Seven months after the 2008 elections, the US Senate finally confirmed its 100th member.  Though Oregon’s Senate drama didn’t drag on quite as long as Minnesota’s, you may recall that it took a few days to declare a winner.  Once the dust settled and the votes were counted, Jeff Merkley was declared a clear winner over two-term Senator Gordon Smith

Conservationists can often be a cynical bunch.  Still, we cheered as candidates from coast to coast were elected on some of the greenest rhetoric we’d heard in a long while.  After years of playing defense and hanging on by our fingernails, hope was a pretty new and exciting feeling.

So we dusted off to-do lists that just days earlier had seemed like wishful-thinking lists and compared them to all the promises of our newly elected leaders.  It turned out a lot of them matched up pretty well.

In some cases, we’re still waiting for those promises to be fulfilled.  However, when it comes to Oregon’s junior senate seat, change, it seems, has come!

Senator Merkley’s very first vote was in favor of Wilderness…So was his second…and his third.  As it turned out, the third time was a charm.  On March 30, 2009, Senator Obama signed the Omnibus Land Act.  In so doing, he officially protected 202,000 acres of Oregon Wilderness and 90 miles of Wild & Scenic Rivers.

Roadless areas, Wilderness, and clean water are crucial to our state’s identity and way of life.  When people across the country think Oregon, they think green.  It turns out that healthy intact forests do a much better job of generating a different kind of green than logged, roaded, and developed forests.  Our public lands have intrinsic value to be sure.  But they also are crucial to supporting our economy.

Recreation in our National Forests generates five times as much revenue as logging.  At the end of the day, subsidized commercial logging and road-building are big money losers.  On the other hand, the outdoor recreation industry annually generates $730 billion and supports 6.5 million jobs across the country.  It’s one of the few bright spots in a tough economy, and Oregon is a major player.

Not many people buy hiking boots, rafts, fishing rods, and tents to go play in clearcuts.  Sadly, Oregon may not be living up to its green reputation.

There’s still a lot of unprotected wilderness in Oregon.  In fact, barely 4% of our state is legally protected as Wilderness.  We lag far behind our neighbors California (15%), Washington (10%), and even the hot-bed of environmentalism that is Idaho (8%).

As the celebrations wind down, and we begin the heavy lifting to protect those big unprotected wild places, a subset of smaller wilderness areas have been proposed for protection.  While some are happy to compromise and settle for lesser protections, Senator Merkley has stood up for the strongest protection possible (Wilderness) for treasured places like the Rogue River & Devil’s Staircase!

At the top of many candidates promise-lists and many of our wishlists was the reinstatement of the popular and balanced 2001 Roadless Rule.  Some have been better than others at walking their talk.  Senator Merkley along with Senator Wyden, Governor Kulongoski, Governor Kitzhaber, and Representatives Blumenauer, DeFazio and Wu all sent or signed letters to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking for a moratorium on roadless projects and a reinstatement of the Rule.

(For those doing the math - that leaves 2 Congressmen who did not)

On May 28th, the administration showed it was listening.  Secretary Vilsack initiated what many are calling a “timeout” on roadless projects.  Sadly, the administration has since sent mixed signals on its game-plan going forward.  Just days ago, the administration gave the go-ahead for a 381-acre clearcut in America's largest rainforest.  Even here in green Oregon, those mixed signals are being used by bad forest managers to justify destructive and wasteful projects in roadless areas – including DBug, a project on the doorstep of Crater Lake that turns miles of hiking trails into logging roads at taxpayer expense.

The May 28th “timeout” was a welcomed first step.  But now it’s time to get back in the game.  Logging proposals like DBug make it abundantly clear why we need the clarity of the Roadless Rule, and why roadless protections can’t be left to the whim of changing administrations.

Earlier this month we called upon our leaders to step up to the plate and co-sponsor legislation to codify the 2001 Roadless Rule.  Along with Congressmen Blumenauer, DeFazio, and Wu, Senator Merkley was one of the first to step up and sign on.

When it comes to protecting the source of drinking water for 80% of Oregonians and supporting one of the most popular conservation measures in history, we’re still waiting to hear from Senator Wyden and Congressmen Schrader and Walden.

It’s easy to make promises.  It’s easy to jump on the winning team’s bandwagon during the last quarter of the big game and share in the celebration.  However it’s not particularly brave, and – quite frankly – it’s just not that helpful.

When it comes to protecting the places that make Oregon such a great place to live, work, and raise a family, we don’t need followers.  We need leaders.  It’s good to know we may have found one in Senator Merkley.