Have this story to share, and looking for opinions...

We live close to the Mount Hood National Forest. Just a short drive away really. Oregon (on this side of the Cascade mountains) is known for prolific rain. So, when we get spring days when the rains have subsided for 24 hours, we are just itching to get out.

Early this afternoon, I decided to pack up some stuff to "picnic". The kids and I met my husband (their dad) in town halfway into his commute, and took the highway to a backroad in order to achieve our destination.

Got there, found a campground that was closed for camping for the season still (we have picnicked in these places numerous times). We had some firewood to have a small fire to warm up the food.

There was a woman camping in this campground (now remember, we are a ways out there, no lights or niceties) with two dogs, she was alone, no other campers. Now, you have to know us here, this is not unusual. Oregonians will camp year round.

So we sat down after warming things up. Along comes a forest service officer (they are deputized, with badges and guns up here, sure other spots they are too). He walked over to us, so I got up and walked towards him to hear what he was saying. He then asked "do you all have permission to be up here?". I stopped for a minute, and was not sure how to answer this......

I explained we had just wanted to get out of town, and answered his question about camping or not (no, we were not). Also stated just till dark and then going home. He then told me that as far as he was aware, we weren't supposed to have a fire at this time of year (ehem, hello, Oregon, wet till June, what will catch on fire?).

His first question really took me by surprise. Permission to be "out here"?....

So when did we all need permission to be in our forests for a small family picnic? Now mind you, he saw we already had sat down to eat, and were not in any way trouble, and of course did not make us leave.

So folks, this is a first for me. I have NEVER been asked if I had permission to be out there, never. You just have to know us here, and our forests, even forest service officers before have just checked in, made sure we were just there for the day, and left us alone (they get lots of kids out there partying, plus real trouble makers and methheads, sometimes mobile labs out there). I can understand just checking on the occupants of any site, and then letting it go, but he actually questioned our right to be out there......

Then our discussion on the way home was about how we noticed that if you are in local, county, state or federal parks now, off season, there is a fuss, and then when you are in just a simple wooded area, not in any given park, you still get asked "what are you all doing out here?". Most regional parks, run by the county, no longer even allows a campfire. I mentioned it felt like they'd like to keep up penned up in our backyards (even so, our city has fire restrictions, even in your own backyard, but we do it anyways) after work and school.

Is this just me being overtly senisitive about his question (although I have linked it up with other issues recently regarding parks and open spaces)?