Bend homelessness advocates press US Forest Service to delay fuels reduction project

The Bend Equity Project sent paperwork to the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday asking the agency to delay its Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project set to begin soon in the Deschutes National Forest.

The Bend Equity Project is a mutual aid group that was formed in 2022. They provide meals, water, and fuel to residents who are unhoused in Central Oregon.

Eric Garrity, a co-founder of the group, said the move is an administrative action to put the Forest Service on notice. Their goal is to force the agency to reconsider how the closure will affect an estimated 150 people living in camps on public land southeast of Bend.

The Forest Service has said it needs to clear the 25,804-acre area to reduce wildfire hazards and maintain healthy tree stands. The agency has been planning the work since 2019.

“They did have time to consider the potential impact on the mule deer. But they didn’t consider any of the impact that it may have on the individuals who are really facing an option of nowhere to go,” Garrity said.

U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Kaitlyn Webb said in a statement the agency has been in communication with Garrity and another local homelessness advocate, Chuck Hemingway.

“Implementation of the Cabin Butte project is ongoing, and the closure is still planned for May 1,” Webb said.

The Bend Equity Project has also filed 80 disability complaints to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Civil Rights on behalf of people living within the Cabin Butte Vegetation Project Area.

The encampments south of Bend are locally known as “China Hat.” They are dispersed across public land near China Hat Road on the city’s southern fringe, with more people living farther east in an area called Horse Butte.

During public comment periods at Bend city council meetings, homeowners who live nearby have said they are concerned about their safety and the risk of human-caused wildfires.

In interviews with OPB, people living in the camps said they’re unfairly blamed for fires and work to put them out immediately if a fire does start. Half a dozen people also said that since the announcement of the planned closure, Forest Service officials have ramped up enforcement actions like stopping people for questioning, ticketing them or putting up roadblocks with boulders and fences.

As Bend continues to expand its borders and build more housing, homeless advocates said people who will be displaced by the Forest Service plan will struggle to find another place to go, often because of the costs to rent or buy a home and the lack of shelter beds available.

Representatives from Shepherd’s House, the primary shelter operator in Central Oregon, said its city-funded Franklin Avenue shelter is currently full, permanent supportive housing apartments are also at capacity and other first-come, first-served basis shelters in Bend and Redmond were full this week.

Steven Putnam and his girlfriend live together in a camp with trailers and a treehouse Putnam built by hand. Both filed disability complaints with the USDA.

Now, the couple is dismantling their home to transition into supportive housing in Bend. Putnam, 60, recognizes that their case is exceptional.

“There’s lots of folks out here that are not that fortunate,” he said.

Mandy Bryant and Chris Daggett don’t know where they will end up. They live in the Horse Butte area. Daggett, 43, is a third-generation Bend resident. He said he used to work as a contractor and owned a house on the south side of town. There’s now a roundabout there, he said.

Daggett used to criticize people who were homeless.

“Then one day, I didn’t have anything and the only people that helped me were the people that didn’t have anything,” he said.

Unlike others, Bryant and Daggett said they have options, in part because Daggett is a woodworker and they have a running vehicle.

Since the announcement of the planned forest closure, residents have said that Forest Service rangers come by more frequently. Boulders and fencing have been placed in an effort to block off dirt roads.

In a recent encounter, Bryant described a ranger asking her what the couple’s plans were for moving. She said they weren’t sure, but that as a born-and-raised Oregonian, she didn’t want to leave the state.

“And then that’s when he came out of his truck and was like, ‘Well, I think it would just be better for you guys if you left Oregon,‘” she recalled.

Bryant doesn’t leave the fifth-wheel trailer as much now because she said she’s afraid a ranger will approach her again.

Shawna Roberson and Dwight Nelson said they’ve also witnessed stepped up enforcement, like law enforcement driving by more often, telling residents they need an escort to and from their camps and writing numerous tickets for things like littering.

The couple doesn’t currently have a working vehicle to be able to easily leave their camp and Roberson doesn’t have a valid driver’s license.

She said the Forest Service hasn’t been helpful, either.

“It’s a tailspin on not knowing where to go, how to get there, how to go look without getting harassed. I just got my license back and I can’t afford to get pulled over all the time,” she said.

OPB spoke with nine residents, and all of them said the increased enforcement and pressure to move have had negative impacts on their mental health.

Garrity said the Bend Equity Project will be monitoring the China Hat and Horse Butte area closely, and will continue to provide weekly meals to people living in the forest.

Garrity hoped the Forest Service will cancel or postpone the vegetation management plan and encouraged people to reach out to their elected officials.