Federal forest officials began clearing thousands of acres of forestjust outside of Bend, Ore., where more than 100 people live in R.V.s and cars — a move that one advocacy group called “the largest eviction of a homeless camp in recent history.”
At around 3:30 a.m., a phalanx of squad cars bearing the golden logo of the U.S. Forest Service arrived at the start of a logging road leading deep into a landscape of towering ponderosa pines and dusty green desert grasses in the Deschutes National Forest. The cars parked facing each other, in a formation blocking the entry. Law enforcement officers wearing green uniforms, stood sentinel. Campers and R.V.s were allowed to leave, but no one can return unescorted.
In the hours before the deadline to vacate went into effect at midnight on Thursday, the people who have lived in this forest worked frantically to fix the broken-down vehicles, trucks and R.V.s so that they could move them off federal land.
Law enforcement and forest officials have crisscrossed a miles-long logging road for weeks, taping fliers to the doors and windows of dusty cars and derelict R.V.s with a stark warning: Anyone caught trespassing after May 1 would face a $5,000 fine and may be charged with a Class B misdemeanor and up to one year in jail.
Deep inside the Deschutes National Forest, between 100 and 200 homeless people lived in broken down R.V.s and campers.
“It’s everything I own,” said Richard Owens, 40, waving toward an R.V. that he said is as old as he is. His assorted belongings — a shopping basket filled with dishes, a jerrycan of fuel, a bike, a ladder, drying laundry and a dog cage were spilling out.
