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Newberry Regional Partnership looks for solutions to public land mis-use in rural Oregon

Mattresses and other debris litter the forest floor
Bureau of Land Management
Volunteers stayed out of the treed area because of the potential for hazardous waste

Rural camps on Oregon public lands can become environmental hazards, and can start wildfires. One community in Central Oregon is finding solutions.

This summer’s Darlene Three fire burned nearly 4,000 acres of mostly Bureau of Land Management land near La Pine. It started in a houseless camp.

Julia Baumgartner is with the Newberry Regional Partnership, a local civic group formed about 18 months ago to address the challenges brought by the growth in the Sunriver and La Pine area. She told KLCC that after the fire, members wanted to channel their emotions and do something productive.

“It’s a really complex issue," she said, "and it requires complex solutions as well. And so, one specific activity that we found that community members could get engaged in was this cleanup on other camps in the community, and an effort to avoid future fires as well.”

Baumgartner said they focused on the nearby Jackpine Camp, which had been an RV chop shop and became a dumping site. In one day, about 55 people filled five dumpsters with appliances, tires, and other debris. The event was a collaboration between the BLM, the City of La Pine, Deschutes County, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, Public Land Stewards Bend, and La Pine Rural Fire Protection District. Baumgartner said Republic Services covered the fees for the dumpsters.

The BLM will clean up the remaining hazards, including abandoned RVs.

Baumgartner said the Jackpine Camp effort is just the beginning, and the group is creating a long-term strategic plan. She said the Newberry Regional Partnership will organize more cleanups, but the hope is to expand the work to something larger, to further address the complicated, underlying issues.

Karen Richards joined KLCC as a volunteer reporter in 2012, and became a freelance reporter at the station in 2015. In addition to news reporting, she’s contributed to several feature series for the station, earning multiple awards for her reporting.
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