Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Deschutes National Forest says it’s reviewing its policies for naming recreation sites.  That’s after the forest came under fire this week for naming a snow park after a long time volunteer named Frank Ellis.  Ellis was convicted in 1986 of sexually abusing a child.  He died in 2007.   Deschutes National Forest Spokeswoman Jean Nelson-Dean says the forest had no idea about Ellis’s past conviction.

“Certainly this has been an unfortunate learning situation both for us and unfortunately at the expense of the pain for the family of all of this coming back into the public again," says Nelson-Dean.

Nelson-Dean says once administrators confirmed the facts behind Ellis' conviction, the decision was made to revert the site to its old name: the Wanoga snow park.  She says the forest will review the incident and put a policy in place that ensures similar mistakes don’t happen again.