US House Commitee Passes Devil's Staircase Wilderness Bill

Conservationists hope for speedy passage of popular legislation.

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Bills that would further protect Oregon’s Devil’s Staircase waterfall and the Molalla River are making their way through Congress.  This morning, the House Natural Resource Committee finished their mark-up.
 
The Devil’s Staircase is aptly named; the remote waterfall west of Eugene tumbles over a step-like rock formation surrounded by Coast Range old-growth forest.  And under new legislation, about 30,000 acres in the Wasson Creek area would be preserved as Wilderness.  Sean Stevens with Oregon Wild says currently the Devil’s Staircase is managed by the BLM and Forest Service.
 
“Big parts of it are late-successional reserve forest, which is code for forest that the spotted owl likes.  And under the Northwest Forest Plan, there’s no logging of old growth in there. But of course wilderness is the gold standard for federal lands protection and would mean that going forward through the centuries it wouldn’t be impacted by development.”
 
Under the legislation, the Molalla River, southeast of Portland, would gain Wild & Scenic River status.  The bills now go to the House floor, and Stevens hopes Congress will pass the legislation by early 2010.