SATURDAY • June 19, 2021 • Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
SAINTS MAKE TOURNEY
PREP BASKETBALL • SPORTS, B1
Central Cascades
Office
of Public
Defense
Services to
see revamp
Hiking community adjusts
to new wilderness permits
With a little planning, hikers have been able to get the permits they need for popular trails
BY GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
Ed Jones, new director of the
state Office of Public Defense
Services, says big changes are
coming. As many familiar with
Oregon’s legal system attest,
big changes at the office are
needed.
“It’s not like we didn’t un-
derstand that we needed help
— we did,” Jones said of a re-
cent legislative effort that adds
staff to his office and imposes
stricter guidance. “Thankfully,
the Legislature bought into the
idea that what we needed was
better control over the spend-
ing and better accountability
and they gave us the staff to
start.”
Last month, outgoing pub-
lic defense services Director
Lane Borg caused a stir when
he confirmed in a web call with
public defenders around the
state that his office was out of
money with three weeks re-
maining in the biennium.
That shortfall of about $3.8
million was addressed several
days later with the Legislature
approving a one-time supple-
mental budget increase for
the office. But the episode left
many leaders in Salem insistent
that the office begin to accu-
rately forecast caseload costs to
avoid similar problems in the
future.
The office’s 2021- 23 budget
is around 4.5% smaller than
the 2019- 21 budget and will
include a “holdback” of $100
million.
BY MICHAEL KOHN • The Bulletin
were some initial bottlenecks and some confusion over the system but experienced trail users are so far pleased with the experience.
“It seems to be going pretty well,” said Jake Wiley, an REI employee and frequent trail user. “There is still some confusion that we are
seeing from customers about where permits are required.”
Beginning May 28, the Deschutes and WIllamette national forests implemented the Central Cascades Wilderness Permit System. The
new system is intended to protect and preserve wilderness areas that have been impacted by heavy use. In the Three Sisters
Wilderness, access to 10 popular trailheads now requires a permit to be reserved in advance and rolling quotas will limit availability
on a daily basis. Reservations can be made online at www.recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-2021.
For more information, go to bit.ly/wildernesspermits
Trailhead permit requirements
Day use – Self-issued permit required
Day use – Permit reservation required
1
($1 per reservation, available online at Recreation.gov)
126
2
242
2638
35
6
The Husband
31
30
9
10
11
17
Three Sisters Wilderness
Lake/reservoir
State route
Paved forest road
Gravel forest road
Hiking trail
Pacific Crest Trail
46
19
20
Irish Mt.
4
4632
Miles
26
25 24 23 22
Source: Deschutes and WIllamette
national forests, USDA Forest Service
46
45
18
27
2
4601
Legend
1957
0
370
DESCHUTES
NATIONAL
FOREST
29
28
8
13 12
46
14
15
Mount Bachelor
16
19
1958
370
The Wife
Horse Mt.
19
7
Broken Top
33
WILLAMETTE
NATIONAL
FOREST
DESCHUTES
NATIONAL
FOREST
16
5
Middle
Sister
Olallie Mt.
1964
4
North
Sister
THREE SISTERS
WILDERNESS
37 38
32
1514
South
Sister
Lowder Mt.
34
44
39
36
500
41
15
15
42
40
19
1993
43
1018
3
46
45
WILLAMETTE
NATIONAL
FOREST
2643
Rainbow
Sisters
16
($6 per group, available online at Recreation.gov)
126
20
15
1018
47
Overnight – Permit reservation required
for all trailheads
McKenzie
Bridge
126
242
MT. WASHINGTON
WILDERNESS
(Free, available at trailhead)
514
21
640
40
4630
4636
46
Alan Kenaga/For The Bulletin
Wiley said he and other REI em-
ployees have helped customers who
have questions on the permit system
and trails, using information put out
by the Forest Service as guidance.
The number of hikers on Central
Oregon trails has soared in recent
years to the point where the environ-
ment along many paths has become
degraded with trash and even human
waste. The permitting system is de-
signed to reduce the number of visitors
using the trails.
Snow still covers some trails and it’s
not yet the peak time for tourism so it’s
still a little early to compare the differ-
ence in crowd numbers, but it’s not too
soon to assess the ease of use for the
new online reservation system, Wiley
said.
The system rollout has gone rel-
atively smoothly, said Jean Nel-
son-Dean, a spokesperson for the De-
schutes National Forest. The only issue
was early confusion over how the over-
night permits worked. Some hikers ac-
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
A sign reminds visitors to have their wilderness permit before heading out on the Green
Lakes Trail on Wednesday.
cidentally reserved just one night when
they wanted more.
“We also had some issues with peo-
ple reserving trails at times when roads
Very warm
High 88, Low 55
Page A8
INDEX
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A5-6
B6
B3-4
to those trailheads would not be open,”
said Nelson-Dean. “We worked with
people to correct those issues and over-
all it seems like people are working
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A7
B 5
A7
Local/State
Lottery
Nation
A2-4, 7
B2
A4
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
Daily
quota
Trailhead
1. Black Crater
2. Millican Crater
3. Scott Pass
4. Pole Creek
5. Chush Falls
6. Park Meadow
7. Three Creek Meadow
8. Tam McArthur Rim
9. Broken Top
10. Crater Ditch
11. Todd Lake
12. Green Lakes/Soda Creek
13. Devil’s Lake/South Sister
14. Sisters Mirror
15. Quinn Meadow
16. Elk Lake
17. Six Lakes
18. Lucky Lake
19. Corral Swamp
20. Winopee Lake
21. Deer Lake
22. Many Lakes
23. Irish-Taylor
24. Jack Pine
25. Helen Lake
26. Taylor Burn
27. Skookum
28. Box Canyon
29. Crossing Way
30. Elk Creek
31. S. Fork McKenzie
32. Olallie South
33. Rebel
34. French Pete
35. E. Fork Lower
36. E. Fork Upper
37. Lowder Mountain
38. Pat Saddle
39. Horse Creek
40. Rainbow Falls
41. Separation Lake
42. Foley Ridge
43. Proxy Falls
44. Linton Lake
45. Obsidian
46. Scott
47. Lava Camp Lake
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
80
40
16
12
80
100
16
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
30
12
40
See Defense / A4
Bend
adopts
budget for
the next
two years
BY BRENNA VISSER
The Bulletin
well with the reservation system.”
It has been a multiyear process to get
to this point. The Deschutes National
Forest started gathering data for the
permit system in early 2017 and made
a final decision in May of 2019. The
program was intended to begin a year
ago but was pushed back due to the
pandemic.
The day-use permitting system af-
fects 19 out of 79 trailheads between
May 28 and Sept. 24 in the Mount Jef-
ferson, Mount Washington and Three
Sisters wilderness areas.
Some of the affected trailheads in-
clude Broken Top, Tam McArthur Rim
and Todd Lake.
During the same period, over-
night-use permits will be required for
all trails in the three wilderness areas.
Hikers who already hold a Pacific Crest
Trail long-distance permit are exempt.
There are also exceptions for hunters
with certain types of permits and vol-
unteers with the Forest Service.
The Bend City Council ap-
proved a new $927.7 million
budget for the next two years,
which includes fee increases
for things like utilities and sys-
tem development charges.
On Wednesday, the council
officially approved a 3% in-
crease for water rates, a 2.5%
increase for sewer rates and 7%
increase for stormwater rates.
The increases are generally to
keep up with the cost of main-
taining and improving this in-
frastructure, according to bud-
get documents.
System development
charges, which are fees devel-
opers pay to help pay for the
infrastructure needed in the
city, are increasing 5%. Plan-
ning fees are also going up 6%
to handle the “increased com-
plexity and nature of appli-
cations,” according to budget
documents.
See Permits / A7
See Budget / A7
A6
B4
B1-2
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 2 sections
DAILY
A
limited entry permit system designed to curb congestion on Central Oregon’s most popular hiking trails is off and running. There
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[