Wilderness Fee Plan Scrapped​

For the last two years, the Willamette and Deschutes National Forests have been working to implement a new sustainability plan—the Central Cascades Wilderness Strategies Project—that limits access to Central Oregon’s wilderness areas. Its intent is to reduce trail crowding and damaging impacts resulting from the increase of wilderness users in recent years. The plan was proposed to the public in two stages, in fall 2018 and fall 2019.

The first stage established new backcountry access limits with the creation of a new wilderness permit and quota system. This would put daily limits on the number of hikers permitted into the Three Sisters, Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson wilderness areas. It would apply to dayhikers on some of the most popular trails, and to overnight backpackers and PCT section-hikers on all trails. (PCT thru-hikers were granted an exemption, with some restrictions.) This plan was met with many concerns among the hiking community, who opposed such drastic limits to wilderness access. Most notably, it would have a striking impact on PCT section-hikers (those who do not qualify for a PCTA-issued long-distance permit), who would see significant restrictions to access, and would lose much-needed flexibility.

The second stage of the plan involved implementing a new wilderness fee structure that would impose a per-person access fee for some dayhikers, and a complicated per-person, per-night, per-group fee for all overnight backpackers and section-hikers. While the proposed fees were modest for dayhikers and weekend backpackers, long-distance hikers were looking at potentially exorbitant costs to cross these wilderness areas. The fee proposal also raised real concerns about the barriers it would impose on local, low-income and younger wilderness users, as well as how permit funds would be used to enhance and increase wilderness experiences. Here at PCT: Oregon, we were strongly opposed to the fee proposal for many reasons.

This month, in an unexpected—and favorable—turn of events, the Forest Service has withdrawn its wilderness fee proposal. When asked why the sudden reversal, Matt Peterson, one of the project leads for the Willamette National Forest, explained, “The Forest is currently focused on the implementation of the new permit system. We’ll be monitoring these areas to see how the new access limits improves the situation on trails and in the backcountry. It’s possible we may revisit the fee idea in the future if the need arises, but for now there will be no new fees to access these wilderness areas.” When asked if the nearly 13,000 public comments the Forest received had any bearing on the reversal, Peterson could not comment.

While this is welcome news that wilderness access to the Three Sisters, Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson areas will not require potentially costly permit fees, the limited-access permit plan is still going into effect in spring 2020. This will still require wilderness users to obtain limited-entry permits for some dayhiking trails, as well as for all overnight trail users. These permits will only be available through the recreation.gov website, and will cost $1/person for day-use trails, and $6/group for all overnight access. (See below How to Get Your Permit)