Meeting Minutes
The Cline Buttes Recreation Area Plan process has included the following meetings:
- An initial public meeting (PPT) held in June 2006
- A series of guided field tours for the public held in late July and early August 2006
- A 2-day design workshop held on September 16-17, 2006
- Roads and Trails Meeting: A presentation on outcomes of the design workshop and the BLM concept plans held on November 16, 2006
- A public meeting and presentation on vegetation management issues held on November 16, 2006
Collaborative Design Workshop
The BLM held a 2-day design workshop on the weekend of September 16, 2006. During this workshop, participants formed into 6 different teams and helped develop concepts for road and trail uses, identifying desired trail use areas, routes, and trailheads. Over 30 people participated in this 2-day collaborative workshop, educating each other and agency staff on issues, needs, activities, and desired outcome. Participants identified various management goals and options on base maps of the Cline Buttes Recreation Area. The efforts of the public resulted in a substantial and meaningful input into the design process for the Cline Buttes Recreation Area. The outcome of this workshop includes the following:
- Overview and Legend Details
- Collaborative Group Maps (JPG) - Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5, Group 6
- Comments (PDF)
Recreation Concept Maps
The following three Concept Maps (A, B, C) show a variety of use areas, trail corridors, and general locations for major trailheads. The maps were initially created as stand-alone documents, complete with text and labels for most of the important map features. Using the Overview and Legend will help you understand the proposed trail markings and access.
Roads and Trails Meeting
Information unavailable at this time.
Vegetation Management Meeting
Date: November 16, 2006
Location: Eagle Crest Resort
Time: 6pm – 9pm
Presentations were made on existing Upper Deschutes Resource Management Plan (UDRMP) direction, including:
- Wildlife management
- Sagebrush steppe habitat
- Juniper thinning
- State scenic river considerations
- Peck’s milkvetch
- Native plant communities, succession and disturbance factors
- Old growth juniper abundance and distribution
- Juniper treatment options and tools
- Wildland urban interface (WUI) zones
- UDRMP direction for fuels management
- Community wildfire protection plans
Public Comments:
- The vegetation, the wildlife, disturbance should be considered way before the many trails and rock climbing buzz-mobiles are even discussed.
- What about hunting?
- The OHVs seem to make nice trails into roller coaster rides.
- If a lot of people are in the area on machines – sparks will fly and fires start.
- Is there going to be policing out in this area?
- The condition of Cline Buttes is not because of OHV use but because BLM has not managed the use.
- There are many neighbors that ride motorcycles and quads from their backyards – How do we address their use?
- OHV concerns have lost much recreational opportunity with the UDRMP – Cline Buttes is one of only five areas out of almost 4 million acres that will provide any future system development.
- The area provides one of very few areas for year round OHV use in Central Oregon and is very important to the use.
- Aggressive removal of junipers will make a trail system difficult to design – the juniper provides topography to wind through.
- The concern being – if the trail for OHVs is too barren the design will be compromised and compliance will be more difficult which may doom the system.
- With the removal of trees an OHV system will be more expensive to maintain because the speed will be higher and impacts more severe and maintenance cost much higher over the long run.
- Moguls, whoops, blown corners – all exacerbated by ground without shrubbery.
- There can be a conflict between vegetation management and recreation management. Vegetation is a huge benefit in all types of trail location and design. It helps keep users on the trail. It enhances the “trail” experience. And it allows the trail designer to create a curvilinear serpentine trail which enhances the trail experience, creates more miles of trail, and reduces the speed on the trail. All of these are highly desirable for a quality trail system, but these are very hard to achieve without mature vegetation.
- This is an urban interface area with a high demand for a multitude of recreational uses. Aggressive vegetation management will tie the hands of the BLM to effectively manage and provide for the Recreation use. The real question is: what is the priority for the BLM? It will be extremely difficult to accomplish both.
- We do not agree that a large portion of the Prineville District needs to be returned to a “pre-European” condition. This is especially true for the Cline Buttes Area.
- Trees and mature vegetation helps hide trails. This is important from an aesthetic standpoint, but also from a user conflict standpoint. Trail densities can also be higher if there is vegetation to “hide” them.
- I agree with others about minimizing soil disturbance. It is very important. Others would agree with me when I say that preserving the ranching way of life is one of the best ways to preserve open space in the American West.
- In order to keep the large unfragmented area (in the middle of the area (parts of sections 14, 13, 23, and 24) relatively “pristine,” I’d like to minimize mechanical fire treatments in order to minimize soil disturbance and weed introduction.
- I am all for community based hand-selected thinning of sensitive areas.
- Use of small prescribed fires spread over time and acreage would be wonderful.
- Carrying through with the bands concept (for fuels treatments adjacent to private property) – the placement of recreational trails (for those we actually create new) near the confluence of bands 1 and 2 could add favorably to fire control – like a built-in fire line!
- The presence of Peck’s Milkvetch is a blessing because it gives us the ability to manage with ecological health as a highest priority. If we allow the areas with Milkvetch to be managed to protect the Milkvetch as first priority, then general flora next priority, therefore wildlife closely behind, then say fuels reduction, I think we’re going the right direction.
- In general, I support the idea of massive greenways to allow for migration of whole wildlife populations as well as generational migration of plant populations.
- On a local level, please consider greenway type protection between areas within the Cline Buttes Planning Area as well as well as between the Planning Area and all the surrounding “natural” areas.
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Oregon State Office
Bureau of Land Management
333 S.W. 1st. Avenue
Portland, OR 97204
503-808-6002