Conservationists hail new era as Congress passes wilderness bill

By Charles Pope and Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian

Completing a journey nearly as rocky as some of the land involved, Congress passed sweeping conservation legislation Wednesday that protects 200,000 acres of popular mountains and forests in Oregon and millions more nationwide.

The285-140 House vote sent the 1,300-page public lands bill to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it as early as next week.

Advocates said the protections bestowed by the bill are the biggest advance in wilderness preservation in a generation -- and the signal of a new era of congressional support for conservation.

The final law was a collection of 170 separate lands, parks and conservation bills -- including some that lawmakers had been working on for decades -- all balled into one. It establishes three new national parks (including one for the birthplace of President Bill Clinton in Hope, Ark.) and protects more than 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers and streams from development, including about 9 miles of rivers at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Elk River in Oregon.

The bill gives permanent wilderness protection -- the highest the government can offer -- to 127,000 acres surrounding Mount Hood and millions more across nine states. Most are in the West, but some are as far east as Virginia.

"This is a huge victory for the Oregon outdoors," Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said after the vote.

Some Republicans who opposed to the bill said the protections would lock up public land that should be available for oil and gas exploration.

But Wyden said the expansion will help Oregon's smoldering economy, noting that recreation generates $5.8 billion annually in Oregon, and the lands protected under the legislation are expected to attract more visitors.

The popularity of the bill showed in its immediate praise from parks advocates, outdoors groups and a wide range of environmentalists.

"Not since the National Park System was created in 1916 has a single action of Congress had a greater positive impact on our ability to enjoy, take pride in and benefit from America's incredible trails and natural resources," said Gregory Miller, president of the American Hiking Society.

While the bill touches every corner of the nation, its impact will be especially pronounced in Oregon. In addition to Mount Hood, the law will protect 13,700 acres of old-growth forest in Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest, 23,000 acres in southwestern Oregon's Soda Mountain region, nearly 31,000 acres of wilderness in the Badlands east of Bend, and 8,600 acres of wilderness overlooking the John Day Wild and Scenic River.

The law will also make it easier for federal officials to protect and restore watersheds in national forests.

Another provision establishes the National Landscape Conservation System, which will protect and restore the most scenic, ecologically and historically significant lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management.

Oregon Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio and Greg Walden, the delegation's only Republican, spent countless hours with interest groups and potential opponents to forge legislation that eventually earned strong support across the state.

In the Senate, Wyden took a similarly tedious path that eventually merged with the efforts of his colleagues in the House. In all, the bill carried seven separate items related to Oregon.

While Oregon's congressional delegates lobbied their colleagues, backing also came from grass-root efforts in communities such as Bend, where last year yellow yard signs supporting Badlands wilderness sprouted around town.

Conservationists there recruited the local business community to overcome ambivalence from county leaders about converting 30,000 acres of juniper, sagebrush and dusty trails into a federal wilderness.

"In Oregon's high desert prior to today, the only wilderness was Steens Mountain," said Brent Fenty, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association in Bend. "So today we can celebrate having Oregon's second and third wilderness areas in the high desert," in the Badlands and Spring Basin.

In southern Oregon, anglers avid about the winter steelhead and fall Chinook in the Elk River helped move the Copper-Salmon wilderness, which protects 13,700 acres of largely undeveloped forests in the Coast Range at the river's headwaters.

"It's really the first sportsman-led wilderness bill in Oregon history, and we're really proud of that," said Mike Beagle, the Medford-based Northwest field director for Trout Unlimited.

Passage was especially sweet for DeFazio, who said he began working 30 years ago to strengthen protections for rivers in the Copper-Salmon Wilderness.

"It's a wonderful gift to future generations," he said. "And I'm proud to have been part of it."

Included in the wilderness around Mount Hood are places many Oregonians have been going for generations, like Mirror Lake off U.S. 26, which reflects the wind-whipped white cone of the state's tallest peak.

"It protects a lot of people's favorite camping places, including my favorite camping place, in the Fifteen Mile Creek area" off Oregon 35, said Erik Fernandez, wilderness coordinator for Oregon Wild.

Fernandez's first volunteer job with the group was in 1997, sketching out the rough boundaries of the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness approved today.

"I've been living, eating, breathing and sleeping this proposal for about six years," he said. "So I'm very excited to see this happen."

While individual elements of the bill enjoyed lopsided support at the local level in Oregon and other states, opposition in Congress stalled movement for more than a year. Opponents used parliamentary maneuvers and added controversial amendments to sink the bill. It finally passed the Senate in January, then two weeks ago fell two votes short in the House.

The bill returned to the Senate, where leaders attached the lands bill in all its bulk to a small but noncontroversial measure to protect battlefields. It passed 77-20. And because the Senate acted on a bill that had already passed the House, it was protected from amendments when it returned to the House on Wednesday.

That explains Rep. Nick Rahall's reaction when the final vote was in. "Whew, what a relief," said Rahall, the West Virginia Democrat who managed the bill on the floor. "Given the long, tortured path the omnibus public lands bill has taken, it is truly an honor to finally, finally be here."

Supporters said the lopsided House vote and a similar vote last week in the Senate set the stage for a new era of legislation to protect vulnerable land, streams and historic sites that for years have had a difficult time gaining support in Congress,

"It is significant, not just because it adds a couple million acres of wilderness, but because it breaks the impasse around here," Blumenauer said. "We have people who fought us on procedural and philosophical grounds. There was always a reason to be against it. And we broke through that today.

"There are lots of things that make people cranky under the Capitol dome," he said. "But preserving special places for future generations ... really does bring us together."