Public Lands Belong to Everyone. Our Access Policies Should Reflect That.

I've spent the better part of a decade working on outdoor access programs across Oregon, and I keep encountering the same misconception in conversations about public lands: that our biggest challenge is overuse. It isn't. Our biggest challenge is uneven access.

Yes, some of Oregon's most photogenic trails have become genuinely crowded. That's real, and it deserves thoughtful management. But focus too heavily on crowding at a handful of famous trailheads, and you miss a much larger problem: huge numbers of Oregonians, particularly in lower-income and rural communities, have limited practical access to public lands at all.

Distance Is a Barrier Most Policy Ignores

Public land is technically open to everyone, but "technically open" and "practically accessible" are very different things when you factor in transportation, time, and information. A family without reliable transportation, working multiple jobs, doesn't experience the same access to a national forest as someone with a flexible schedule and a reliable vehicle, even if both live in the same county.

Most public lands access conversations focus on regulating use at popular sites rather than expanding meaningful access for communities currently underserved by existing recreation infrastructure and outreach.

What Would Actually Help

Real progress here looks less glamorous than a new scenic overlook. It looks like expanded public transit connections to recreation areas, translated outdoor education materials, and community partnerships that actively bring underserved groups into public land spaces rather than assuming access is equally available to everyone already.

Oregon's public lands are a genuine public good, but only if "public" means something more than technically unrestricted. It's time our access policies caught up to that responsibility.