A federal judge has denied a temporary restraining order that would have halted the planned closure of thousands of acres of U.S. Forest Service land southeast of Bend and the eviction of dozens of homeless campers from the area.

Deschutes National Forest officials will close the area off China Hat Road on Thursday as planned, and people remaining at homeless camps in the area could be subject to fines or jail if they remain. The closure has long been planned to make way for the Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project, a wildfire mitigation treatment on some 30,000 acres of the Deschutes National Forest.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane has not issued a written opinion yet, but the federal court posted on its docket late Tuesday that the restraining order was denied. “Because the Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project is slated to begin in two days, the Court wanted to alert the parties it would not be granting injunctive relief,” the docket said.  “Written Opinion to follow.”

Four residents of the homeless encampment along China Hat Road, along with two homeless advocates, filed for the restraining order on April 18, arguing that the closure would cause irreparable harm to more than 100 people living along China Hat Road. The suit sought relief for 76 other disabled China Hat Road residents, as well as 40 to 60 other unhoused persons living there who had not filed disability complaints. Some of the residents have lived there as long as eight years.

Local homeless advocates Eric Garrity and Chuck Hemingway, who were representing the plaintiffs, offered in April to drop the suit and their complaints in exchange for a “rolling closure” over the course of the summer and fall “while the weather is good to allow all those remaining on the land to relocate.”

Hemingway told The Bulletin he estimated 80 people remained along China Hat Road as of Friday, and at least 40 would likely remain by May 1.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Garrity said plaintiffs were disappointed they didn’t get to argue their case in front of the judge at a hearing.

“People have been tirelessly working to relocate ahead of the closure, but due to the court’s decision they are now facing a year in jail and $5,000 fines because they can’t afford housing in Central Oregon,” Garrity said.

The National Homelessness Law Center, which backed plaintiffs in letters to the Forest Service, called the China Hat sweep a “flashpoint for America’s failure to solve homelessness” in a press release Wednesday morning.

This article will be updated.