A 2 1/2 mile road that crosses private land is being disputed in courts in Western Oregon. Pine Creek Road which is located in Baker County has been used for generations in the Elkhorn Mountain Range to provide crucial access to federal public lands. This is used by both Oregon and Idaho residents. A private property owner purchased the land in 2020 and sued Baker County to restrict the public access. County Commissioners are working to declare the 2 1/2 miles as public right of way. You can read more about the lawsuit here.
Continued access on Pine Creek Road is crucial in order for continued access on surrounding public lands.
There will be a hearing April 19, 2022 at 9 a.m. at the Baker Community Events Center, 2600 East St. for the commissioners to receive public comment regarding designating the road as public. You can also use the tool below to submit a comment beforehand. Commissioners will consider all comments received in making this decision. We believe there is a clear history of continued and valuable use and this road should in fact be public.
Too many parcels of public land have been lost by precisely this mechanism in our part of the world. Please don’t let the pine creek lane be another example of public representatives siding with petty private interests.
I know that there is a generation of history of Pine Creek my husband’s family have many years I’m history there and for someone to be greedy and take generations of History away from the Next Generation to come is sad they need to keep Pine Creek open it’s been that way for years and I’m sorry it’s the new owner of the private property and injects to this but I know for a fact all the logging and stuff the has been done up there since he has bought it is crazy but you can do what he wants with his own land leave the public land to the public and the people of Baker County and visitors