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Mount Hood wilderness bill clears final Senate hurdle
The Oregonian
[January 15th, 2009]
by Charles Pope, The Oregonian
Thursday January 15, 2009, 11:07 AM
Brent Wojahn/The Oregonianon.
WASHINGTON – The Senate gave final approval to a popular but, until Thursday, hard-luck lands bill that provides additional protection to more than 200,000 acres of land in Oregon as well as 2 million acres nationwide.
The 73-21 vote was a foregone conclusion after the Senate defeated a filibuster Sunday that had stalled the bill for more than a year.
But the predictability did nothing to dampen of joy of Sen. Ron Wyden and other supporters who struggled for more than four years to draft the legislation, negotiate differences and guide it through the Senate.
After the vote, Wyden came off the Senate floor and pumped his fist to acknowledge victory.
"Congratulations are owed to the thousands and thousands of Oregonians who came to so many community meetings," Wyden said.
"This sends a message that at a time when there's cynicism and frustration in government, Oregonians can come together and something special is accomplished as a result."
Sen. Jeff Merkley also was pleased, noting that his third roll-call vote achieved a longstanding goal for his state. "It's a wonderful way to start."
The bill is all but certain to become law. It moves to the House, where senior Democrats promise to move quickly. The goal, they said, is to make the bill one of the first pieces of legislation Barack Obama signs into law as president.
The measure has the support of Oregon's House members, including Republican Rep. Greg Walden.
Wyden said the bipartisan nature of the bill will help, pointing out that former Sen. Gordon Smith was instrumental in crafting and promoting the original measure.
Advocates say the sprawling legislation, actually 164 separate bills bundled together, represents the most significant wilderness and public lands action in a decade.
It designates more than 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states, and creates three national parks, more than 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers – including about 90 miles in Oregon – and three national conservation areas.
It also enlarges the size of a dozen national parks and addresses water supply problems in California.
But it is the Oregon provisions that consumed Wyden and his counterparts in the House for years.
For Oregon, the bill:
Preserves almost 127,000 acres around Mount Hood with wilderness protection and adds almost 80 miles on nine free-flowing stretches of rivers to the wild and scenic river system.
Designates 9.3 miles of rivers at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Elk River as wild and scenic and adds 13,700 acres of new wilderness adjacent to the existing Grassy Knob Wilderness.
Designates as wilderness almost 30,000 acres in an area 15 miles east of Bend.
Establishes a 23,000-acre wilderness area, to be known as the Soda Mountain Wilderness, in the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument's southern back country.
Designates about 8,600 acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management land as the Spring Basin Wilderness, overlooking a wild and scenic stretch of the John Day River.
Wyden also attached two bills that extend programs for Oregon fisheries.
"We are pretty excited," Erik Fernandez, wilderness coordinator for the conservation group Oregon Wild, said after the vote. "This is a momentous day for wilderness protection in Oregon."