FILE - A sign posted on a tree at a homeless encampment informing residents of a forthcoming closure in the Deschutes National Forest on Mar. 24, 2025.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
An effort to close a portion of national forest just south of Bend for vegetation management has hit another snag. Six people have filed a lawsuit on behalf of themselves and others living in a part of the Deschutes National Forest that is scheduled to close May 1.
They’re asking the federal courts in Oregon for an emergency hearing and a temporary restraining order that would delay the start of the Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project. The plaintiffs claim the U.S. Forest Service did not adequately address the impact to the people living in the forest or in surrounding cities.
U.S. Forest Service officials declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The filing is the latest in a series of efforts by homeless advocates to help the roughly 150 to 200 people living in encampments along China Hat Road, Horse Butte and other dispersed locations within the project area.
According to documents filed April 18, plaintiffs are asking for a delay so people living there have adequate time to gather their things and move. Meanwhile, the Forest Service has said it needs to move forward with the project to prevent the spread of wildfire this summer.
Plaintiffs claimed that people weren’t given enough time to leave because of adverse winter weather conditions. The Forest Service announced the May 1 closure on Jan. 16, giving people three-and-a-half months to leave.
Eric Garrity, a founder of Bend Equity Project and one of the self-represented plaintiffs, said in the winter the area becomes “basically impossible-to-navigate obstacle courses.”
Garrity described the case as a civil rights issue. He said 80 people who’ve filed claims with the government, and possibly others, need adequate accommodations to be able to leave.
Bend Mayor Pro Tem Megan Perkins said she doesn’t think people had enough time to vacate and called it “bad timing.” A temporary safe stay area was approved in Juniper Ridge as part of a collaborative effort between Bend and the Deschutes County government before the Forest Service’s Cabin Butte closure was announced. But residents near China Hat Road — a major camping area inside the proposed closure — told OPB last month they were under the impression that they aren’t allowed to go there, and some don’t want to.
However, Perkins recognized the federal government’s desire to start the vegetation management program before fire season begins. But, she said, “had we been brought along a little bit more in the process, we could have worked to develop, I think, a more effective way of doing the removal.”
A key component of the filing according to the plaintiffs is the environmental assessment, which not only should have assessed how plants and animals in the area would be affected, but also people who live nearby. Garrity said the Forest Service’s initial assessment was “clearly deficient.” It didn’t address what would happen to the people living in the forest, nor what would happen to the surrounding cities and towns, he said. Both Garrity and Perkins voiced concern over where up to 200 people would go after being removed from the forest.
When asked where she thought people might seek shelter next, Perkins said she didn’t know.
“I think that’s something that all of our communities need to prepare for and understand,” she said
Perkins sits on Bend’s Coordinated Houseless Response Office and the regional housing council for the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council.
While she ran for office last year on a platform around helping unhoused people, Perkins has stressed that Bend is not a service provider when it comes to helping people move out of homelessness.
The city spent its last COVID-19 pandemic-era dollars from the federal government to open a temporary safe stay area on Juniper Ridge, where another encampment had grown.
“We are almost entirely reliant on money from the state now,” she said. “There is no pot of gold, there is no slush fund.”
Garrity and the other plaintiffs expect to find out this week if the emergency hearing they requested in Bend will happen and if the temporary restraining order pausing the project will be granted.
This story may be updated.
