A federal official told a Bend physician on Wednesday that despite recent defacing of pictographs in the Badlands east of Bend, access to the area can’t be shut down.

”This is not an emergency,” Robert Towne, Prineville-based field manager for the Bureau of Land Management, said of his decision in a telephone interview.

”An emergency is an ongoing situation and we don’t have ongoing (vandalism) behavior.”

Towne said he talked by telephone with Dr. Stuart Garrett for about 30 minutes. Garrett recently requested the closure upon discovering the vandalism. He said he’s disappointed with the BLM decision and would continue to push for a ban on vehicle traffic.

”I really think the only way to protect that area is to close it,” Garrett has said. ”If the BLM makes that a priority, it would happen.”

The BLM decision comes after a person or persons used charcoal to draw over several pictographs in Dry Canyon, defacing about five pictographs and destroying at least one of the irreplaceable images.

Wednesday’s telephone conversation between Towne and Garrett was the result of a recent exchange of e-mails.

”I … decided against an emergency closure,” Towne e-mailed Garrett last week.

”Emergency closures are rarely effective without continuous law enforcement … and are a consequence only to those who respect the law.

Those with nefarious intent would not be deterred by a closure.”

Elaborating on his decision on Wednesday, Towne said there was only one off-road route to the pictographs in question. Besides his assessment of whether an emergency existed, he said that even if the route was closed, there weren’t law enforcement personnel available to enforce the ban.

”We would have to have patrols out there all the time,” he said.

Rather than close the area to motorized vehicles, officials aim to curb vandalism by working with youth groups and schools, Towne has said.

Currently the BLM is preparing a comprehensive plan to manage about 880,000 acres of public and private lands within Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. About 367,000 acres of that area falls under BLM jurisdiction.

Closing the Badlands to vehicles would make it more difficult for people to damage the pictographs, said Bill Marlett, executive director for the Oregon Natural Desert Association, an environmental group.

The BLM, Towne said, has hired a conservator, a specialist in preserving works of art, to advise officials on the best method for repairing the damage done to the pictographs.

Officials also plan to partner with the Archeological Society of Central Oregon to clean up, survey and record other art sites in the Dry Canyon area.

”We were not able to protect the site and, much to our chagrin, cannot adequately protect the 1.8 million acres of Prineville District public lands from the careless … and those intent on destruction,” Towne e-mailed Garrett.

Rachel Odell can be reached at 541-617-7811 or rodell@bendbulletin.com