On June 2nd, 2025, Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) began their violent assault against the community of people who call Thousand Acres home. DSL hired a private contractor to conduct the sweep alongside two separate private security companies. The first week was marked with violence at the hands of the contractors and the destruction of people’s homes. But resistance has continued to grow stronger.
At the beginning of the week, private security with NW Enforcement set up a security tent attempting to deny entry into the camp claiming people are trespassing. This includes residents who are simply trying to move their personal belongings. The tent also has signs saying the land is private property (which is blatantly false, these are public lands).
Private security’s presence has already prompted at least one violent altercation where a security guard threw cases of water bottles at supporters and attempted to ram their truck into people. They also falsely identified someone for an alleged assault which resulted in the detainment of a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild.
Northwest Hazmat is the contractor hired by DSL to conduct the sweep with crews arriving early Tuesday morning. Upon their arrival someone was maced by the supervisor in charge for simply filming and documenting the sweep that was about to begin. Footage of this incident can be seen here. The same NW Hazmat worker maced another person not long after.
As if that wasn’t enough, the following day, that same supervisor maced two more people. This incident was also caught on camera.
Northwest Hazmat and representatives with DSL claimed they would only sweep camps that were unoccupied. However, Tuesday morning, after macing one of our supporters, they rolled in and indiscriminately swept two camps which were currently being occupied.
One person had just woken up when they were swept. Another person was at work only to return and find the place they called home for so many years had devastatingly been destroyed.
Crews used heavy construction equipment to destroy the camps with no regard for people’s personal belongings. Some belongings were put into white bags and left in disorganized piles. This included a pile of belongings placed into a hole dug up by NW Hazmat crews.
“They didn’t even pick it up. They just pushed everything into this pile. There were drums in there. There was everything that they had… How is one supposed to retrieve their belongings out of this?” — Thousand Acres residents about the sweep
Later that evening, when attempting to retrieve some of the belongings bagged up by crews during the sweep, a private security officer approached and said no one was allowed to go through the bags. The private security officer said he was contracted with Hawkeye Security and he was contracted specifically to guard the bags of people’s belongings.
The security guard said the bags contained people’s personal belongings but he did not know where they would be stored and he confirmed the belongings had not been itemized and labeled with the names of who the items belong to.
The following day the NW Hazmat supervisor (the same one who maced people) was asked these same questions as crews used excavators piling the bags into a dump truck. He said the belongings would be put into storage but would not say where. During this same interaction he later contradicted himself and stated these were not people’s belongings and were ‘junk’.
Oregon State Law says personal belongings taken during a sweep “shall be stored in an orderly fashion.” There is nothing ‘orderly’ about the way in which NW Hazmat is handling people’s personal belongings. This disorganization will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for people to retrieve their things back.
Despite the hostility of the week, everyone remained strong. A banner was strung up between two trees which defiantly asserts “this is our home, we do
not consent.” Music was enjoyed amidst the sounds of birds chirping as we watched the dogs run around spreading joy to residents and supporters alike.
As a result of the violent interactions throughout the week, DSL has released statements saying they are calling off their crews until these issues can be sorted out.
DSL wrote in a statement to media they are “deeply troubled and concerned” about the violence that occurred this week by the contractors. But we wonder why it took all of this unnecessary violence to finally get DSL to reflect on the inhumanity of the sweep they authorized at the behest of the Governor’s Office.
We find it especially ironic that Governor Tina Kotek would allow for this violent sweep to happen especially after she championed HB 3115 under the guise of ‘decriminalizing homelessness’. If Governor Kotek actually cared about decriminalizing homelessness she would not allow a sweep like this to happen. This happened under her direction as the final executive office which oversees the Department of State Lands.
HB 3115, the state bill Tina Kotek led the charge to get passed, states the enforcement of camping bans must be ‘objectively reasonable’. There is nothing reasonable about this vicious attempt to forcibly displace the residents of 1000 Acres.
Despite claims people have been offered alternatives this isn’t the case. Outreach has consisted of referrals to shelters, such as Bybee Lakes, but all the beds are full. Many residents have dogs which make it even more difficult to access shelter.
Meanwhile residents of 1000 acres have offered a viable alternative, proposing a cooperative stewardship proposal. In this proposal residents addressed several concerns with proposed solutions including plans for hazardous waste disposal, community-managed enforcement system, land restoration, and tiny homes.
If ecological restoration is actually the goal of the Department of State Lands, why not work with the residents towards that goal instead of hiring private contractors to violently displace people? These same contractors have done more to destroy the environment they are claiming to protect by knocking down trees with their heavy machinery.
We hope DSL will continue to back off this week but we are also prepared to stand up against the sweeps and inhumane displacement of residents, some of whom have lived here for decades.
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