Officials say action protects rare wetland plant

By TOM HENDERSON

Gazette-Times reporter

Keith Baker left his makeshift campsite located behind Home Depot in Corvallis earlier in the week, but returned Thursday morning - just ahead of the bulldozers - to retrieve his last cat.

Starting close to 8 a.m., workers from the Oregon Department of Transportation began clearing the land where up to 20 homeless people once lived. Baker, 42, was one of only two camp residents left when ODOT officials issued their final evacuation order Monday.

Baker left promptly, taking his cats Georgette, Junior, Keithie and Sabrina with him. Another cat, George, was missing, but turned up Thursday morning. Baker kept the cat in a crate until his mother could arrive with a truck and pet carrier.

Baker said he doesn't care about himself. He'll get by. "Right now, all I'm worried about are these -. cats."

ODOT has other concerns. Jerry Stokes, the ODOT foreman leading Thursday's clean-up efforts, said a hazardous materials team came in Wednesday and hauled away two 55-gallon drums of human waste. ODOT spokesman Joe Harwood said photos of the camp speak for themselves.

"The waste and debris shown constitute a public health hazard," he said.

ODOT workers began leveling another homeless camp in Corvallis on Nov. 17. The first camp - with about 12 homeless residents - was located east of Highway 99W just south of Circle Boulevard. Since then, both ODOT and the Oregon Division of State Lands have received complaints that workers might be damaging protected wetlands.

Actually, said Harwood, one of the reasons ODOT officials want the camps cleared out is concern for the environment. "There is a wetland site on Home Depot's property immediately to the north," he said. "There is an ODOT special management area on one of the parcels that is set aside to protect a rare threatened plant.

"Luckily, the illegal campers have not totally ruined that area."

Baker said he heard about the endangered plant from police officers, but it doesn't make sense to him to bulldoze acres of vegetation in the name of protecting plant life. Police and ODOT officials don't care about plants, he said. "They're just down on the homeless."

Regardless of anyone's motivation, said Julie Curtis, a spokesman for the Oregon Division of State Lands, ODOT officials have the right to cut down all the trees and shrubs they want on ODOT land. Private wetlands are not protected from the removal of vegetation, she said.

They are protected from digging up the soil, provided the affected area is more than 50 cubic yards, Curtis said. That standard doesn't apply when it comes to ODOT clearing out Corvallis' homeless camps, she said.

Basically, Curtis said, ODOT is coloring inside the lines. "We don't have any jurisdiction over these areas."

Stokes said the few homeless people ODOT workers encountered were very cooperative. "A resident helped us find the rest of the campsites we didn't know about," he said. "That was nice."

Baker said he didn't mingle too much with his neighbors. "People stay away from me," he said. "That's a good thing."

With two local homeless camps closed down, what will Baker do next?

"Survive," he said, declining to elaborate.