As one of the two Oregon state liaisons for the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF), I will be attending a meeting of the BLM in Salem, OR this Thursday March 6th. As I'm sure you know, one of the main focuses of the RAF is to work hard to keep current landing surfaces open along with actually re-opening other strips previously closed. I really need your help in developing a list of BLM managed lands in Western Oregon which have had some type of aircraft usage. While not impossible, it's going to be difficult to argue to keep airstrips open if we can't do a good job in presenting our case that we have in fact used BLM managed ground to operate our aircraft.
Keep in mind, this request is only for Western Oregon BLM areas. If you're not sure whether the site you've been using is in Western Oregon, list it anyway and I'll try to figure it out. A map on the following http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/rmpswesternoregon/ (I hope I did that right) will take you to a map of the area in consideration. We're short on time so please jump right on this using any resource you can to help me with this list.

Clearwater; Tokette State (3S6) says US Forest Service as owner. Is the Forest
Service connected to BLM in anyway? We can't think of any unidentified strips in
our area of Lebanon, OR. Good luck with your meeting. We have landed at
a few BLM strips in eastern Oregon.

John & Lora Lee

Thanks for the effort Drifter!

Collier Bar and Fish Hook Peak look like two good candidates for reopening:

http://www.highway199.org/history/siski ... airfields/

Shortfield Explorer is a valuable resource.

I appreciate the information provided regarding landing surfaces (airports, but not necessarily areas recognized as airports) that need to be "reopened" or possibly being considered for closure. Time is of the essence. Please keep thinking about Western Oregon BLM airports!
Other than both the Forest Service and the BLM being agencies of the U.S. Govt, there is little connection. The Forest Service is within the Department of Agriculture while the BLM is part of the Department of the Interior. Both of these agencies create a type of Resource Management Plan. It's important that aviation gets mentioned as a viable and accepted use of our public lands. I'll do the best I can to represent aviation and its contribution to both the public and private sectors.
Phil

drifter, you should contact the BLM District PAO (Public Affairs Officer) for the district that manages the area where the "landing surfaces" are and see if they have any openings on their RAC (Resource Advisory Council). This council deals a lot with how certain things are managed and can have a real influence. I think it would be great if we had an aviator on every RAC the BLM and FS have. I don't know for sure if the RAC deals with management plans or if it has much say in closing/opening air strips but I'll find out.

Edit: The RAC has some influence on everything the BLM does. The amount of that influence just depends. Ultimately the Field Manager decides what he wants to do so getting to know the field managers by going to meetings and shaking hands would be another good thing to do.

Scolopax wrote:Thanks for the effort Drifter!

Collier Bar and Fish Hook Peak look like two good candidates for reopening:

http://www.highway199.org/history/siski ... airfields/

Shortfield Explorer is a valuable resource.

That is neat, I noticed the Collier Bar one on GoogleEarth but never thought that could have been an airstrip. Cool.

Unfortunately I don't think I am aware of any BLM strips in Western Oregon.

Maybe I posted some in here: http://www.backcountrypilot.org/community/forum/latest/long-lost-uncharted-unknown-oregon-airstrips-14694 but as far as I know all the ones in Western Oregon I posted where on national forest land.