Kulongoski pitches for additional wilderness protection

The Oregon governor urges congressional leaders to act now to protect areas across the state as Wilderness.

More than 300,000 remote acres in southwest Oregon are among the lands Gov. Ted Kulongoski has urged Oregon's congressional delegation to designate as wilderness.

"I am writing to bring to your attention areas in Oregon that are ripe for wilderness and wild and scenic river designation during the 110th Congress ...," Kulongoski wrote in a Feb. 24 letter to both Oregon senators and all five members of the House of Representatives.

The proposals, however, received only cautious comments from 2nd District Congressman Greg Walden and a timber industry representative.

Kulongoski's letter was sent on the 30th anniversary of the Endangered American Wilderness Act signed by President Jimmy Carter which designated the 36,500-acre Wild Rogue Wilderness on Feb. 24, 1978.

"Despite the addition of approximately 273,500 acres in 1978, Oregon is deficient, as compared to our neighboring states, in wilderness areas," Kulongoski wrote.

About 3.7 percent of Oregon is designated as wilderness, compared with 14.4 percent for California, 10.1 percent for Washington, 7.6 percent for Idaho and 4.9 percent for Nevada, he said.

The four areas in the southwest corner of the state supported by Kulongoski for inclusion are:

• Copper Salmon Wilderness, 13,700 acres, includes 10 miles of the Elk River on Oregon's southern coastal mountains.
• Kalmiopsis Wildlands, 250,000 acres, includes watersheds of the Illinois and Chetco rivers and north fork of the Smith rivers, all National Wild and Scenic Rivers. It would be adjacent to the existing 180,000-acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area.
• Soda Mountain Wilderness, 23,000 acres, known for its rich biodiversity, located in the existing Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in the mountains east of Ashland.
• Wild Rogue Wilderness Additions, 58,340 acres. In addition to increasing the Wild Rogue Wilderness, it would add about 98 miles of tributaries to the lower Rogue wild and scenic river system.

The other five proposed areas recommended by the governor are the 30,087-acre Badlands Wilderness some 15 miles east of Bend, the 3,800-acre Boulder Lake Wilderness in Wasco County, the 590-acre Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness addition, the 8,286-acre Spring Basin Wilderness in the John Day River drainage and the 25,452-acre Wasson Creek Wilderness on the northern Oregon coastal range.

Five of the proposed sites, including the proposed Soda Mountain Wilderness, are in the 2nd Congressional District represented by Walden, a Republican from Hood River.

"I'm open and willing to talk about it," Walden said Monday afternoon of any wilderness designation in Oregon.

"But a wilderness is forever," he added. "You have to approach each designation with careful consideration and full knowledge of all its implications."

Walden observed that he spent three years pushing for expansion of the Mount Hood Wilderness area, a bill which unanimously passed the House last year but one which the Senate failed to act on.

"Lately I've been a little more focused on how to break loose county timber payments," he said.

Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry lobbying group based in Portland, said he would want to examine each site before reaching judgement.

"We will support wilderness if it meets the wilderness criteria of being untrammeled," he said, noting that also includes scenic views and similar characteristics.

"But some of the more recent areas put forth have been lands that are actively managed with past harvests and already roaded," he added. "Those are the kinds of areas we can't support."

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.