US Forest Service starts clearing homeless camp in Oregon national forest

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in central Oregon for years were being evicted Thursday by the U.S. Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting controlled burns over thousands of acres.

The project has been on the books for years, and the decision to remove the encampment in the Deschutes National Forest comes two months after the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to increase timber production and forest management projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk.

Deschutes National Forest spokesperson Kaitlyn Webb said in an email that the closure order was “directly tied to the forest restoration work.” Homeless advocates, meanwhile, seized on the timing on Thursday as U.S. Forest Service officers blocked the access road.

“The fact that they are doing this with such vigor shortly after they announced that the forests would be opened up for logging I don’t think is a coincidence," said Jesse Rabinowitz, spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and the service’s Pacific Northwest Region did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

“The closure does not target any specific user group and will restrict all access, including day use and overnight camping, while crews operate heavy machinery, conduct prescribed burns, and clean up hazardous materials,” Webb said. “It’s not safe for the public to be in the area while heavy machinery is operating, trees are being felled, mowing operations are active, and prescribed burning is occurring.”

Campers who had set up trailers, recreational vehicles and tents amidst the ponderosa pines in the forest scrambled in the darkness Wednesday night to pack up and get their engines working again. Authorities closed the two-lane road in the early hours of Thursday morning, and it wasn’t immediately clear how many people were left in the forest by the afternoon, though some were unable to leave.

The U.S. Forest Service has been working for years on plans to close part of the Deschutes National Forest near Bend for forest restoration and wildfire mitigation. But the number of people living in that part of the forest has grown, with many losing homes during the coronavirus pandemic due to job losses and high housing costs, Rabinowitz said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has acted to roll back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of U.S. national forests, under an emergency designation that cites dangers from wildfires.

Whether the administration's move will boost lumber supplies as Trump envisioned in an executive order he signed in March remains to be seen. Former President Joe Biden’s administration also sought more logging in public forests to combat fires, which have become more intense amid drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change, yet U.S. Forest Service timber sales stayed relatively flat under his tenure.

The Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project, a wildfire mitigation treatment on some 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), is prompting the closures in the Deschutes National Forest.

The goal of the work is to reduce wildfire risk and restore damaged habitats where development encroaches on natural areas near Bend, Deschutes National Forest officials said in a statement. Recreation sites and trails in that area will be closed through April next year.

Multiple U.S. Forest Service officials and vehicles were stationed at the Deschutes National Forest road closure on Thursday. A sign on the metal gate blocking the road said the temporary emergency closure will last at least one year.

Violators could face up to six months in jail, fines up to $5,000, or both.

On Wednesday night, Mandy Bryant, who said she had lived in the encampment for about three years, was cleaning up her site and trying to get a trailer to start so she could move it.

“You could feel the heaviness in the air and just the stress and depression that people are feeling,” she told The Associated Press. “We’re up there on the list of groups of people that society doesn’t really care for.”

Four people living in the encampment including Bryant, along with two homeless advocates, filed for a restraining order to stop the closure. The claim argued it would cause irreparable harm to more than 100 people who were living there, many of whom have disabilities.

The government responded in court filings that U.S. Forest Service staff in January began notifying homeless people living in the area of the upcoming closure. Original plans for the project were published in 2019 and were authorized by the U.S. Forest Service in 2023, the court filings said.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane denied the restraining order on Tuesday and issued a written opinion on Thursday.

“The public’s significant interest in restoring natural habitats, preventing catastrophic wildfires, and preserving the overall health of Deschutes National Forest is not outweighed by the interest of 150 or so individuals in residing on this particular plot of land," he wrote in his ruling.

Webb, the Deschutes National Forest spokesperson, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the government’s goal is “voluntary compliance,” but Forest Service officers and staff will patrol and “enforce the closure and ensure public safety.”

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Rush reported from Portland, Oregon.

Greg Bishop, bottom center, who lived in a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, walks along a dirt road to check on camp sites for residents who have not lefts the encampment on Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A U.S. Forest Service vehicle drives down a dirt road past newly placed rock barrier towards a trailer at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Chris Daggett, who lived in a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, pushes a scooter belonging to another resident as he helps to remove items for fellow campers on Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A tow truck driver helps removing a trailer for a person staying at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Debris lies scattered around a trailer at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Debris lies scattered around a trailer at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A trucking and logging vehicle, at left, drives past trailers lining China Hat Road as leaves an area that was closed off in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Jessica Gamble, who started the nonprofit Home More Network in 2022, right, looks on after reading text messages she received when a road to a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest was closed on Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A person talks to a U.S. Forest Service official about getting through a road barrier to collect their belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Nick Campbell vapes at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A flashlight from Mandy Bryant's shines on chairs propped up by trees at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A tiara rests on a seat as a woman writes in a journal at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A string of lights hangs on a tree above a memorial at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Greg Bishop works to get an RV to start at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mike Shelton works to attach a hitch to a vehicle as he loads up his belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Nick Campbell looks up while talking to a volunteer at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Greg Bishop works to get an RV to start at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Trailers and RVs are seen at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A woman looks up from writing in a notebook with the words "to be a princess" seen near the top of the page and a tiara next to her inside a trailer as her father works to get it to start, at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Chris Daggett works to get an RV to start so that it can be moved at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mandy Bryant holds her dog as she talks with a neighbor at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mike Shelton works to attach a hitch to a vehicle as he loads up his belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mandy Bryant walks to help Mike Shelton with his trailer as they load up their belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A person walks to a tent at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)