What the bill does
Oregon’s House Bill 2011 proposes to increase penalties for assaulting parks and recreation employees. It would punish by a maximum of five years imprisonment, a $125,000 fine, or both.
It defines parks and recreation worker as an employee of or a person employed by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department or a parks and recreation department or organization of a city, county, tribe or special district.
The backstory
The number of rangers being assaulted and harassed by visitors at campgrounds, on trails or at other recreation areas has increased over the past few years, according to state and federal officials.
The harassment has been growing as the number of people heading outdoors has skyrocketed, especially during the pandemic. Overcrowding at state parks and sold-out campgrounds have brought frustration, including extreme examples of campers literally fighting over first-come, first-served campsites.
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Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Associate Director Chris Havel said simple requests, such as asking people to keep their dogs on a leash, are turning into an argument more often than they did in the past, and that has led to threats and even assaults.
Havel said there are more people, so there are more encounters over rule violations.
“Unfortunately, what stands out is that we’re also seeing an increase in situations where people not only disagree with our rangers, but disagree in ways that include verbally attacking them, threatening physical violence and sometimes following through on those threats,” Havel said. “We have had rangers hit. More often, it’s a person who’s upset charging or threatening them in a very intense way. It’s not an enormous number of incidents, but it’s growing and it doesn’t take many for us to see it as a critical issue.”
The issue has also been growing on federal lands, often managed by agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service.
“Traditionally about 1% of our visitors really struggle with complying to rules and regulations,” Dennis Benson, recreation manager for Deschutes National Forest, said. “Now, we’ve got more like 10% of the population that doesn’t comply or adhere with rules, regulations, those kinds of things, which is lending itself to more problematic behaviors on public lands.”
Who’s behind it?
The bill was introduced at the request of the Oregon Recreation and Park Association. Chief sponsors are Rep. Ken Helm, D- Beaverton, Rep. Kim Wallan, R- Medford, and Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth.
Where it is in the legislative process?
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary. No hearings are currently scheduled.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
