Commissioners consider Badlands federal wilderness with a road
March 23, 2005
By Chris Barker
The Bulletin

Deschutes County commissioners may consider endorsing a federal wilderness designation for the Badlands with one caveat: Keep a 8.5-mile route running through the area open to vehicle traffic.

County Forester Joe Stutler suggested the option at a meeting of the commission on Tuesday.

"It's certainly not precedentsetting," Stutler said.

Some wilderness areas in California allow limited vehicle access, Stutler said. Traditionally, all motorized use is banned in wilderness areas.

Commissioners are scheduled to make a recommendation on the Badlands wilderness issue on March 30.

Previously, commissioners had agreed to either endorse one of two proposals to designate the area as wilderness, support a separate U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to close the one remaining open path in the area, support a non-wilderness designation or take no action.

The county received 1,572 comments on the proposal -75 percent of them in favor of a wilderness designation, according to Stutler.

Off-road vehicle enthusiasts and some disabled activists have pressed commissioners to decide against a wilderness designation. Others, including the nonprofit Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), have lobbied in favor of wilderness.

Only the U.S. Congress can officially designate wilderness, but a county recommendation could be used by either side in the argument to bolster their position.

Endorsing wilderness with a drive-through option could satisfy people
on both sides of debate, said County Commissioner Mike Daly.

"To me, this makes a lot of sense," Daly said.

County Commissioner Tom DeWoIf said he didn't want to discuss the new option until the hearing next week.

'I'm not ready to settle this now," DeWoIf said.

Regardless of what commissioners decide, a recent recommendation by the Prineville District of the BLM will likely close off vehicle access anyway.

Currently, the 8.5-mile "way" running through the Badlands is open to vehicle traffic yearround, said Robert Towne, field manager for the BLM, But the recently released Upper Deschutes Resource Area Management Plan recommends its closure and the closure of 11.5 other miles of ways in the area that are currently open to seasonal vehicle traffic.

The ways are not called "roads" because it couldn't be proved they had been maintained and used regularly when they were named in the late 1970s, according to Berry Phelps, a recreation planner with the BLM.

The BLM received about 100 comments on the proposed closure but no formal appeals, Towne said.

BLM officials will consider the comments and issue a formal decision on the plan this summer, he added.

Even though BLM allows vehicle traffic on public lands within the Badlands area, portions of the 8.5-mile route dubbed "Route 8"- that's now open are private property, Towne said.

"We do not have the authority to keep Route 8 open from start to finish totally on public land," he said.