Habitat should be a higher priority for Deschutes National Forest
This guest column was originally published in the Bulletin on June 22, 2023
The Deschutes National Forest’s Klone Vegetation Management Project threatens essential mule deer migration corridors and a years-long community effort to establish wildlife crossings along U.S. Highway 97 in Central Oregon.
Hiding cover is a key habitat feature that mule deer depend on for survival; it includes the shrubs, trees, and understory vegetation that allow wildlife to take refuge from threats. Recognizing the critical role of hiding cover, the Deschutes Forest Plan requires the Forest Service to retain a minimum of 30% hiding cover for mule deer summer range.
Wildlife Summer Range
Spanning 34,000 acres south of Bend and east of Sunriver, the Klone Project overlaps mule deer summer range and known migration corridors. Deer rely on these corridors year after year as they move to find the food and other resources they need to survive. Biologists with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife identified these migration corridors by placing GPS collars on nearly 500 deer and observing their movements from 2005-2012.
The collaring study played a pivotal role in developing solutions to improve motorist safety and wildlife passage along Highway 97, helping identify locations for the very first dedicated wildlife crossing structures in Oregon. Today, only four dedicated wildlife crossings have been built in Oregon, three of which are adjacent to the Klone Project.
Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure
The Hwy 97 crossing near Sunriver: SimonWray, ODFW
The Highway 97 wildlife crossings represent a significant public investment in our region’s wildlife, particularly so for the mule deer population that inhabits the Klone Project area. Countless resources, including millions of dollars of public funding and substantial contributions from academic institutions and conservation partners, have been poured into project development and implementation. This unified effort led to a remarkable achievement — one that the Klone Project unfortunately seems very disconnected from.
In a concerning turn of events, the Forest Service is amending the Deschutes Forest Plan to allow for the reduction of hiding cover within the Klone Project area to fall below the mandated 30%. Alarmingly, the Forest Service plans to reduce hiding cover within identified migration corridors to a mere 13% —leading to a drastic loss of habitat function in these key areas. Adding to the urgency, the deer population in the Klone Project area has declined by a staggering 62% in just the past decade — it’s truly a population in crisis.
To justify the project’s impacts, the Forest Service seemingly relies on a broad purpose “to improve forest resilience against large scale disturbance events such as high intensity wildfire.” However, their own analysis fails to demonstrate there is any need to effectively remove hiding cover within migration corridors, which represents a small number of acres within the larger project area. Furthermore, the final plan reveals that roughly 70% of the project has a low probability of burning in a high intensity wildfire.
Unlike other state agencies and partners involved in the Highway 97 wildlife crossing projects, the Forest Service alone has the responsibility to manage the key habitats adjacent to crossing structures. It begs the question: why invest millions to create safe highway passage if we are not fully committed to preserving and restoring the adjoining habitat?
It’s worth noting that the Forest Service was a key partner in establishing the Highway 97 crossings. While their support of wildlife passage within the highway right-of-way is essential, it is equally important to extend that support to restoration and maintenance of key habitats on the public lands adjacent to crossings.
Across Oregon, widespread support for wildlife passage projects is growing. The Oregon legislature is considering HB 2999, a bipartisan bill that would allocate much-needed funds — $5 million — to support wildlife passage projects such as the Bend to Suttle Lake initiative along Highway 20 in Central Oregon.
In the end, the success of these projects may hinge on one crucial factor: Will the Forest Service choose to be a dedicated partner on wildlife crossing projects in Central Oregon?
Jeremy Austin is Wild Lands and Water program manager at Central Oregon LandWatch. Reach out at jeremy@colw.org