Public Lands Foundation Honors Oregon Badlands Stewardship

Bend, Ore. – Members of Central Oregon’s Friends of the Oregon Badlands, along with Prineville Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee Mr. Gavin Hoban, were honored with a Public Lands Foundation’s Landscape Stewardship Certificate of Appreciation and Citation for their efforts in community-based landscape stewardship covering the newly-designated Oregon Badlands Wilderness managed by BLM’s Prineville District.  This presentation occurred December 8 in Portland.  Through its annual Landscape Stewardship Program, the Public Lands Foundation honors the efforts of citizens who work to advance and sustain community-based stewardship on landscapes that include public lands administered by BLM.  The program recognizes especially those groups or individuals who promote collaboration by a broad range of participants to achieve shared natural resource protection and enhancement goals.

In nominating Mr. Hoban and the Friends of the Oregon Badlands organization, also known as “The Fobbits,” BLM Prineville District Manager Debbie Henderson-Norton noted that the “…leadership and hard work of all these volunteers has resulted in the permanent protection of one of the most unique parts of Oregon.”

Over the past five years, BLM employee Gavin Hoban’s work led to the formation of a local volunteer organization, Friends of the Oregon Badlands.  Beyond his BLM work days, Hoban personally patrolled over 27 miles of boundaries to check for signs of off-highway vehicle trespass.  He spent untold hours developing landscape restoration projects that have resulted in road closures, trail and trailhead development, maintenance, and signing.  Mr. Hoban’s actions have truly enhanced community understanding of agency wilderness management policies and responsibilities.

At the same time, Friends of the Oregon Badlands contributed over 1,200 volunteer hours as partners and stewards of these public lands.  The organization has served as the “eyes and ears” for BLM by conducting mapping and photography, reporting trespasses, and regularly patrolling 50 miles of trails.  Members have installed trailhead kiosks and directional signs, and have monitored and maintained six trailheads.  The group also completed eight miles of road closures and removed six miles of obsolete fencing hazardous to wildlife.

The Public Lands Foundation is a national conservation organization that advocates and works for the retention of America's Public Lands in public hands, professionally and sustainably managed for responsible common use and enjoyment.