Forest Service moves forward on plan to limit entry to five Oregon wilderness areas

The U.S. Forest Service is moving into the next stage of a plan that could limit the number of people allowed into five of Oregon’s most popular wilderness areas.

The federal agency proposed new regulations in June that would require hikers and backpackers to purchase a permit before heading into 500,000 acres of backcountry between Mount Jefferson and Diamond Peak.

After getting more than 500 public comments — many of them critical of the plan’s scope — federal officials have developed five different proposals.

The new rules would apply to the Mount Jefferson, Mount Washington, Three Sisters, Waldo Lake and Diamond Peak wilderness areas.

“A lot of the concerns we heard from the public was why we were making it so broad — why it needed to be wilderness-wide limited entry,” said Jean Nelson-Dean, public information officer with Deschutes National Forest. “A lot of the commenters thought it should be more targeted.”

The permit system was proposed because of explosive growth in the number of people hiking and backpacking in Central Cascade areas around the Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson.

Unlike state or national parks, wilderness areas are often ill-equipped to handle masses of people, leading to damage in alpine environments.

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In response, Deschutes and Willamette national forests proposed a permit system that would only allow a certain number of people to enter from the majority of trailheads into the five wilderness areas. The permits would cost between $6 and $12.

Currently, only Obsidian Trail in the Three Sisters Wilderness and Pamelia Lake in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness require a permit to hike or backpack.

The response to the original plan — a mostly wilderness-wide permit requirement — prompted the agency to consider less restrictive options.

The Forest Service will study five options and bring them to the public in spring of 2018, and possibly make a decision by summer of 2018. The goal is to have the permit system in place by summer of 2019.

The five options, from least to most restrictive, include:

1) Take no action, and require no new additional permit system

2) Permits required only for very high use areas, and only require overnight permits at high use sites in Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson wilderness areas.

3) Same as above, but also consider permit requirement at sites likely to become heavily-used in coming 2 to 5 years.

4) Permit required for all overnight trips and most day-hiking trips into all five wilderness areas. (This was the original proposal).

5) Permits required for every trip, whether day-use or overnight, into all five wilderness areas.

The Forest Service will assess the impact of each alternative — considering everything from local economies to the wilderness area's environment — and present the findings to the public in spring of 2018. At that point, a second public comment period will take place.

After that, the Forest Service will take the public comments and prepare a draft decision, then take comments again before a final decision is made around summer of 2018.

At the same time, the agency will develop separate rules on the cost of permits and how the permits would be distributed, along with considering a campfire ban for certain areas.

“The earliest the entire system would go online — that people would need a permit — would be summer of 2019,” Nelson-Dean said.

Read more: Sweeping plan would limit entry to Mount Jefferson, Three Sisters, other Oregon wilderness areas

No longer a wilderness experience?

The 1964 Wilderness Act called wilderness “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.”

But on the Cascade Crest — between Mount Jefferson and Diamond Peak — finding solitude in wilderness areas has been increasingly difficult.

The population boom in Bend and growth in the Willamette Valley have brought more people to the mountains each year, stressing the wilderness areas to the breaking point, officials said.

Visitors to the Three Sisters Wilderness jumped to 132,118 last year, up from just 46,999 in 2011, according to data collected by the Forest Service.

"I don't even consider it a wilderness experience," said Chris Sabo, trail crew supervisor for Deschutes National Forest in a 2013 interview. "It's almost more of an urban park. The use is very high, really beyond what this area can accommodate."

Related: Forest Service plan could fundamentally change hiking in Oregon’s wilderness

Closest to Salem, visitors to the Mount Jefferson Wilderness increased to 28,987 in 2016, up from 22,600 five years ago. Mount Washington was up 119 percent and Diamond Peak up 97 percent.

“The basic idea is that if use is too high, a limited entry system is a pretty simple way to get those numbers down,” said Beth Peer, who is leading the process for Deschutes National Forest.

Environmental damage

All those extra people have had a profound impact on areas that are supposed to have little evidence of human influence.

In addition to simple issues such as crowded trailheads and limited campsites, wilderness rangers have found increased amounts of poop, garbage and resource damage.

Wilderness rangers reported coming across unburied human feces more than 1,000 times. They reported hauling out more than 1,200 pounds of trash, according to documents.

"It's disheartening to go up there and see some of the behavior," said Jon Erickson, former wilderness ranger in the Three Sisters. "Every week we'd find people with illegal campfires, garbage left behind and unburied waste sitting right inside a camping spot.

"Yes, people are actually pooping at their own campsite and leaving it there."

Related: Jefferson Park permit system fails to stop damaging camping

Obsidian and Pamelia

One of the reasons officials cited for using a limited entry system is the success at Obsidian Trail and Pamelia Lake.

Both places were becoming crowded and struggling with overuse in the early 1990s, according to officials. In response, a limited entry system was installed that allows 20 groups into Pamelia per day, and 30 day hikers and 40 overnight visitors to Obsidian each day.

The results have been positive, said Troy Hall, an Oregon State University professor who has tracked environmental conditions at Obsidian.

“I’ve actually been surprised,” Hall said. “It’s pretty similar now to what it was 20 years ago, and it’s even improved a little. Other places, like Green Lakes in the Three Sisters that don’t have limited entry, have just gotten hammered.”

Hall said limited entry hasn’t always been an easy sell to the public. In the late 1990s, Mount Hood National Forest tried implementing a limited entry system, she said.

“It was pretty soundly rejected,” Hall said. “The public just wasn’t interested in taking that extra step.”

Visitors to Cascade Crest wilderness areas

Data collected by voluntary wilderness permits filled out at trailheads

Three Sisters

2016: 132,118

2011: 46,999

Mount Jefferson

2016: 28,987

2011: 22,600

Mount Washington

2016: 8,315

2011: 3,793

Diamond Peak (eastside access only)

2016: 2,716

2011: 1,378

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Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for nine years. He is the author of the book “Hiking Southern Oregon” and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.

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