Despite fire-season ban, visitors still start campfires in USFS day-use areas
(UPDATE: Adding video, comment from Bend resident, Deschutes National Forrest official)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Jann, a Bend resident, was walking her dog on the Deschutes River Trail near Meadow Camp when she noticed something that shouldn't be there.
"I noticed (two people) had a fire going in the fire pit," Jann, who requested to only be identified by her first name, said Tuesday.
A seemingly harmless act, until you consider the extreme level of fire danger right now in Central Oregon.
"I approached them,” Jann recalled. “Thinking maybe they were from outside the area and didn't understand the danger."
Add on that during fire season, fires are not allowed in the Meadow Day Use Area, and other day use areas in the Deschutes National Forrest.
Jann took a photo to capture the blatant disregard of the signs.
"I was angry, because they're putting all of us at risk," she said.
Fire pits are left out at the recreation areas, despite signs notifying people that starting a fire is not allowed during fire season.
"We have more people than we have ever seen actually coming to the area," Jean Nelson-Dean of the Deschutes National Forest said. "We are not seeing a lot of compliance with our fire use restrictions."
That's why the pits remain, because people would start fires anyway.
However, Nelson-Dean said the pits are supposed to have signage to indicate that they are not allowed to be used, but those are being removed by visitors.
Given the current fire conditions, Nelson-Dean said the danger should be obvious.
"We shouldn't have to remove fire rings for people to get that message,” she said. “People should understand."
Jann said this is the second time she's seen such a fire in prohibited areas of the forest and that the Forest Service should take more steps to prevent it.
"Without enforcement, it doesn't do a lot of good to have rules," she said.
To report a fire at a day-use site, you can call the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch line at 541-316-7700.
