The Daily Populous Saturday May 3rd, 2025 morning edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by trevor25

Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in central Oregon for years were being evicted on Thursday by the US Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting controlled burns over thousands of acres.

The project has been on the books for years, and the decision to remove the encampment in the Deschutes national forest comes two months after the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to increase timber production and forest management projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk. It was not immediately clear if the evictions were a result of that order, but homeless advocates seized on the timing on Thursday, as US Forest Service officers blocked the access road.

“The fact that they are doing this with such vigor shortly after they announced that the forests would be opened up for logging I don’t think is a coincidence,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center.

The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the US Forest Service, and the service’s Pacific north-west region did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

“The closure does not target any specific user group and will restrict all access, including day use and overnight camping, while crews operate heavy machinery, conduct prescribed burns, and clean up hazardous materials,” a Deschutes national forest spokesperson, Kaitlyn Webb, said in an email. “It’s not safe for the public to be in the area while heavy machinery is operating, trees are being felled, mowing operations are active, and prescribed burning is occurring.”

Campers who had set up trailers, recreational vehicles and tents amid the ponderosa pines in the Deschutes national forest scrambled in the darkness Wednesday night to pack up and get their engines working again. Authorities closed the two-lane road in the early hours of Thursday morning, and it was not immediately clear how many people were left in the forest by the afternoon, though some were unable to leave.

The US Forest Service has been working for years on plans to close part of the Deschutes national forest near Bend for forest restoration and wildfire mitigation. But the number of people living in that part of the forest has grown, with many losing homes during the coronavirus pandemic due to job losses and high housing costs, Rabinowitz said.

Donald Trump’s administration has acted to roll back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of US national forests, under an emergency designation that cites dangers from wildfires.

Whether the administration’s move will boost lumber supplies as Trump envisioned in an executive order he signed in March remains to be seen. Joe Biden’s administration also sought more logging in public forests to combat fires, which have become more intense amid drier and hotter conditions linked to the climate crisis, yet US Forest Service timber sales stayed relatively flat under his tenure.

The Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project, a wildfire mitigation treatment on some 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), is prompting the closures in the Deschutes national forest.

The goal of the work is to reduce wildfire risk and restore damaged habitats where development encroaches on natural areas near Bend, Deschutes national forest officials said in a statement. Recreation sites and trails in that area will be closed through April next year.

Multiple US Forest Service officials and vehicles were stationed at the Deschutes national forest road closure on Thursday. A sign on the metal gate blocking the road said the temporary emergency closure would last at least one year.

Violators could face up six months in jail, fines up to $5,000, or both.

On Wednesday night, Mandy Bryant, who said she had lived in the encampment for about three years, was cleaning up her site and trying to get a trailer to start so she could move it.

“You could feel the heaviness in the air and just the stress and depression that people are feeling,” she told the Associated Press. “We’re up there on the list of groups of people that society doesn’t really care for.”

Four people living in the encampment including Bryant, along with two homeless advocates, filed for a restraining order to stop the closure earlier this month. The claim argued it would cause irreparable harm to more than 100 people who were living there, many of whom have disabilities.

The government responded in court filings that US Forest Service staff in January began notifying homeless people living in the area of the upcoming closure. Original plans for the project were published in 2019 and were authorized by the US Forest Service in 2023, the court filings said.

The US district court judge Michael McShane denied the restraining order on Tuesday and issued a written opinion on Thursday.

“The public’s significant interest in restoring natural habitats, preventing catastrophic wildfires, and preserving the overall health of Deschutes National Forest is not outweighed by the interest of 150 or so individuals in residing on this particular plot of land,” he wrote in his ruling.

Webb, a Deschutes national forest spokesperson, told the Oregonian/OregonLive that the government’s goal is “voluntary compliance”, but Forest Service officers and staff will patrol and “enforce the closure and ensure public safety”.

peacefinder on May 2nd, 2025 at 18:28 UTC »

I’m familiar with the area, south-southeast of Bend Oregon. It is a big area of mixed juniper, ponderosa, sagebrush, and grass.

It leads right into the southeast suburbs of town. If a major wildfire were to sweep through there it would have a good chance of jumping into the city’s urban growth boundary and would have a well-fueled path through that whole quarter of the city. Fuel reduction and prescribed burns in the area are desperately needed.

It’s also been a notoriously lawless area with many long-term campers. The terrain and vegetation mean many of the camps are well-hidden. Doing prescribed burns there without fully clearing it out would be dangerous all around.

The forest rangers are definitely not choosing this lightly.

iSkiLoneTree on May 2nd, 2025 at 13:45 UTC »

You can pretty much camp indefinitely on National Forest land, but you are required to move spots every 14 days. While not homeless, I was asked to move along from a dispersed camping spot when I was out there for about 3 weeks.

Edit: spelling

Vindepomarus on May 2nd, 2025 at 13:20 UTC »

It's ok the forest service will all have gotten the sack soon, they can move back in.