An impromptu hike on the Green Lakes Trail could become a thing of the past if a plan to require paid permits to access the region’s wilderness areas takes effect. The Deschutes National Forest is taking public comment on a proposal that would require pre-purchased permits to enter the Three Sisters Wilderness from two dozen trailheads off the Cascades Lake Highway and four trailheads off the McKenzie Highway. Another 13 trailheads leading into the Mount Jefferson Wilderness from state Highway 22 could also be affected.

The comment period closes on Monday. Comments can be submitted by email to comments-pacificnorthwest-deschutes@fs.fed.us.

Jean Nelson-Dean, spokeswoman with the Deschutes National Forest, said the environmental damage caused by the growing number of visitors to wilderness areas has prompted the Deschutes and Willamette national forests to consider the possibility of paid permits. The two Forest Service districts jointly manage the Mount Jefferson, Mount Washington, Three Sisters, Waldo Lake and Diamond Peak wilderness areas.

Currently, the Forest Service does not charge visitors to enter these wilderness areas, nor does it limit visitor numbers. Technically, visitors are expected to obtain free permits, which they can do by filling out a card with their name and other basic information and deposit it in a lockbox.

The Forest Service has not determined how much a permit would cost under the proposed system, or how many permits would be issued to use any given trail.

Nelson-Dean said the input collected at public meetings earlier this year and through the public comment process will be considered over the next several months, as staff with the Deschutes and Willamette national forests draw up a recommendation on whether to proceed with a permitting system, and if so, what it might look like.

She said a more refined proposal is expected to be ready for public comment in February 2018. If the Forest Service decides to implement a paid permit system, that likely won’t happen until 2019.

“We’re trying to maintain access for people, trying to make sure people can have these areas in to the future,” she said. “But what we’re seeing with the number we’re seeing now, we’re seeing poop all over the place, toilet paper, garbage. We’re seeing impacts that aren’t sustainable in keeping a wilderness character of any sort.”

Forest Service documents describe unauthorized fire rings, shelters built by wilderness visitors and more than 100 miles of user-created trails in the Three Sisters Wilderness. In 2015-16, rangers in the Three Sisters Wilderness hauled out more than 1,200 pounds of garbage and buried human waste 830 times.

Visitor numbers to the Three Sisters Wilderness have spiked in recent years, growing considerably faster than Central Oregon’s surging population. In 2016, 132,118 people visited the Three Sisters Wilderness, up from 46,999 in 2011.

Nelson-Dean said traffic increases have been sharpest on a small number of trails. The five busiest trailheads leading into the Three Sisters Wilderness — Green Lakes, Devils Lake, Tam McArthur Rim, Six Lakes and Broken Top — account for 55 percent of all visits to the Three Sisters Wilderness.

Since 1991, the Tam McArthur Rim Trail has seen an 878 percent increase in visitor traffic.

Overall visitor numbers and the growth in visitor numbers were smaller in the other four wilderness areas where paid permits are being considered.

If the Forest Service chooses to require paid permits locally, the list of trailheads where permits would be required could be winnowed down, Nelson-Dean said. She said it’s possible paid permits could be required only on the trails where heavy usage has created the most environmental damage.

The country’s wilderness areas were created under the 1964 Wilderness Act, which seeks to preserve spaces where the impact of humans on the natural environment is kept to a minimum. Vehicles, including bicycles, are not permitted. Mining, grazing and timber cutting are generally prohibited within wilderness areas as well.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com

Jean Nelson-Dean, Deschutes National Forest spokeswoman, said a more refined proposal is expected to be ready for public comment in February 2018. If the Forest Service decides to implement a paid permit system, that likely won’t happen until 2019.

Affected trails

Cascade Lakes Highway trails where permits could be required:

Millican Crater, Scott Pass, Pole Creek, Chush Falls, Park Meadow, Three Creek Meadow, Tam McArthur Rim, Tam McArthur Rim Horse Trail, Broken Top, Crater Ditch, Todd Lake, Green Lakes, Soda Creek, Devil’s Lake/South Sister, Wickiup Plains, Sisters Mirror, Quinn Meadow, Elk Lake, Six Lakes, Many Lakes, Irish-Taylor, Winopee, Corral Swamp, Lucky Lake and Deer Lake