Poop, glitter and parties are wrecking Oregon caverns, national forest says

An Oregon national forest has proposed new rules to protect its fragile natural caves from visitors who poop, party and spray glitter in them.

A draft of new regulations covering more than 700 caves in the Deschutes National Forest is now up for public review, the U.S. Forest Service says. The rules are intended to curb “adverse impacts to cave resources” in the forest.

“When you do something in a cave, it doesn’t recover,” said Jean Nelson-Dean, public affairs officer for the national forest, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. “It’s not like something above the surface that can tend to heal or recover.”

Along with bans on camping, graffiti, smoking, drinking and making fires inside caves, the proposed new rules include some more offbeat restrictions, such as an explicit prohibition against bodily waste.

Installing permanent anchors and slacklining also are banned, along with playing live or recorded music and leaving chalk markings, the new rules state.

Spraying glitter, smoke or dust beyond what is naturally generated by walking would be prohibited as well under the draft rules.

The proposed new rules also contain special regulations covering specific caves, mostly dealing with closing them to the public for part of the year — or entirely, in some cases.

You can contact Sasha Fertig, Deschutes National Forest environmental coordinator, at sasha.fertig@usda.gov, for more information.

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Poop, glitter and parties are wrecking Oregon caverns, national forest says."