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Badlands Brewery Crawl Celebrates Wilderness in Central Oregon

Hundreds Raise a Glass and Take Action at Local Breweries, Calling for Permanent Protection of Oregon Badlands

With glasses raised and spirits high, hundreds of Central Oregon residents turned out to take action in support of making the Oregon Badlands an official Wilderness area on Thursday night. The event, organized by the Oregon Natural Desert Association, exemplified the upsurge in broad and passionate support that this 30,000 acre High Desert landscape has garnered in recent months.

Crawl-goers took action by the hundreds to call for definitive movement on the part of Oregon’s Congressional Delegation in protecting the Badlands permanently as a Federal Wilderness area. Sending personal messages, signing banners, and posing for pictures with signs that read, “Protect the Badlands for good” and “Will Drink Beer for Badlands Wilderness,” area residents joined County Commissioner Tammy Melton, local business leaders, and brewery regulars to celebrate the importance of permanent protection for Oregon’s Badlands.

“Central Oregon is very much defined by its intimacy with diverse wild spaces,” said Brent Fenty, Executive Director of ONDA, at the start of the evening’s activities. Just 15 miles east of downtown Bend on Highway 20, the Badlands would be the closest area of true wilderness to the growing city. “This is truly our backyard wilderness,” added Fenty, “and preserving the area can help us to preserve our quality of life and our whole way of life here in Central Oregon.”

Home to some of Oregon’s oldest known trees – Junipers over 1,000 years old – and rare wildlife such as the threatened pygmy rabbit and sage grouse, the Badlands is also one of few remaining wild places proximate to Bend’s almost 80,000 residents. “I feel blessed to have been raised in this area,” commented Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Melton. Protecting natural places and recreational opportunities, she added, will ensure that future generations will have the same unique and wonderful experience growing up here.

Participants in the Brewery Crawl sought action from their Congressional representatives, particularly Senator Ron Wyden who has long been supportive of their cause. Katya Speicker, a resident of Alfalfa and activist with ONDA, explained that working with her neighbors on making the Badlands a Wilderness has been a very empowering experience. “We have a real opportunity to move Wyden from being passive to truly taking the steps we need him to in protecting such an amazing place. Wilderness is a Federal designation, but it all starts here, with us,” she told the assembled crowd at Silver Moon Brewery, the first stop along the Crawl.*

As laid out by the 1964 Wilderness Act, the Badlands of Central Oregon would join a network of public lands that this landmark legislation preserves for “the use and enjoyment of the American people in such a manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use as wilderness.” A Wilderness designation would guarantee the Badlands the highest level of protection available to public lands in the United States and, according to Fenty, “It deserves no less.”

Ancient pictographs, primeval lava flows, flourishing spring wildflowers, and opportunities for unparalleled hiking, camping, horseback riding and hunting would all be protected with a Wilderness designation. The status of motor vehicles in the area, which were restricted by the Bureau of Land Management in 2005, would not be changed.

“Being able to protect this area permanently is so crucial and so exciting,” added Speicker, in her comments to the crowd at Silver Moon. “Let’s raise our glasses to wilderness, to the Badlands, and to our work protecting this special area.”

*The Badlands Brewery Crawl began at Silver Moon Brewery and also visited the Deschutes Brewery and Bend Brewing Company in downtown Bend.

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