-motos as e-bikes which should reduce the presence and risks of inappropriate vehicles on non-motorized trails.

Did Not Move: Lawful Corner Crossing for Public Lands Access

SB 1545, a common sense piece of legislation that would have protected public land users and private landowners alike, failed to move out of committee this session. Folks generally agree that corner crossing where public lands and private lands meet is already legal, but many would like to see this more explicitly spelled out in Oregon law.

Win for Protecting Public Lands from Privatization

SB 1590, prohibiting public bodies from assisting the federal government with privatization of certain federally owned lands passed this session along largely partisan lines.