Carrie Matthews of Baker City is concerned about guidelines in the plans for the Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla and Malheur national forests that call for restricting cattle grazing in areas near wolf dens or where wolves are known to “rendezvous.”

Matthews said local ranchers have had their federal grazing allotments closed due to technicalities, and she fears the wolf language in the new plans will have the same effect.

Peter Fargo, a spokesman for the Wallowa-Whitman, said the wolf den guidelines in the plans are “common-sense” management practices that are proven to reduce wolf-livestock conflicts.

Fargo said the new plans call for the same level of grazing as in the previous plans, which were approved in 1990. That amounts over the three forests to 242,800 animal unit months (AUM) per year — an AUM is the amount of forage a cow and her calf eat in a month.

The new forest plan “support ongoing grazing activities, while providing adequate protection of sensitive aquatic species, riparian habitats, and water quality,” Fargo said.

Ed Trindle, a Baker County rancher who has lived here for more than 70 years, said he is concerned that under the new forest plans the Forest Service will decide not to re-issue grazing permits for allotments that are not being used now.

Trindle, who is a member of the Public Lands Committee of the Baker County Livestock Association, said he doesn’t believe the Forest Service can meet the AUM numbers listed in the plans as a result of inactive allotments remaining closed to grazing.

In addition to having issues with the plans, Matthews also contends that their sheer volume, and what she considers a lack of transparency from the Forest Service, has prevented the public from fully understanding the ramifications of the new plans.

“This is not for the good of the public, it is just further restrictions of what you can’t do,” Matthews said.

The plans and supporting documents total almost 6,000 pages. Residents who want to submit a formal objection have until Aug. 28, which is 60 days after the plans were published.

The Forest Service has not provided physical copies of the plan except upon request. Forest Service officials say they decided on that policy after receiving few requests for paper copies after sending out a newsletter in March 2017.

Officials also point out that printing a complete version of the plans would cost about $500.

“Interesting that they said they had very little response,” Matthews said. “I think it was a weak attempt personally, considering they never knew when it was going to be released.”

On July 20, the Forest Sevice sent out a letter after recieving questions about the plan from the public.

Forest Access For All, a volunteer group that advocates for motorized access to public land in Eastern Oregon, has scheduled a series of five meetings to help people who want to submit an objection to the forest plans.

One of the meetings will be in Baker City, on Aug. 8 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sunridge Inn. The first of the meetings will be in La Grande on Monday, July 30 at the Blue Mountain Conference Center, 404 12th St., from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.