Washout on Mount Hood

Four members of Oregon's congressional delegation have failed to bridge their relatively small differences on a Mount Hood wilderness bill, even though they've had months to get it done. The road to a Mount Hood bill this year closes on Friday, the last day of this Congress.

Let us be the first to offer our congratulations on a job well done on Mount Hood. You've worked well together, beat a very tight deadline and accomplished what few thought possible.

No, not the Oregon congressional delegation.

The road crew.

There's a striking contrast between the looming failure to pass a Mount Hood wilderness bill and the successful effort to repair and reopen flood-damaged Oregon 35, the only access to the mountain's east side.

With 50 dump trucks and 50 other pieces of heavy equipment, the road crew has moved heaven and lots and lots of earth in the past two weeks to reopen the highway on Mount Hood on Saturday, a full week ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, four members of Oregon's congressional delegation have failed to bridge their relatively small differences on a Mount Hood wilderness bill, even though they've had months to get it done. The road to a Mount Hood bill this year closes on Friday, the last day of this Congress.

It's frustrating for all sides to come to this dead end. Anger is spilling out of the offices of Reps. Greg Walden and Earl Blumenauer and Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, the four lawmakers trying to broker an Oregon agreement on Mount Hood.

Walden and Blumenauer trekked around the base of Mount Hood, sat through dozens of hours of summit meetings and won unanimous approval in the House of their bill adding 77,500 acres of Mount Hood wilderness. On Monday, the two sent a terse letter received first by the news media and then by Wyden and Smith that read, in part: "The failure of the Senate to act this year would be a failure of leadership and a failure for all of Oregon." On Tuesday, aides to the senators privately fired back, criticizing Walden and Blumenauer for stalling progress and refusing to give ground in negotiations about wilderness acreage.

There's plenty of blame to go around. This is a collective failure of the famously close and collaborative Oregon delegation to Congress. It was one of those times, thankfully rare among these Oregon lawmakers, that political egos and credit-taking seemed to get in the way of actual legislation.

The concern now is that the hard feelings will spill over into next year, and the next Congress. It is crucial that the good work and hard-won momentum on Mount Hood wilderness result in legislation early next year. Wyden will be chairman of the Senate's Forestry Subcommittee in the new Democratic Congress; the first bill that moves out of his committee ought to be Mount Hood wilderness.

Years from now, no one is going to remember which of the four lawmakers wanted the most or the least new wilderness on Mount Hood. All that will be remembered is that four farsighted Oregon members of Congress came together and worked hard to clear the way for the first expansion of Mount Hood wilderness in nearly a quarter-century.

When the lawmakers come home late this week, they ought to visit that road crew scrambling to reopen Oregon 35. That crew can show them how to get something done on Mount Hood.