The Politics of Solitude: Wilderness Week in Oregon

The new Executive Director of Oregon Wild talks about the importance of Wilderness and the campaigns that protect special places.

It's Wilderness Week, a celebration of the public lands that are given the highest possible federal protection by Congress. About a dozen members of conservation and sportsmen's groups from Oregon are in Washington, D.C., this week, to compares notes on pending wilderness bills with advocates from other states and visit their congressional delegations.

Wilderness areas may be peaceful and pristine, but the process of creating them is not. It involves a lot of negotiation, says Scott Schlaes, the new executive director of the group Oregon Wild.

"For work to be done at the congressional level, the representatives need to see that this is important to their constituency. So, there's a tremendous amount of communication that happens at the grassroots level - that's probably the most important work that we do."

Wilderness legislation for 11 states is pending in Congress, and some talk about combining the proposals into another omnibus bill.

Wilderness designation is not easy to achieve, and some of the 2.5 million acres in Oregon took years to gain it. But Aaron Killgore, John Day area coordinator for the Oregon Natural Desert Association, says the state is getting a reputation for strong grassroots efforts that clear the way for wilderness proposals.

"I don't think we'll be able to resolve every conflict in every situation, but certainly in a lot of ways, we're doing the kind of work that is a real model for the future of conservation."

The Wilderness Act was signed into law in 1964. Since then, polls and surveys have shown it to be one of the nation's most popular laws - even across partisan political lines. Doug Scott, policy director with the Campaign for America's Wilderness, says that is because the goal is to preserve special places for future generations.

"The American people overwhelmingly think this is a terrific program. One way to measure its popularity is that about 109.5 million acres of wilderness is already protected."

Pending wilderness proposals for Oregon include the Devil's Staircase near Eugene; Horse Heaven and Cathedral Rock, north of Madras; and additional Rogue River protections.

Not everyone agrees with setting aside more federal land. Opponents say it is expensive managing the current wilderness acreage. However, just five percent of the country is protected as wilderness, and only two percent of the state of Oregon.