Feb. 1, 2005
By Chris Barker
The Bulletin

Nature photographer Bruce Jackson thrills at capturing images of trees that  started growing as much as 1,000 years ago … around the time of the first  Crusade.

   `For me the heart and the soul of the Badlands is the junipers,` Jackson  told a packed house of about 250 at a Deschutes County Commission hearing Monday.

   For Jeanie Lancaster, chairwoman of a Bend-based disabled access group,  permanently cutting off access to the Badlands would be akin to segregated  lunch counters in the deep south.

   `Any time an area is designated wilderness, it locks out everybody but the  hiker,` said Lancaster, who testified on behalf of The Committee for Handicap  & Elder Access to Public Lands.

    The divisive question of future access to the popular desert area drew  dozens who testified at a packed county headquarters.

    County commissioners are seeking help in deciding whether to push for a  wilderness designation for the federally owned land, which is located about 20  miles east of Bend. Commissioners said they would make their decision in  March.

    Although a county decision could help influence the debate, only the U.S.  Congress can designate wilderness.

    The area is now designated a `wilderness study area.` That means it has  wilderness values that should be protected, according to the federal  designation.

   If the area is deemed wilderness, a lone road that cuts through the  Badlands from north to south … the only motorized access now allowed … would  be closed.

   Wilderness areas typically don't allow mechanized transportation or road  building. Traditional uses, such as hunting, hiking and bird watching, are  allowed.

   Commissioners plan to choose from one of five options, according to a memo  to the commission written by County Forester Joe Stutler. The options include:

 * Taking no action.
     Supporting a separate proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to  close most of the Badlands to off-road vehicle use. The plan, which would also open some routes in the larger area to year-round use, is part of the agency's  Upper Deschutes Resource Management Plan. Comments on the plan can be  submitted through Feb. 14.

     Support a BLM wilderness designation first recommended to Congress in  1991. The proposal would designate 32,030 acres of the Badlands as wilderness.

     Supporting a proposal endorsed by the Oregon Natural Desert Association  that would create a 36,505-acre Badlands wilderness.

 * Supporting non-wilderness designation.
     Prior to the hearing, county officials received about 500 written comments  regarding the Badlands issue, according to executive secretary Bonnie Baker.

   A letter submitted by Greg Addington, associate director of governmental  affairs for the Oregon Farm Bureau, asked commissioners to either oppose  wilderness designation or to take no position.

   `Taking cattle off of this rangeland will place further stress upon the  agricultural infrastructure in Central Oregon,` Addington wrote. `We also have  real concerns about the ability of the federal government to control fire,  noxious weeds, insects and diseases on lands that are 'specially designated.' 

   Alice Elshoff, who favors designating the Badlands as wilderness, told  commissioners of accompanying several fourth-grade field trips to the area.

   The children watched as plants opened up to the sun when water was applied  … a living laboratory demonstrating photosynthesis.

   `They think it's a miracle,` Elshoff said.

   Designating the Badlands as wilderness would follow a trend that has led to  an unprecedented loss of access to public lands, said James Foley, who spoke on behalf of the National Land Rights League.

   `I spent 32 years of my life in Alaska … I know wilderness,` Foley said.  `This is not wilderness, this is a suburb of Bend, Oregon.`

Chris Barker can be reached at 541-617-7829 or at cbarker@bendbulletin.com.