Report Names OR's "Ten Most Endangered" Places

Areas threatened by logging, mining, energy development, global warming, and political inaction.

A new list of Oregon's "Ten Most Endangered Places" includes lakes, rivers, forests, mountains, and even glaciers. Seven conservation groups compiled the information, and the threats they detail range from large, old-style logging projects and dredge mining, to off-road vehicles and climate change.

At the top of the list is the Wild Rogue, the river that begins near Crater Lake National Park. Eric Fernandez, wilderness coordinator for Oregon Wild, says legislation now in Congress to protect the Rogue and its tributaries has yet to get a committee hearing. With talk of another omnibus wilderness bill, he says the pressure is on a couple of lawmakers.

"There's a unique window of opportunity this year that could slip away if Senator Wyden and Congressman DeFazio don't step up and protect the Rogue River. That's really the key for the Rogue."

Southwest Oregon is home to seven of the ten sites named in the report. According to Fernandez, that's because some of the most controversial mining operations and timber sales are located in that part of the state, and the environmental stakes are high.

"You have some extremely high ecological values. You have clean drinking water playing a role; you have some of the strongest salmon runs in the state - and you also have a lot of ideological timber interests in the region."

In Oregon's national forests, says Fernandez, some Bureau of Land Management districts and timber companies have been more willing than others to find common ground on environmental concerns.

A few other sites mentioned in the report are the Blue Mountains, Upper Klamath Lake, the Mount Hood glaciers, and the Coos Bay Estuary. It can be viewed online at www.oregonwild.org.