Permit Quotas Are Coming to 80 Oregon Trailheads in 2020

The Three Sisters
With the newly minted Devil’s Staircase Wilderness, Oregon now has 48 designated wilderness areas—the federal government’s highest level of protection for public lands. Enjoy your unfettered access while you can; come summer 2020, three of these areas will likely be curbing trail access for human visitors.
Why? According to the U.S. Forest Service, over-visitation. The agency reports that from 2011 to 2016, the number of groups entering the Three Sisters increased by 331 percent; Mt. Washington, 314 percent; Diamond Peak, 165 percent; and Mt. Jefferson, 68 percent. All those nature lovers, the agency says, have contributed to increased vandalism, overcrowding, unsafe parking conditions, wildlife displacement, de-vegetation, and eroded trails.
The solution, it hopes, is establishing quotas—both for overnight group permits and individual day hikers—at a grand total of 80 Oregon trailheads. The tentative list of impacted trails (see our list below) is expected to be finalized by the agency this April. Once the list is nailed down, quotas are scheduled to go into effect in May 2020.
In Oregon, the trails named in the draft list cover about 13 percent, total, of the Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson, and Three Sisters wilderness areas within the Deschutes and Willamette National Forests. Some trails, like Obsidian Trail in the Three Sisters, already have a history of limited entry, established specifically for restoration. Since the mid 1990s, the Obsidian Trail has limited day hikers to a maximum 30 permitted into the area each day, and overnight visitors to 40, with a maximum of three groups of 12. (The proposed 2020 quotas will likely shift that overnight number down to 13 total; the number of day hikers will remain the same.)
Not everyone is happy about the new strategy. Outdoor recreation advocates like the Eugene-based Wilderness Report (a nonprofit organization that focuses on disseminating information about area wilderness management practices) have argued that limiting access all but defeats the purpose of having a wilderness area.
“The Agency needs to slow things down!" Wilderness Report director Arthur Pope wrote in a December 2018 letter to the Forest Service. “There is no need to restrict public access so broadly across the landscape. The adaptive management process would work equally well if restrictions were implemented slowly, over time, only when clearly needed."
That debate—whether a balance can be found between loving the outdoors to death and preserving wilderness character—is something to think about this summer. (Perhaps while hiking some of the trails, listed below, that will be trickier to visit come Summer 2020.)
DRAFT LIST OF OREGON TRAILS CONSIDERED TO SUMMER 2020 QUOTAS:
Three Sisters Trailhead—permit quotas tentative list
- Scott Trailhead: 13 overnight group permits / 12 day use individual permits
- Obsidian: 13 overnight group permits / 30 day use individual permits
- Linton Lake: 2 overnight group permits / 24 day use individual permits
- Proxy Falls: No permit required.
- Foley: 7 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Separation: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Rainbow: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Horse Creek: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Upper French Pete/Pat Saddle: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Upper Lowder: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Upper East Fork: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Lower East Fork: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Lower Lowder: Closed / Closed
- French Pete: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Rebel: 5 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Olallie: 5 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Elk Creek: 5 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- South Fork: 5 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Crossing Way: 7 overnight group permits/ no permit required for day use
- Box Canyon: 7 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Skookum: 5 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Taylor Burn: 6 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Helen Lake: 6 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Jack Pine: 6 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Irish Taylor: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Many Lakes: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Deep Lake: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Winopee/Corral Lake: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Corral Swamp: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Lucky Lake: 3 overnight group permits / 30 day use individual permits
- Six Lakes: 8 overnight group permits / 60 day use individual permits
- Elk Lake: 4 overnight group permits / 24 day use individual permits
- Quinn Meadow: 4 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Sisters Mirror: 4 overnight group permits / 16 day use individual permits
- Devils Lake/Wickiup (South Sister climbers TH): 16 overnight group permits / 100 day use individual permits
- Green Lakes / Soda Creek: 14 overnight group permits / 80 day use individual permits
- Todd Lake: 3 overnight group permits / 12 day use individual permits
- Crater Ditch: 4 overnight group permits / 16 day use individual permits
- Broken Top: 4 overnight group permits / 40 day use individual permits
- Tam McArthur Rim: 5 overnight group permits / 80 day use individual permits
- Three Creek Meadow: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Park Meadow: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Chush Falls: 3 overnight group permits / 20 day use individual permits
- Pole Creek: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Scott Pass: 4 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Millican: 4 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Black Crater: 4 overnight group permits / 24 day use individual permits
- Lava Camp: 7 overnight group permits / 40 day use individual permits
Mount Jefferson Wilderness Trailhead—permit quotas tentative list
- Roaring Creek: 4 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Crown Lake: 4 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Pacific Crest Trail Breitenbush: 4 overnight group permits / 14 day use individual permits
- Breitenbush: 5 overnight group permits / 12 day use individual permits
- Triangulation: 5 overnight group permits / 16 day use individual permits
- Cheat Creek: 5 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Whitewater: 8 overnight group permits / 30 day use individual permits
- Woodpecker: 3 overnight group permits / 12 day use individual permits
- Pamelia Lake: 11 overnight group permits / 24 day use individual permits
- Minto Mountain: 4 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Bingham Ridge: 4 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Marion Lake: 10 overnight group permits / 40 day use individual permits
- Jefferson Lake: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Pine Ridge: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Big Meadows Horse Camp: 13 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Duffy Lake: 13 overnight group permits / 30 day use individual permits
- Maxwell Butte: 13 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Cabot Lake: 5 overnight group permits / 14 day use individual permits
- Bear Valley: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- PCT Santiam: 10 overnight group permits / 50 day use individual permits
- Jack Lake: 5 overnight group permits / 60 day use individual permits
- Round Lake: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
Mount Washington Wilderness—permit quotas tentative list
- Patjens: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- PCT Big Lake: 2 overnight group permits / 20 day use individual permits
- Hortense Lake - Access Point: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Dry Creek - Access Point: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- PCT McKenzie Pass: 6 overnight group permits / 24 day use individual permits
- Hand Lake: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Benson/Tenas: 8 overnight group permits / 30 day use individual permits
- Fingerboard Prairie: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Tenas Lakes: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
- Robinson Lake: 3 overnight group permits / no permit required for day use
Skyline - Pacific Crest Trail—permit quotas tentative list
- Daily launches: 2 overnight group permits / N/A