Logging plans put Rogue on endangered list

American Rivers conservation group places the Rogue River No. 2 on its list of 10 most endangered.

Citing government plans to log portions of the lower Rogue River watershed, the national American Rivers conservation group has placed the Rogue at No. 2 on its 2008 America's Most Endangered Rivers list.

In announcing the list today, the Washington, D.C.-based organization said it does not actually consider the Rogue River to be the second most endangered river in the nation. But the group warned that logging in the river's tributaries near the wild and scenic section downstream from Grave Creek will threaten the region's clean water as well as salmon and steelhead habitat.

"Logging the Rogue River would be like tearing down the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument for their marble," said American Rivers president Rebecca Wodder in a prepared statement. "The wild Rogue is a national treasure and it is our responsibility to protect it for future generations."

Amy Kober, a Seattle-based spokeswoman for American Rivers, noted that the group solicits nominations for its annual report.

"This list isn't about the most threatened or most polluted rivers," she said. "The criteria include a decision point the public can weigh in on, the magnitude of the threat and the significance of the river."

The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968 placed permanent protection along a half-mile corridor on 84 miles of the lower Rogue.

The listing will bring needed attention to the Rogue's watershed, said Joseph Vaile, spokesman for the Save the Wild Rogue Campaign, a local coalition representing businesses and recreational river users.

"This is the moment for the Rogue River now — a national group has recognized the importance of this river by shining a spotlight on it," he said. "This is where we have an opportunity to do some things. This will be a time when we decide the fate of the river for years to come.

"The Rogue is hugely important, one river many people in the United States know for its wild character," he added. "It's also the economic engine for a big share of recreational and tourist economy in Southern Oregon."

River advocates say the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's proposed Kelsey Whisky logging project would remove old-growth timber and create roads in the Kelsey, Whisky, Bunker and Meadow Creek drainages within the Zane Grey roadless area.

Although the entire sale would cover roughly 1,000 acres and include more than 13 million board feet of timber, it is the 513-acre Upper East Kelsey unit nearest the river that has drawn the most fire from opponents of the logging proposals.

The agency's Western Oregon Plan Revisions also could open significant portions of the roadless area to logging, road building and mining, opponents warn.

But Jim Whittington, spokesman for the BLM's Medford District, said the Kelsey Whiskey sale is far from a done deal. Although two of the three units within the sale have been sold, neither has been awarded, he said.

"We've got some issues with it," he said, later adding, "It's not an imminent sale."

The issues include a lawsuit by environmental groups over two of the units and a subsequent appeal to the 9th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which temporarily stopped the project. To comply with the Endangered Species Act, the court said, the BLM must conduct a second biological opinion regarding the impact on northern spotted owls in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which had withdrawn its earlier biological opinion.

Nor does Whittington believe the WOPR will be a threat to the river corridor.

"If the WOPR goes through in any form now proposed, that would put all most all of the sale in critical habitat for the northern spotted owl," he said, adding that would effectively stop the sale.

The agency takes its responsibility to protect the nationally recognized river seriously, he stressed.

"We go out of our way to do a lot of good stuff there," he said. "I think we do a pretty good job protecting the Rogue River. Based on what I've heard, we have one of the best programs in the nation."

Kober, the Seattle spokeswoman for American Rivers, said the issue is not the main corridor but its tributaries.

"The streams that feed the Rogue give the river its clean water," she said. "If we want to protect the Rogue, we have to protect the streams that feed it.

"We all use timber products — we need wood products," she added. "But some places like the Rogue need to be off limits. The river is more valuable for its recreation and habitat."

The BLM's own estimates indicate the lower Rogue river draws some $13 million each year in tourism revenue, Kober noted.

Last month, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, announced that he would introduce legislation to grant wild and scenic river protections on some 143 miles of tributaries in the lower Rogue.

For more information on the endangered rivers list, see www.AmericanRivers.org.

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