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Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in
central Oregon for years were being evicted on Thursday by the US Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that
will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting
controlled burns over thousands of acres.

The project has been on the books for years, and the decision to remove
the encampment in the Deschutes national forest comes two months after
the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal
agencies to increase timber production and forest management projects
aimed at reducing wildfire risk. It wasn’t immediately clear if the
evictions were a result of that order, but homeless advocates seized on
the timing on Thursday, as US Forest Service officers blocked the access
road.

“The fact that they are doing this with such vigor shortly after they announced that the forests would be opened up for logging I don’t think
is a coincidence,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesperson for the
National Homelessness Law Center.

people protest in a national park
Trump orders swathes of US forests to be cut down for timber
Read more
The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the US Forest Service,
and the service’s Pacific Northwest Region did not immediately respond
to emailed requests for comment.

“The closure does not target any specific user group and will restrict
all access, including day use and overnight camping, while crews operate
heavy machinery, conduct prescribed burns, and clean up hazardous
materials,” Deschutes national forest spokesperson Kaitlyn Webb said in
an email. “It’s not safe for the public to be in the area while heavy machinery is operating, trees are being felled, mowing operations are
active, and prescribed burning is occurring.”

Campers who had set up trailers, recreational vehicles and tents amidst
the ponderosa pines in the Deschutes national forest scrambled in the
darkness Wednesday night to pack up and get their engines working again. Authorities closed the two-lane road in the early hours of Thursday
morning, and it was not immediately clear how many people were left in
the forest by the afternoon, though some were unable to leave.

The US Forest Service has been working for years on plans to close part
of the Deschutes national forest near Bend for forest restoration and
wildfire mitigation. But the number of people living in that part of the
forest has grown, with many losing homes during the coronavirus pandemic
due to job losses and high housing costs, Rabinowitz said.

Donald Trump’s administration has acted to roll back environmental
safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of US
national forests, under an emergency designation that cites dangers from wildfires.

Whether the administration’s move will boost lumber supplies as Trump envisioned in an executive order he signed in March remains to be seen.
Joe Biden’s administration also sought more logging in public forests to combat fires, which have become more intense amid drier and hotter
conditions linked to the climate crisis, yet US Forest Service timber
sales stayed relatively flat under his tenure.

The Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project, a wildfire mitigation
treatment on some 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), is prompting the
closures in the Deschutes national forest.

The goal of the work is to reduce wildfire risk and restore damaged
habitats where development encroaches on natural areas near Bend,
Deschutes national forest officials said in a statement. Recreation
sites and trails in that area will be closed through April next year.

Multiple US Forest Service officials and vehicles were stationed at the Deschutes national forest road closure on Thursday. A sign on the metal
gate blocking the road said the temporary emergency closure will last at
least one year.

Violators could face up six months in jail, fines up to $5,000, or both.

On Wednesday night, Mandy Bryant, who said she had lived in the
encampment for about three years, was cleaning up her site and trying to
get a trailer to start so she could move it.

“You could feel the heaviness in the air and just the stress and
depression that people are feeling,” she told the Associated Press. “We’re up there on the list of groups of people that society doesn’t really care for.”

Four people living in the encampment including Bryant, along with two
homeless advocates, filed for a restraining order to stop the closure
earlier this month. The claim argued it would cause irreparable harm to
more than 100 people who were living there, many of whom have
disabilities.

The government responded in court filings that US Forest Service staff
in January began notifying homeless people living in the area of the
upcoming closure. Original plans for the project were published in 2019
and were authorized by the US Forest Service in 2023, the court filings
said.

US district court judge Michael McShane denied the restraining order on
Tuesday and issued a written opinion on Thursday.

“The public’s significant interest in restoring natural habitats, preventing catastrophic wildfires, and preserving the overall health of Deschutes National Forest is not outweighed by the interest of 150 or so individuals in residing on this particular plot of land,” he wrote in
his ruling.

Webb, a Deschutes national forest spokesperson, told the
Oregonian/OregonLive that the government’s goal is “voluntary compliance”, but Forest Service officers and staff will patrol and
“enforce the closure and ensure public safety”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/01/homeless-evicted-forest-s ervice-oregon-deschutes

Obviously Oregon cares more about converting boys to girls and homos
in government than they do about their own citizens.

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