Every state in the country has problems with homeless people, but some blue states have allowed the problem to get much worse.
In Oregon, the U.S. Forest Service has been planning to do some necessary maintenance work in a national forest but first had to clear out a sizable homeless population.
The type of work that needs doing is brush clearing and controlled burns, the type of work California neglected which likely led to the wildfires there earlier this year.
Notice how the Associated Press frames this story, suggesting the homeless people were ‘evicted’ from the forest, as if it’s their legal home:
US Forest Service starts clearing homeless camp in Oregon national forest
Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in central Oregon for years were being evicted Thursday by the U.S. Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting controlled burns over thousands of acres.
The project has been on the books for years, and the decision to remove the encampment in the Deschutes National Forest comes two months after the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to increase timber production and forest management projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk.
Deschutes National Forest spokesperson Kaitlyn Webb said in an email that the closure order was “directly tied to the forest restoration work.” Homeless advocates, meanwhile, seized on the timing on Thursday as U.S. Forest Service officers blocked the access road.
Ward Clark commented on this at RedState:
Let’s get one thing straight: These people are not being “evicted.” “Evicted” implies that they had some legal right to be there in the first place. They are trespassing, they are breaking every environmental regulation in the Forest Service’s book regarding camping, and they are preventing legitimate use by taxpayers. Camping is legal in the National Forests, there is an allowable amount of time involved; most forests enforce a 14-day limit. Some of these people have been occupying this site for years.
These forests are supposed to be for the enjoyment of all Americans, not permanent camping sites for the homeless.
