6/6/2023

Again this year at East and Paulina Lakes there are also no docks installed yet, and the bathrooms are still locked. 
We are well into June, and these sites have been open and accessible to fishing, kayaking and hiking for around 2 full weeks now. Some sites at Paulina are close to 3 weeks of access as of today. 

If this makes you as mad as it does me, call the Bend Office at (541)383-5300 and tell them we expect bathrooms and docks to be installed immediately. 
Bathrooms remaining locked are not only cruel, they create public health hazards. How many people need to go to the bathroom on the ground near the parking areas of the boat ramps and hiking trails before we start creating public health issues?
Not installing docks is not only inconvenient to boaters, but it creates safety issues for many, and is discriminatory to older people, and to people with health issues and people with disabilities. 

Write a letter or email to the District Ranger Kevin Larkin, and the Newberry Crater Monument Manager Dawn Stender and CC their boss Holly Jewkes and tell them to open things up, get bathrooms open, docks installed, and stop messing around with services we expect. 

The address to write is: 
Deschutes National Forest 
63095 Deschutes Market Road
Bend, OR 97701

Or call (541)383-5300 and leave a message at the Main Office

Email the following people:

dawn.stender@usda.gov

kevin.larkin@usda.gov

holly.jewkes@usda.gov

BTW, Paulina Lake CG Boat Ramp (and CG) will be closed until about July 1 due to Hazard Trees. I am up there several days a week and haven’t heard a chainsaw yet, so I really don’t think we are getting an honest answer about that. But I can tell you the entrance is roped off and a big ROAD CLOSED sign is installed.
For the last 2 years the bathrooms at the boat ramp at Paulina Lake were locked and shut down in September, well over a month before the end of fishing season. So you have all these boaters and anglers using the site to go fish, but no place for them to use the bathroom. Kayakers, Hikers and families enjoying a fall picnic are also shut out of the same services and this is not acceptable. 

We all ought to contact our Senators and Congressman, and leave messages at their LOCAL offices. 

Seanator Ron Wyden

The Jamison Building 
131 NW Hawthorne Ave.,
Suite 107
Bend, OR, 97701
P: (541) 330-9142

Senator Jeff Merkley

131 NW Hawthorne Ave., Ste. 208
Bend, OR 97703
Phone: (541) 318-1298

Congressman Cliff Bentz

Eastern Oregon

2430 SW 4th Avenue #2

Ontario, OR  97914

Phone: (541) 709-2040

Talking Points:

• Services and facilities are becoming shorter in duration each year, with late openings and early closures of bathrooms, docks, campsites and other access on our public lands
• Bathrooms must be unlocked as soon as boat launch areas and hiking trails are accessible. Leaving them locked is not only cruel, it is certainly creating public health hazards on our public lands
• Docks need to be installed and kept in the water for the duration of the Oregon fishing season. Anything else is is a failure to the public who rely on these for recreation or to do their jobs. 
• We need more transparency on why some areas may be closed to the public. For instance, today and for the rest of this month USFS has the popular Paulina Lake Campground and Boat Ramp closed due to hazard trees. There was no public announcement given. Why can’t they begin with trees to the entrance to the boat ramp and around the parking area to create a safety zone there? And then move through the campground loops which would provide more access to the public immediately? That seems like a common sense solution to access for the public but is that being considered or implemented to the benefit of the public?
• These problems have been occurring for about 3 years, with noticeably worsening closures, delays and service issues, and poor communication or response from the public officials in charge of the areas.
• If you have any other comments to share please do so. The USFS Deschutes National Forest Supervisors, Rangers and Managers needs to hear it from all of us, and this needs to be something that get’s done today.