Nearly 100 objections filed to proposed wilderness trail limits

Nearly 100 individuals or groups have filed objections to the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed plan to limit the number of people who can use certain Central Oregon wilderness trails. Over half of those objections came from Central Oregonians.

This plan has been in the works for some time, although the new rule is not expected to take effect until 2020.

The Forest Service recently issued its draft decision to restrict the number of people who can use Three Sisters, Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson wilderness areas, to tackle issues of over-use.

Last November, the agency announced plans to set permit quotas for 30 of the 80 trailheads in three wilderness areas.

They said Increased use of the Three Sisters, Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Areas has led to trail degradation, trash, human waste and illegal campfires.

The restriction would only apply to the summer months between the Friday before Memorial Day and Sept. 30.

Recently, the Forest Service completed an objection period which allowed anyone to voice their concerns, and said Friday a total of 96 were filed.

Some of those who raised concern included hunters and hunting groups. The proposed restrictions will affect them, although they’re already restricted.

“We haven’t proposed anything specific,” Ed Putnam of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers said Friday. “We’re looking at anything from an exemption for hunters holding a tag for the unit that the wilderness is in to any options. So we’re working with the forest service on some solutions to this problem.”

Putnam said they submitted initial comments and a formal objection letter, and met with the Deschutes and Willamette national forest supervisors and the team leaders involved in the project.

Jean Nelson-Dean, the Deschutes National Forest’s public affairs officer, said of the people who objected to the draft decision, “We meet with them informally, we listen about what their concerns are, try to get as much understanding around that, look at what potential remedies we can offer.”

“Then we are going to take that and in coordination with the regional forester ,who is also reviewing all those objections, we will reach a final decision by both forest supervisors.”

Nelson-Dean said the Forest Service will issue a formal decision some time this spring, depending on the process of resolving those objections.