Thread: More restrictions on movement....

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)?

things are changing for all of us, I heard a report of a VETERANS motorcycle club in texas, being stopped, and detained for an extended period of time until homeland security showed up to take photographs

its the new world order

Geez....

It seems like we just cannot be out and move as freely and just be Americans anymore.

Around here, we LOVE being out in the woods. I cannot imagine not being able to just go out and stop, picnic, find a spot and camp, whatever, without being questioned and grilled.

That's so creepy. I remember a couple of years ago, Hubby went to the city fireworks on July 4th. I was out of town, we usually go together, but he decided to go for a long bike ride that day and on his way home stopped off at the fireworks display to watch them. For no reason at all, 3 police officers came up to him and started questioning him. He never did know or understand why. But it was creepy.

Our law enforcement is a joke. Have you been following all the ruckus concerning police shootings and "racial profiling?" Police are supposed to profile and that is how they solve crimes or find criminal activity. And racial profiling can apply to any crime---it depends upon the type of crime. Cyber criminals may tend to belong to one or two races; crack dealers to another.

But apparently now certain groups can raise objections to law enforcement because it isn't PC. Yes, I have seen certain groups get away with 'murder' while others have to follow the rules. Now it is the average American citizen who is held up to scrutiny; and it is favored groups that can get away with lots of things.

CaptainRon, in Portland it has gotten bad for that. The latest situation was a really bad event, and it was certainly a mistake on the police departments side (the communication issue involving dealing with the distraught and suicidal guy). Portland Police badly need to be retrained to deal with mentally ill people, especially those who are in the shape this poor guy was in.

However, many times they have come face to face with a situation where they have reason to believe the person could pose a real danger to the public and themselves, and they have to act, as sad as it always seems, they must do something, or be at fault if that person hurts a passerby. D_____d if they do, d_____d if they don't it seems.

As for the scrutiny, it has become more than I can remember. I came from a family of six. Many family trips camping were far out of our area. Maybe once or twice my father was stopped by state troopers for going a bit fast (those downslopes get you every time), they would come up to the suburban, smile nicely and say hi, and explain they felt he was going too fast, and usually give a warning. Always politely ask where we were headed to camp, and if close by, usually give advice on good campgrounds and which ones might be full.

Now it is not as nice, and of course they stand back, with their hand always on their holster, which really makes me (and others I've talked to) feel as though we were automatically assumed to be doing something wrong (now mind you, we have only been stopped once in town by local police and once by state troppers out of town).

CaptainRon, my issue is having to have permission to be out in the woods....since when do Oregonians have to explain why they are out there (when you see food, kids a puppy a small fire.....)? Since when do Americans have to ask to use their own lands for recreation? I even question having to pay a fee to picnic. Camping, sure, needed services (camp host, water and garbage) have to be paid for, but to go into a park to picnic? Even out in the open areas lately, it seems local or county police show up and question people.

I try to be polite, and just explain, but underneath it makes me angry that the small numbers of potential criminals who are out there, give government agencies the idea that they need to force the rest of us to be herded in like dimwitted cattle who can't be trusted to roam freely.

Here's where we head if we don't stop these maniacs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilXVkgmJk2E&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjxUtpLmr0

Hylander, thought in that last one I'd see Obama up there waving!!Lol!

Honestly, not sure about other places, but here, the park personel, forest service people will come up and tell you you cannot collect downed dry wood for a fire.......come on, and then they complain about having to battle "dry" conditions in which forest fires start!

You can't collect firewood (mainly starter kindling is what we use it for), some places are as anal as stating you can't collect rocks. One local park told us we could not have a fire to cook our hotdogs on. I queried about how we were supposed to (they provided fire pits, but you could not have a fire!), this young woman suggested briquets. I explained we did not come with them (far out of the way to go get some), she said she was willing to go around and ask other picnickers for extra, I declined and asked for our entrance fee back, we were leaving.

Basically, you can go into most of the parks and eat, but just not cook your food over a fire. This begins to shut out people who do not have the money for the equipment and supplies to do things in the way the park wants. At times, even ourselves barely had the gas and entrance fee's to go, so scraping together $$$ for briquets, fluid, and/or firewood you have to buy, and in some even a small bbq grill (as some parks have the grills, but will not let you use them).

No longer is the average person able to freely picnic, move about in the woods, or try to use the local parks to enjoy our freedoms without some anal worker who believes parent government is supposed to give us permission to do everything.

However, our towns and cities have become just about as bad, most of them make you get permission to cut down trees on your own property even, no backyard fire pits, BBQ'ing only so many feet from your home, and in Portland (OR) people can only replace old toilets with low flow toilets. The list seems endless.

Before I moved back to Michigan, Colorado was getting just as goofy. A lot of it is what I call the enviornmental terrorists (greenies). And guess what happens when you do get a real forest fire with all that dry tinder laying around.

Ya know, it's amazing some people live passed their teenage years. A real good example of why lions eat their young.

A lot of this area is a magnet to the enviro-freaks. They come here and take over local government and work within the state gov't and change all the rules of common use of parks.

My oldest got to go to "outdoor school" when she was in sixth grade. It started here as mainly a way to get inner city kids out into the woods for some outdoor experience, learn some stuff, I went and had hippy, nature loving teachers. However, when my daughter got to go, they were a bunch of enviro-freaks and the kids could not even scuffle their feet in the dirt and they would be admonished for causing "human erosion"!!

Truly sick of these people, a minority in our society, running the show.