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U.S. Senate passes wilderness bill
AP
[March 19th, 2009]
by The Associated Press
WASHINGTON – For the second time in two months, the Senate easily passed a major conservation bill that would bestow wilderness protection on thousands of acres of land in Oregon and more than 2 million nationwide.
The 77-20 vote was expected but it does not end the drama. Though popular and approved by large majorities in both the House and Senate this year, the lands bill has been unexpectedly – and repeatedly – stalled by a small number of opponents.
Last week the bill fell two votes short in the House amid a partisan dispute over allowing guns in national parks. The bill collected 282 votes but needed a super-majority of 284.
With Senate passage, the bill returns to the House. But this time, it is in a different form that supporters hope will protect it from needing a super-majority. Supporters say it could come to a vote as early as next week.
"I think the general understanding is it will be able to be passed with a majority vote (in the House). But I'm a little bit hesitant to celebrate given the history,'' Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said after the Senate voted.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., expressed optimism too, but like Merkley's, his enthusiasm was tempered by the bill's difficult history.
"I believe we're going to get this done. This question of protecting our treasures is becoming the longest running battle since the Trojan War,'' he said.
The legislation – a package of nearly 170 separate bills – would confer the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range and Oregon's Mount Hood to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.
Hoping to protect the bill from difficult amendments and parliamentary tactics, Senate leaders attached the wilderness package to a separate bill protecting Civil War battlefields. That bill had already been passed by the House. The altered original bill now returns to the House where it is expected to pass.
In Oregon, the measure would protect about 204,000 acres – 128,000 at Mount Hood.
Other provisions would protect nearly 31,000 acres in the Badlands just east of Bend, 23,000 acres in southwestern Oregon's Soda Mountain region, 13,700 acres of old-growth forest in the Siskiyou National Forest, and 8,600 acres overlooking the John Day Wild and Scenic River.
Supporters called the legislation among the most important conservation bills debated in Congress in decades.
"The Senate shows great vision in making this bill a priority," said Paul Spitler of The Wilderness Society. "These wonderful landscapes are under tremendous pressure, and their value to local communities and to all Americans who treasure our natural heritage will remain long after the country has recovered from the economic crisis."
The bill also would let Alaska go forward with plans to build an airport access road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge as part of a land swap that would transfer more than 61,000 acres to the federal government, much of it designated as wilderness.
Critics have called the project a "road to nowhere." Backers say the road is needed for residents of a remote village on the Bering Sea who now use a hovercraft to reach an airport and hospital.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, hailed the Idaho provision, which he has been seeking for eight years. The bill represents a compromise among a host of competing groups that have long disagreed over how to manage the rugged canyon land in southwestern Idaho.
"The people who worked on the Owyhee Initiative came from many groups and institutions that historically were battling head-to-head and instead were willing to work through things in a way that sets a tremendous example for how we should approach land management decisions and conflicts in this nation," Crapo said.
Lawmakers from both parties told similar tales in other states, praising the bill as a compromise that sets an example for Congress. Most of the provisions in the bill were developed over several years.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., held up the bill's final passage last year and again this year, arguing that it was unnecessary and would block energy development on millions of acres of federal land. The bill moved forward this week after Coburn was allowed to submit six amendments for approval. Five were defeated.
A sixth provision, softening a provision to impose criminal penalties for collecting some fossilized rocks on federal land, was included in the final bill.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
– Charles Pope; OregonianDC@gmail.com