EDITORIAL: Honor wilderness legacy

Expand the inventory of protected areas in Oregon

President Obama recently declared September to be National Wilderness Month, calling on Americans to “renew our pledge to build upon the legacy of our forebears.”

It’s a magnificent, if incomplete, legacy, one that has come to symbolize both democratic values and a rugged national character.

The Wilderness Act was signed into law 46 years ago last week by President Lyndon Johnson. That act preserved 9 million acres of wild and free country for future generations of Americans to treasure and explore. In the wake of last year’s passage of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, the nation’s wilderness inventory has reached 109 million acres.

Then as now, wilderness protection continues to be one of the few issues that has broad bipartisan appeal, although the breadth of support has narrowed recently among some conservatives. Many Americans might be surprised to learn that President Ronald Reagan signed more wilderness bills than any other president, Democratic or Republican.

The anniversary is a fitting time for Congress to extend the highest protection federal law can confer to more remote areas in Oregon.

The House already has approved legislation, sponsored by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., that would create the Devil’s Staircase wilderness on 30,000 acres in the Oregon Coast Range. A Senate bill, introduced by Oregon Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, was approved earlier this year by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is awaiting a vote by the full Senate.

In recent years, wilderness bills have been blocked by Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican and serial obstructionist who objects that the bills provide no new funding to pay for federal protection. Coburn’s continued opposition means the Senate will need at least 60 votes to overcome his hold. That can be achieved, as lawmakers did last year, by combining wilderness legislation from many states in a single omnibus public lands bill.

Any public lands bill that emerges from Congress this session also should include proposals to expand the existing Wild Rogue Wilderness by 60,000 acres and to grant wild and scenic designation to the Molalla River.

Even with the addition of 200,000 new acres last year, Oregon still has a relatively small amount of land designated as wilderness. About 4 percent of the state is protected under the federal Wilderness Act, compared with 15 percent of California.

In declaring September as National Wilderness Month, Obama recalled that more than a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt, reflecting on the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, declared, “The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”

Since then, presidents and congresses have worked across party lines to protect the nation’s wild spaces. The work is far from done, and federal lawmakers should do their part to honor this legacy by adding to the nation’s store of protected wilderness.