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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Birthday Bash for OR Badlands, Spring Basin Wilderness

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Friday, March 28, 2014   

BEND, Ore. – This weekend marks five years since the Oregon Badlands near Bend and Spring Basin near the John Day River were designated as federal wilderness areas.

For its fifth birthday, the Badlands have a new Wilderness Management Plan from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), outlining improvements and rules for the coming years.

A maximum of 20 people will be allowed on group hikes, and there's some livestock grazing permitted, but no target shooting or hang-gliding.

Gena Goodman-Campbell, Central Oregon wilderness coordinator for the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), says it's always a balance between keeping the rustic character of the area and encouraging people to use it.

"Some of the parking lots within the existing footprint will be hardened, some gravel will be added, so that it's just a little bit easier to park there and it's really clear where people should be driving,” she says. “And a couple of the trailheads will have improved access for horse trailers, which is great."

The plan also says more than 60 miles of old trails through the area will be rehabilitated.

Friends of the Oregon Badlands is a volunteer group that serves as extra eyes and ears for the BLM and helps with maintenance projects.

Board member Kevin Taylor says anyone who looks at the desolate landscape of central Oregon and doesn't see its appeal isn't looking hard enough.

"Ask the writers who go out there for quiet, or the artists or the photographers,” he says. “Ask the botanists – ask them if there's value to it, and they'll tell you. It's just all about perspective. And if nobody's there to take care of this, it's just going to get trashed up and, in years down the road, it'll be gone."

Taylor says in the past five years, these wilderness areas have attracted more tourists as well as new residents and businesses to the region.

ONDA worked on getting these wilderness designations for more than 20 years. The group is having a birthday reception for the Badlands and Spring Basin on Friday, April 4 at its office in Bend.



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