Oregon Dunes camping policy appeal leaves vacation plans on hold

By Howard Yune, Staff Writer
March 7, 2005

At the Oregon Dunes, the needs of two groups of visitors - off-road riders and other tourists - are colliding again.

The U.S. Forest Service's launch of a new camping reservation system in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is on hold after a Roseburg environmental group challenged an environmental review that made the camping plan possible. The delay places in doubt the vacation plans of many of the visitors who flock to coastal Douglas County each summer to ride and camp among the dunes.

The appeal, filed by the nonprofit group Umpqua Watersheds Inc., may go to the Forest Service's regional headquarters in Portland, where a review council will decide by April 14 whether to let the sand-camping plan proceed.

On Jan. 4, Jose Linares, supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest (which includes the Oregon Dunes), initially signed off on an environmental assessment that favored designating specific locations south of the Umpqua Lighthouse for off-road riders to make camp. Shortly afterward, forest officials chose a contractor, Reserve USA, to accept reservations for the campsites during the summer tourist season.

The plan is a break from the current system, which allows all-terrain riders to camp in any areas open to motor vehicles so long as they stay within 200 feet of roads, parking lots and other developed facilities.

But the Forest Service halted plans to accept reservations after Umpqua Watersheds mailed an appeal, dated Feb. 22, that warned the new campground plan may not adequately protect tree populations south of the Umpqua Lighthouse. Appellants were allowed up to 45 days from the agency's approval to challenge the program.

Frank Davis, a staff member for the Corvallis office of the Siuslaw National Forest, said the fixed sand-camping sites stem from a 1994 Forest Service management plan that called for the end of at-will camping in order to reduce crowding and littering. Reserved camping locations also should create a safer, less chaotic, more easily policed atmosphere at the dunes, he added.

"Currently, people come and pay a fee and camp wherever they want to," Davis said on Thursday. "What happens is they're camping in enormously large groups that are too big for the area, or they're camping in the middle of an (off-road) roadway where they get run over.

"What we're trying to do is get them in a designated place. If they change their oil or leave garbage or do something destructive to the ecosystem, we'll know who camped there."

But while the Forest Service intends its plan to spare the cleanliness and safety of the dunes, an Umpqua Watersheds director says it instead threatens another part of the region's ecosystem: its unique tree habitats.

Francis Eatherington, the group's conservation program director, pointed to the risk new campsites may pose to tree populations she called inadequately marked and fenced and therefore vulnerable to destruction by off-road vehicles or even wayward hikers. The habitat, which includes a concentration around Lake Marie, includes shore pines, Sitka spruces, wax myrtles, western hemlock and Pacific rhododendrons.

"The main point of the appeal is the fact the Forest Service didn't consider the impact of sand camping on one of Oregon's rarest ecosystems," Eatherington said Thursday.

While not opposing fixed off-road campsites in the Umpqua Lighthouse area - "In general, we're supportive," she said - Eatherington said the federal environmental assessment must be rethought because it ignored the frequency with which vehicles and people intrude into the tree habitats.

"The state park is the last place left that is free of off-road vehicles," she said. "They have their place, but it's not every place. It ruins it for hikers and other recreationists; it can damage some very delicate ecosystems.

"They have enough. They should respect the law; they should not trespass. If they can't do it voluntarily, we want the Forest Service to enforce their boundaries."

With Umpqua Watersheds appealing the sand camping program, the Forest Service is prepared to move the case to the Portland office of Region 6, which supervises park activities in Oregon and Washington. There, a review panel will decide whether the reservations policy complies with agency rules set down in the National Environmental Policy Act. The panel can accept the original environmental report or order amendments to it; if the latter, the old camping rules will be restored until a new environmental assessment is completed.

Eatherington described the review in Portland as only a final option, saying Umpqua Watersheds first will try to negotiate later this month with Linares, the Siuslaw forest supervisor, to modify the Forest Service's camping plans.

Whatever the outcome, Wade, the Forest Service sand camping director, called a speedy decision essential to calm summertime tourists already made skittish by the disruption of their vacation plans.

"We've got quite a few phone calls from folks," she said. "Many people are aware we've gone through this process and have been waiting to hear what will happen. People are planning their summer vacations and they're wanting to know when and how they can make their reservations."

Despite the appeal, Davis, who oversees environmental policy compliance in the Siuslaw forest, was able to take the resulting delay in stride, at least for now.

"The appeal process is just one of those things we have the benefit of, that people can question what the government is doing," he said.

Those attempting to make summer plans at the Oregon Dunes can call Reserve USA, the Forest Service's booking contractor, toll-free at (877) 444-6777. Reserve USA continues to accept reservations at developed federal campgrounds.

For information about the status of sand camping in western Douglas County, those interested can call the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area visitor center at (541) 271-3611 or visit the Web site of the Siuslaw National Forest, http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/siuslaw.

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/...rylist=orlocal

 

So it sounds like the forest service is trying to get people to take responsibility for their messy camping habits.

Just be a responisble camper - and rider - and we won't have to worry about this.

I could see something like this possibly coming to pismo - alot of people camp like pigs out there.

Just respect the land - pick up your trash, don't drain your oil in the sand (I've seen this @ pismo - wanted to shoot that guy).

If we don't - we will lose these places.