Bend Bulletin Editorial
October 21, 2003 

Congress put the Bureau of Land Management in a tough spot when it declared the Badlands east of Bend a wilderness study area. The BLM must now preserve the Badlands until the federal government decides whether it wants to declare it an actual wilderness area. That preservation is not going to please everyone as new restrictions, such as a proposed ban on motorized vehicles, are put in place. Given its wilderness conundrum, however, the BLM is pursuing the right course.

The proposal would close off about 50 miles of roads that crisscross the 32,000 acres of the Badlands. In theory motorized traffic should not be a great problem, but the BLM has a hard time enforcing current restrictions because some all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riders ignore requirements that they stay on certain roads and trails. As a result, in order to protect the wilderness study area, the BLM must keep them all out. Hopefully those riders who have spoiled things for everyone else will learn a lesson.

Still, we sympathize with ATV enthusiasts who have weathered a sustained assault from environmentalists who some times seem to want them kicked off every acre of public land. In this case, though, the loss is not the end of ATV riding as we know it. There are hundreds of miles of other trails in Central Oregon open to riding. Preserving one part of the high desert is a worthwhile environmental investment. It is also a smart step for other recreational uses such as hiking that often run into conflicts with ATV riders. The BLM and other federal agency just must ensure that the encroachment on ATV use is kept to a minimum elsewhere.

We cannot help but think, though, that the real problem in the Badlands is Congress. A wilderness study area should be just that, an area studied and then either chosen to be a wilderness area or not based on the findings. It should not be a means of keeping an area off limits without objective analysis. Granted, Congress has a lot on its plate these days, but it should finish what it started with would-be wilderness areas including the Badlands.