People living, dumping on Oregon's public lands 'overwhelming' Bureau of Land Management

Hover over the Redmond Municipal Airport on Google Maps and scroll north of the Ochoco Highway. From a distance, the parcels of public land look like undisturbed patches of Oregon’s high desert: Western juniper trees scattered between brown and green tufts of bunchgrass and sagebrush set in the rain shadow of the High Cascades.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Hover over the Redmond Municipal Airport on Google Maps and scroll north of the Ochoco Highway. From a distance, the parcels of public land look like undisturbed patches of Oregon’s high desert: Western juniper trees scattered between brown and green tufts of bunchgrass and sagebrush set in the rain shadow of the High Cascades.

But zoom in on the desert plains east of Redmond and satellite images reveal hundreds of acres of trash and dozens of makeshift neighborhoods of trailers, motorhomes and junked cars. This property, whose ownership is divided between Deschutes County and the Bureau of Land Management, is an example of the countless parcels of Oregon's public land where homeless people are taking refuge in violation of local and federal laws.

Depending on the jurisdiction, the enforcement of these laws falls to the Bureau of Land Management — which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior — the state, or to county and city law enforcement. The added expense of removing the trash left behind at these locations can also cost these government agencies hundreds of thousands of dollars.

BLM spokesperson Samantha Ducker told KOIN 6 News that the federal agency, which owns about 25% of Oregon, knows that people are living and dumping on public lands. While the public is encouraged to camp on BLM land, BLM regulations prohibit people from camping in an area for more than 14 days. Once the two-week limit is reached, campers are required to move 25 miles away from their previous campsite. If people remain in the area past the deadline, BLM Law Enforcement officers can issue a $250 fine. But with 25 law enforcement officers and five special agents employed across the entire state, BLM officers are overwhelmed by the number of illegal long-term campsites in Oregon.

“The BLM is experiencing many problems with unauthorized, illegal long-term occupancy of public lands,” Ducker said. “This is distinctly different from camping for recreational purposes. These long-term occupancies are overwhelming the agency's resources to deal with them, and in many cases result in hazardous wastes that require specialized contractors for removal and remediation.”

The BLM’s Oregon and Washington office requests $100,000 each year to clean up the illegal dumping, Rebecca Hile, assistant district manager of BLM operations in Northwest Oregon, told KOIN 6 News. These cleanups are often related to illegal, long-term campgrounds, the agency said. However, the BLM makes no distinction in its records between the removal of dumped trash and the cleanup of long-term campsites.

Kyle Sullivan, spokesperson for the BLM’s Medford office, told KOIN 6 News that people often dump old RVs and other vehicles on public land instead of paying to take them to the landfill, making it difficult to determine if any one cleanup is related to illegal camping.

In many cases, Sullivan said, the BLM partners with various local organizations and government agencies to clear these frequented dumping grounds, which can extend into city, county, state, Forest Service and private properties.

Local organizations do their part to clean up Central Oregon

Tate Morgan, the founder of the off-roading organizations Gambler 500 and Sons of Smokey, told KOIN 6 News that the groups have helped to remove 2 million pounds of trash in Central Oregon since 2017. Most recently, the group of volunteers cleared roughly 250,000 pounds of trash from public lands in Deschutes County in a single weekend. Morgan said that roughly half of the trash comes from the area's homeless population and half is dumped there by local residents and businesses.

“Bend and the surrounding areas are the worst we’ve seen anywhere in the U.S.,” Morgan said. “Fast growth, zero planning for affordable housing, adjacent public land which they have pushed their houseless population onto with no accounting for trash byproducts.”

Although organizations regularly host cleanup events around the country, large community cleanups aren’t appropriate for areas still occupied by homeless people or sites that contain hazardous waste. When hazardous waste is discovered, government agencies like the BLM hire special hazmat teams to complete the work. According to records obtained by KOIN 6, the BLM spent more than $477,000 on hazmat remediation in Oregon between 2021 and 2023.

“We find a lot of asbestos, needles, chemicals,” Sullivan said. “There’s a lot of potentially hazardous situations that don't lend themselves to community cleanups.”

Deschutes County attempts to relocate homeless campers

In Deschutes County, county officials have spent the past 20 years working to swap the troubled property east of Redmond with the Oregon Department of State Lands.

In 2015, the two agencies agreed to exchange 137 acres of the property east of Redmond for 140 acres south of the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center, which the county will use to extend its fairgrounds. But in the spring of 2023, the Oregon Department of State Lands added a stipulation that the county must clear the land of trash and illegal campers before the deal can be completed, Deschutes County Deputy Administrator Erik Kopp told KOIN 6 News.

“ODSL sent a letter saying, in order for land swap to move forward, the county-owned land needs to be removed of people and debris,” Kopp said.

While illegal camping also occurs on state-owned land, ODSL and Oregon State Parks officials told KOIN 6 News that it's uncommon. Camping is generally limited to 30 days on designated tracts of ODLS land and 14 days in Oregon State Parks. Although each incident is unique, ODSL spokesperson Katrina Scotto di Carlo said that making contact with the campers often solves the problem.

"We occasionally see people living on DSL-managed lands, particularly parcels close to populated areas," Scotto di Carlo said. "When this happens, our team and partners – including public safety partners – let people know the rules for camping ... Letting people know camping isn’t allowed has worked for us in many situations."

In April, the Redmond City Council and the Deschutes Board of County Commissioners held a joint meeting to discuss the land exchange. During which, officials supported moving the homeless campers into a 45-acre space south of the proposed property exchange.

That property also contains the Oasis Village — a homeless shelter that the county spent $367,500 building in 2022, The Bend Bulletin reports.

However, with an extensive swath of BLM land neighboring the property, officials are uncertain about their ability to contain the campers in a single area.

“[It’s] important to acknowledge that even if the 45 acres was designated as a relocation option, individuals living on the 137 acres could not be forced/required to move to the specific location identified,” a Deschutes County staff report reads from April 17 reads. “... There will be many challenges to implementing the relocation plan, including topography; access; securing and storing abandoned personal property; enforcement; addressing new encampments; the storage and removal of vehicles; weather issues; and, once people are relocated, keeping the 137 acres clear.”

Enforcing camping laws

In county jurisdictions, sheriff’s offices can conduct code enforcement sweeps to help clean up county land. Code enforcement, for example, can allow for the towing of vehicles used for illegal camping. But the BLM does not offer a similar level of enforcement.

Michael Roop, the chief ranger for BLM Law Enforcement in Oregon and Washington, told KOIN 6 News that the agency doesn’t arrest people for illegally camping or littering on public land, and once citations are issued, it’s up to the Central Violations Bureau and U.S. District Courts to move forward with the cases.

“We’ve done what we can do by issuing the citation,” Roop said.

Although there’s no guarantee that Deschutes County will be able to keep the public land included in the proposed property exchange clear of campers for an extended period of time, county officials have budgeted $400,000 to clean up the area in 2025. Kopp said that the county hopes to handle the relocation and cleanup humanely by providing the homeless residents with amenities like water, hand wash stations, trash bins and portable toilets in its relocation zone.

“One thing we want to avoid is closing county-owned land and having people move from county land to other agency-owned lands,” Kopp said. “Part of the strategy is talking to commissioners, identifying acres of county land [for the exchange] and telling people that's where you can go right now ... When we ask people to move, we give them plenty of notice and plenty of time to prepare, and ideally, have an alternative [place for them to go].”