Ochoco National Forest
The Badlands Wilderness Study Area
In the high desert country of Central Oregon is an area referred to as the Badlands. The Badlands, named in the 1920's because of its harsh terrain is a surprisingly undisturbed area tucked in between Bend and Horse Ridge. This is a place you need to move slowly, be patient and let the area reveal its many secrets. Conservationists view the Badlands as a unique opportunity to restore a native high desert ecosystem in a quickly urbanizing area where the demand for wilderness, recreation and open space is increasing.
The Badlands area was designated as a Wilderness Study Area (WSA) on November 14, 1980. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has endorsed a wilderness designation for the area. On August 3, 1999 Senator Ron Wyden wrote to President Bill Clinton and urged him to consider the Badlands for wilderness or other special protection. Local support is tremendous. The Bend City Council has recently voted unanimously to endorse Wilderness designation and more than a hundred businesses in Central Oregon have signed on to publicly support designation. One of the most outspoken proponents has been a local rancher, Ray Clarno, who has a permit to run his livestock over much of the area. Mr. Clarno is willing to retire his grazing permit permanently if Badlands is designated. Central Oregon Irrigation District supports designation. Local environmental groups, including the Juniper Group Sierra Club, have been advocating Wilderness protection of this special area for more than 20 years.
In fact, the only public opposition has been from recreational vehicle lobbyists and a few snowmobilers who automatically reject the concept of Wilderness protection whatever the merits of a particular area. OHV enthusiasts have over 600 miles of trails designated specifically for their use in over 100,000 acres in areas immediately surrounding the proposed Wilderness Area, but are unwilling to allow a fraction of that amount to be protected for other users. The irony is that the Badlands is not conducive to vehicle intrusion, and it does not receive enough snow to support any amount of snowmobile use. Despite its proximity to Bend, Alfalfa, and Highway 20, the area has remained nearly devoid of roads for a reason--its topography. The terrain is rugged and fractured, unfriendly to vehicles. There is a wide diversity of basalt flow formations within the study area. Beautiful, twisted, Western Juniper trees cover much of the area with an understory composed of bitterbrush and bunchgrass.
The Badlands Rock, the most impressive natural feature in the wilderness study area makes a wonderful day hike. The towering rock formation is the largest of the "pressure ridges" that bulge out of the ground in about a dozen places in the Badlands. There are also excellent examples of inflated lava in the WSA. Dry Canyon is on the East Side of the WSA. The narrow seam in the desert blocks out the sights and sounds of the rest of the area. Here is a place one can embrace nature. Tall clumps of Great Basin ryegrass sprouts in the middle of the canyon and in the shadows on the rock walls you can make out primitive Indian pictographs. One drawing in the middle is clearly a figure of a man, while most of the others are left to your interpretation and imagination. There is also another canyon, Little Canyon, to explore.
The Badlands is a haven for wildlife, including mule deer that winter in the sheltered sections. Badlands also is home to bobcats, coyotes, jackrabbits and many other smaller creatures. Juniper trees, along with their berries, provide food and shelter to over sixty species of birds. One of the more common birds you will see and hear during the winter is the Townsend's Solitaire, a species highly dependent on juniper berries for winter food. Golden Eagles and Prairie Falcons have been known to nest in the area. The distinctive sounds of goose "music" can often be heard overhead as these magnificent birds mark the seasons during their migration flight. A wide array of wildflowers can be found any time from April through September but are most abundant in June.
Although much of the proposed Badlands Wilderness Area has interim protection as a Wilderness Study Area, its treasures are vulnerable to harm. Some of the few vehicle ways that exist in the area remain open, allowing irresponsible citizens easy access to Native American pictographs, some of which have recently been vandalized beyond repair. Fragile soils and plants continue to be severely damaged by vehicles that are driven in closed areas. Ancient junipers have been cut down for firewood or Christmas ornaments. Full Wilderness protection is urgently needed to stop these ongoing abuses.
So, what stands in the way of permanent protection for the Badlands? Politics as usual. But this time the winds of change are in the air. Over the past two years, pressure from supporters has been energetic and relentless, and politicians are feeling the heat. Letter after letter of support has been written to the editor of the local paper. The Deschutes County Commission is likely to consider whether or not to endorse Wilderness protection for the Badlands within the next few months. Congressman Walden and Senator Smith have both indicated that if the County Commission votes to support the proposal, they too would push for Wilderness legislation. Let your voice be heard!
Juniper Group Comments TO Bandit II Proposal
January 17, 2003
Dear Mr. Rawlings,
The Juniper Group of the Sierra Club respectfully submits these comments to the Bandit EA dated December, 2002. Please accept this document for public comment.
We have the following concerns and disagreements with the document. Most of these concerns have to do with treating this action as being independent of other
Forest Service responsibilities in the Bandit area:
Socio-Economic Impact (pages 16 & 118)
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1999), The National Forests provide 3.3 million jobs. 2.3% of those are due to timber while 77.7% are due to
recreation. These percentages are nearly the same when expressed in dollars. The figures show that recreation in our National Forests provides more than 30 times
as many jobs than timber in the same forests. From these facts we would conclude that to protect local economies in the long-term, we must first protect the
recreational values of our National Forests. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where extraction of commercial timber would do other than harm to the recreational
values. Admittedly, these statistics have been compiled on a national scale but a look at Crook County, the home of the Bandit Action, also shows that the county is
not suffering undue harm by the loss of timber jobs: According to the Bend Bulletin, in the period from 1990 to 1998, Crook County lost 28% of its timber and wood
products jobs. During the same period (actually 1990 to 2000) the population of the county increased by 35.9%. (fed.stats.gov). Nor has the trend reversed since
the 2001 closing of Prineville's last two lumber mills: The population of Prineville, by far the largest city in Crook County, has increased from 7356 at the end
of 2000 (Oregon Blue Book) to about 8150 today (Prineville City Limits sign December, 2002). Crook County is not an economically distressed area. You are correct
in pointing out that the economy of Crook County has "lagged behind the State of Oregon as a whole" but this has been true for 4 decades and the remaining timber
resources cannot reverse this trend - but recreation may. Managing for recreational values will have a far greater impact on the local economy than recreation
damaging timber sales. A specific example of recreation mismanagement occurs in the dispersed recreation sites (Map M1). All of these are shared with cows. In the
summer when these sites are most popular, they are heavily grazed and covered with fresh cowpies. A typical example of this is Grant Meadows. In the spring before
the cows arrive, it is a beautiful lush meadow. By late summer, the place resembles a feedlot and the dispersed recreation site is the prefered bovine habitat. If
the Ochoco Forest Service were truly interested in aiding the local economy, cows would be excluded from dispersed recreation sites.
Roads (pgs. 22 & 114)
Road density calculations assume "closed" roads are not used with the exception of 12% ineffective closures. The open road density numbers are meaningless due to
the rampant 4WD and ATV use. Our independent observations would place the ineffective closures at around 50%. In addition, "bootleg" roads and firewood cutting
roads would add another 30% to this number. We feel that the unclassified road mileage given is low by perhaps a factor of ten.
Snags (pgs. 13 & 88 to 90)
Although snag density is mentioned as a concern and the conclusion is drawn that the Bandit area has adequate snag population for cavity nesters, we must take
exception to this conclusion. Due to a firewood cutting program that is not adequately enforced, hundreds of snags are lost each year in the Bandit area to illegal
wood cutters. In our own survey of an area of ten square miles within the Bandit area, we found and documented 125 larch, Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine snags that
had been cut in a two year period encompassing 2000 and 2001 and it is certain that we did not find all of the poached snags. We do not know if these numbers are
typical for the entire Bandit area but if they are, the total snag population in the Bandit area is decreasing by about 500 snags per year. We feel that this is a
serious problem that must be addressed. Another related problem deals with the claim that "to maintain habitat for the common flicker, no live junipers over 12
inches dbh will be cut in harvest or precommercial thinning activities." (p47 & 91) This seems meaningless when the wood cutting regulations for the area permit
cutting "any juniper tree live or dead".
Riparian Areas and Stream Banks (pgs. 10, 27, 46, 68 - 74 and 124)
We find a startling contrast in the emphasis given to the care of riparian areas and stream banks in the EA and the total disregard for the excessive damage being
caused to those areas by livestock grazing. The document states that RHCAs "will be managed to maintain or restore water quality, stream channel integrity, channel
processes, sediment regimes, instream flows, diversity and productivity of plant communities in riparian zones and riparian and aquatic habitats to foster unique
genetic fish stocks that evolved within the specific region." (p 10) We feel that this is a futile and wasteful effort without eliminating livestock grazing in those
areas.
Alternative 2
Alternative 2 includes several units of salvage logging from the Hash Rock fire. We oppose salvage logging due to its destruction of the soils. It also calls for
excessive commercial logging in the Bandit Springs Recreation area, which we feel will cause undue damage to the recreational values of the area.
Unit 705.1
Unit 705.1 which is included in both Alternative 2 and 4, should not be commercially harvested. It is located adjacent to the Mill Creek Wilderness Area in a potential
roadless area surveyed by the Oregon Natural Resources Council. It requires the construction of a new system road. The Hash Rock Fire has done enough damage to
recreational values of the area, this will only further damage the wilderness quality.
Sincerely,
George Wilson, Chair, Juniper Group
34777 NE Ochoco Hwy.
Prineville, Oregon 97754
