Wilderness limited-entry proposals draw reaction

(Update: Comments from Forest Service, trail user)

The Deschutes and Willamette national forests have just taken the next step in a public process to possibly impose permits that limit the rising number of visitors using — and in some cases, trashing and abusing — the most popular spots in the five wilderness areas of the Central Oregon Cascades. But before any further steps, more public comment is being sought and a set of open houses will be held.

A legal notice published Friday begins a 30-day comment period on a 188-page environmental assessment (available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/105465_FSPLT3_4290447.pdf). It notes the “overarching goals of reducing recreation-related impacts and preserving the wilderness character of the Mount Jefferson, Mount Washington, Three Sisters, Waldo Lake and Diamond peak wilderness areas.”

Tyler Baldessari has been going to the Three Sisters Wilderness for about a decade, and said Monday the increase in visitors is very noticeable.

“I can remember going there and there would maybe be two or three other cars you see as you pull up, if not, no one, and you’d be the only person,” Baldessari said. “Now, (at) Tam McArthur trailhead, you can drive up on a weekend in the summer and there’s probably 50 cars.”

The legal notice stated, “Sharp increases in the number of visitors to some of these areas is putting pressure on resources, and causing crowding and degradation of natural conditions. Other areas are at risk of the same impacts if the trend in visitor growth continues.”

Forest Service spokeswoman Jean Nelson-Dean gave examples of the impact of all those people.

“(Visitors are) expanding across trails, so making trails larger than they should be, causing damage to fragile alpine vegetation through trampling, damaging riparian sites next to water,” she said Monday.

After the proposed action was announced last May, the two national forests said they received and reviewed feedback from more than 500 people and organizations.

“Many suggested that the proposed action was putting restrictions on too broad an area for dealing with the current problems, and could unjustifiably impact the public’s ability to recreate in these wilderness areas,” the notice stated. “In response, we developed alternatives that scale back the areas of limited entry.”

On the other hand, it noted, “We also included an alternative that includes limited entry everywhere, in order to assess the broadest range of alternatives. In addition to visitor use management, the alternatives incorporate an elevation-based campfire ban.”

Nelson-Dean noted, “We don’t have a preferred alternative. We have a proposed action, which is Alternative 2 in the EA. The reason this wording is important is because our decision-makers can choose portions of any of the alternatives. The proposed action is what the interdisciplinary team has put forward based on their analysis.”

She pointed to this background in the analysis:

“Overall visitor use has increased tremendously in the past six years, with 2015 and 2016 seeing the greatest increase in visitors. The peak use is concentrated in July, August and September, usually on a small subset of trails, which exacerbates the social and physical resource impacts. In the Three Sisters Wilderness, for example, the five busiest trailheads accounted for 55% of all of the use in 2016.

“With large increases in visitation, more people are leaving behind trash, abandoned gear, human waste and toilet paper, and dog waste. Visitors sometimes damage trees for fire wood, build structures for shelter, introduce invasive plants, and leave other evidence of their visit. These issues affect the natural quality of wilderness character.

“Some of these wilderness areas cannot continue to meet the increasing recreation demand if it continues at the current rate. Education and Leave No Trace principles have not adequately addressed the escalation of visitors and their impacts.”

From last year’s feedback to the proposed action, they developed four action alternatives that have been analyzed by a group of resource specialists, as well as the no action alternative, a common element of such analyses.

The proposed action balances the maintenance of the wilderness areas and their wilderness character for future generations, as required under the Wilderness Act, while providing access to and the freedom to explore these wilderness areas.

The proposal includes limited entry permit systems for some day-use trailheads in the Three Sisters (56% of trailheads), Mount Jefferson (82% of trailheads) and Mount Washington (30% of trailheads) wilderness areas. In the Waldo Lake and Diamond Peak Wilderness areas, day-use will continue to be allowed with free self-issue permits at all trailheads.

Three Sisters

Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Washington

27 trailheads (56%)

18 (87%)

3 (30%)

The proposed action simplifies the permit system by using major travel corridors for permitted trailheads.

Overnight use in the Proposed Action would be limited entry for all five wilderness areas. However, no reservations would be required, so it would allow the most freedom for visitors in choosing where to camp overnight.

Under that proposed action, a permit system would be wilderness-wide for overnight users, and a permit system for day use at 48 trailheads across three of the wilderness areas. Camping could occur anywhere in the wilderness.

They said the goal is consistency along the Cascade Lakes Highway and Highway 242 for day-use limited-entry trailheads. It also would allow free movement and minimal regulation, once a person is inside the wilderness.

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Thursday’s news release:

The Deschutes and Willamette national forests will jointly release a draft environmental assessment Friday of a project considering new management strategies for five wilderness areas in the Central Cascades region of Oregon.

Over the past year, resource specialists have been analyzing a range of management approaches for the Mt Jefferson, Mt Washington, Three Sisters, Diamond Peak and Waldo Lake wilderness areas. The project, called the Central Cascades Wilderness Management Strategies Project, is in response to extreme growth in visitor use and the resulting impacts to the wilderness landscapes in some portions of these wilderness areas.

Last summer, the two forests said they were likely to propose new visitor management strategies, including limited-entry permit systems, due to the rising problem of trash and damage left behind by the growing number of visitors to the five wilderness areas. An initial public comment period was held before the environmental assessment.

Since then, five alternative strategies have been analyzed, which range from lesser to broader changes in management. The draft environmental assessment on the project will be open for a 30-day public comment period following its release on Friday. Following its release, it can be found at this link: https://bit.ly/2HHav6V or by going to either national forest’s website.

The public is invited to learn more about the project at four public open houses to be held over the next three weeks. The following are the date and locations of the open houses:

Tuesday, April 24th from 5:30 -7:00 pm at the Sisters High School, 1700 McKinney Butte Road, Sisters, OR 97759. Thursday, April 26th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm at the Deschutes National Forest Service Supervisor’s Office, 63095 Deschutes Market Road, Bend, OR 97701. Monday, May 7th from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at the Salem Convention Center, 200 Commercial St SE, Salem, OR 97301. Thursday, May 10th from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at the Campbell Community Center, 155 High St, Eugene, OR 97401. In addition, a Wilderness Pub will be held on Tuesday, May 1, in Father Luke’s Room at McMenamin’s Old St. Francis School, 700 NW Bond Street, in Bend, with doors opening at 5:30 pm and a panel discussion on the future of wilderness management in Central Oregon to begin at 6:30 pm. The program will end at 7:30 pm. The Wilderness Pub will be considering broader issues of wilderness management in Central Oregon, but will provide an opportunity for the public to learn more about the current proposals for management changes.

For more information about the Open Houses, the public can contact Beth Peer, Deschutes National Forest (Bend) at 541–383–5554 or Matt Peterson, Willamette National Forest (Eugene) at 541–225–6421.