The US Forest Service is moving forward with a major revision to land management plans for the Blue Mountains region, which includes nearly 4.9 million acres across three national forests in eastern Oregon and southeast Washington. This is the first time in 35 years that these plans have been updated, and your voice is urgently needed to ensure that recreation access and multiple use management remain protected.
This preliminary draft includes planning for:
- 1.7 million acres on the Malheur National Forest, including 242,000 acres of the Ochoco NF
- 1.8 million acres on the Wallowa Whitman National Forest, excluding Hells Canyon
- 1.4 million acres on the Umatilla National Forest
While the Forest Service claims the trail system will accommodate current and reasonably foreseeable motorized and nonmotorized uses, they are only planning to maintain 100 miles of trail per decade on the Malheur NF, which is shockingly low for such a large and heavily used forest. Even the more ambitious plans for the Wallowa Whitman at 650 miles per decade and Umatilla at 500 miles per decade will fall short if access is not prioritized and funding is not secured.
There are 722,159 acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas currently under consideration, and while no recommended wilderness areas have yet been proposed, BRC is closely monitoring this process to ensure that no new restrictive designations are quietly pushed into the final plan. BRC opposes any effort to close roads, limit recreation, or reduce multiple use opportunities under the guise of wilderness or other nonmotorized overlays. We also are encouraging the USFS to develop an alternative that analyzes how these forests will be managed if the Roadless Rule is rescinded.
The plan also states that permits for new recreation residence tracts will not be issued, which is a troubling signal that the Forest Service may be moving away from supporting the recreational economies of rural gateway communities.
We are also concerned about long term road maintenance goals. The Forest Service has only committed to maintaining:
- 400 to 600 miles annually on Malheur NF
- 150 to 300 miles annually on Umatilla NF
- 200 to 600 miles annually on Wallowa Whitman NF
These are not enough to support growing access needs, especially for fire suppression, forest product gathering, hunting, camping, and motorized recreation. We would like to see the USFS adopt new regulatory standards that require maintaining a maximum transportation network instead of a minimum network, and they should develop an Alternative that analyzes maintaining more roads.
Another important issue to watch in this planning process is how the Forest Service applies Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) designations. ROS is a zoning system the agency uses to categorize areas of the forest based on the types of recreational experiences they want to manage for, ranging from highly developed zones to primitive, nonmotorized settings. These designations can directly influence whether roads and trails remain open to motorized use. At this stage, the Forest Service has not released maps showing where they plan to apply different ROS classes, including “Primitive” or “Semi-Primitive Nonmotorized” areas, which often lead to future restrictions on motorized access. Without this information, the public cannot fully assess the long-term impacts of the plan on trail riding, dispersed camping, and other motorized uses. BRC urges the agency to be transparent and ensure that ROS decisions do not result in the loss of motorized opportunities that have long been part of the Blue Mountains recreation landscape.
As this process continues, BRC believes monitoring must include a clear commitment to evaluating whether forest management is meeting the needs of all user groups and expanding recreation access, not restricting it.
Tell the Forest Service to prioritize access, recreation, multiple use, and economic opportunity in the Blue Mountains. Comments are accepted through October 6, 2025.
