Governor pushing for new wilderness areas

Governor Ted Kulongoski calls on Oregon's congressional delegation to get to work on Wilderness.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski is promoting the creation or expansion of nine protected Oregon wilderness areas, saying that more of the scenic wild areas should be safeguarded from logging, road building and mining.

Oregon is deficient in wilderness compared with neighboring states, he said in a letter to the state's congressional delegation this week. Only 3.7 percent of Oregon is protected within wilderness areas, vs. 14.4 percent in California and 10.1 percent in Washington, he said.

The areas Kulongoski outlined range from the proposed Badlands Wilderness near Bend to the Wasson Creek Wilderness in the Coast Range. The areas are in addition to new wilderness proposed on Mount Hood under a bill now in Congress.

That bill hit a roadblock Thursday when a senator from Oklahoma blocked an effort by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to bring it to a vote in the Senate.