Closure of certain public lands for the protection of wildlife is an absolute necessity. Nowhere have we seen it more plainly than in the Millican off-road vehicle (ORV) playground. When Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologists discovered off-road machines were literally running all over some of the best Sage Grouse nesting habitat in that huge tract of land, it became imperative the area be closed during nesting time.
Since those heady days the BLM has discovered several other wildlife areas where ORVs, bikers, hikers, climbers, horseback riders and the general public are making it near-impossible to preserve the native wildlife using “The Land.” I capitalized The Land because it deserves that honor.
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, environmentalist, and founder of the science of Wildlife Management. Wildlife biologists and land-managers agree with Leopold’s ethics as the most effective way at managing — preserving, if you will — The Land for wild places and wild things.
Closure of certain lands has to occur if we’re going to have golden eagles flying around this part of Oregon. Up north of Madras there’s now a closure on an area rock climbers love. I know several who about busted a gut when they found those BLM seasonal closure signs.
Between Bend and Redmond, there is a golden eagle nest directly across from the little BLM recreation spot at Jaguar Road. There are three volunteers keeping an eye on that breeding territory, trying to keep intruders from chasing out the adult eagles, and thereby causing the nest to fail.
One volunteer, who lives on the opposite side of the nesting territory, has shouted at invaders to get them to leave. Often, they are carrying firearms, and choose to stand on the edge of the rim directly over the nest. One group of invaders shouted back at her, “We have every right to be here!” in language that would make a sailor blush. The miscreants may have thought it really was OK for them to go where they wanted to, and shoot what they wanted to shoot, because vandals pulled down the BLM’s closure signs.
There’s a pair of Golden Eagles trying to raise young in a closed canyon north of Hwy 126 between Sisters and Redmond. The all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riders have not only violated the closure, but have carried out lots of vandalism doing so. The BLM has provided ATV users a large play area less than two miles away. Despite that, people continue to violate posted non-motorized vehicle areas, showing utter disregard for regulations, wildlife, and habitat.
And it’s not just the ATV people, either. The paint gun crowd has also invaded that area. One of the Oregon Eagle Foundation volunteers (with permission and blessings of the Prineville BLM) hauled TWO large pickup-loads of garbage out of the area. Here’s hoping the eagles will return.
There are many favorite recreation places the BLM has to keep closed if we are going to preserve The Land for native wildlife, and I’m very pleased to say that most of the recreational community is going along with the closures, and asking their friends to do likewise.
All except those villains who parked their rig right next to the BLM’s closure signs at Jaguar Road one day and went right in. Yep, my wife and I watched them violate that closure, and we’re the ones who called the sheriff, who responded very rapidly. I hope the invaders told their friends about their experience. Please, think about what The Land means to the wildlife that lives behind the signs. Thanks!
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This article appears in Feb 3-10, 2016.
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Thank you for writing this piece Jim and taking action to report it! Be careful as I’m sure threats are on the way.
Unfortunately, I live near a part of the Deschutes National Forest Service that, like most around here, have seen extensive OHV damage from much more than “a few bad apples”. The typical ATV response, which holds no weight since a recent study found that majority of ATV users still openly admit to riding illegally. Because “riding on legal trails gets boring.” This, along with a lack of FS law enforcement are a couple reason why OHV users have created “tens of thousands of illegal roads and trails on public lands; one study estimated over 60,000 miles of “unplanned or illegal roads” on national forests alone.
Groups that repeatedly admit to breaking the law, destroying public resources, causing user-conflict, millions in damage (for some reason, they are not required to clean up), not to mention noise, emissions, etc, need to be punished and NOT rewarded as they continue to be with even more OHV parks and FS agency taxpayer money. The FS idea to build even more OHV parks was intended to contain their impact (but also isolated the majority of other users), but this plan has yet to get them to stop riding their old, unenforced, illegal trails or restore lands that they are still destroying. An obvious question is WHY are ATV permits only $5.00 per year (when the average OHV owner clears over 70k/year), plus camping and even parking are typically free. All for the single group that costs us all the most and could be used to help instead of further destroy our forests!
Despite the fact that our local forest managers are required, by law to close public lands to motorized vehicles that have seen “OHV damage and user-conflicts among the various uses of our lands” (Presidential Order 111644), this is clearly not happening in Central Oregon. With zero support from local, pro-motorized FS management and law enforcement, my own community was forced to take matters into our own hands with over a decade of thankless volunteer work. All along, local FS management insisting we would fail. Instead, we greatly succeeded and the area is almost unrecognizable now! Making us wonder why the land managers continue to resist the concerns of the non-OHV community and why we only hear excuses for what they can’t do?
But you can only be ignored, while doing someone else’s tax-funded job for so long and believe me, this is a very small list of concerns and facts which will be released to the public soon in a much easier way. It’s long overdue to either convince or replace vehicle-biased local Forest Management to start punishing OHV users as they deserve and support non-motorized users for what they are.. the great, but all to passive and neglected majority.
A larger non-profit is being developed to say the least. I will privately contact you for more info and to see if you’d also be interested in getting together to discuss more possible solutions. Again, thank you Jim!
Did you know:
-“According to one BLM respondent, “90% of ORV (off-road vehicle) users cause damage every day they ride. MOST will violate a rule, regulation or law DAILY.”
-That the Travel Management Rule provides ZERO funds for enforcement.
-Local law enforcement openly admit to being overwhelmed and underfunded to handle OHV damage.
Yet local government agencies continue rewarding these violators by building and managing new ATV parks, costing taxpayers outrageous amounts of money per year. The real kick in the face is that local ATV parks are completely FREE TO USE!!! Even camping and parking is typically free! But good luck trying to hike (without impact) for free. It’s pretty easy to tell who is running the Forest Service circus around here and who is left to clean up the damage, again… thankless volunteer environmentalists.