Wilderness bill hitches a ride through Senate; House next

The measure would protect millions of acres if it can finally clear both houses

For the second time in two months, the Senate easily passed a major conservation bill Thursday that would bestow wilderness protection on thousands of acres in Oregon and more than 2 million nationwide.

Supporters say the bill, which includes vast stretches of the Mount Hood National Forest, is the most important conservation legislation before Congress in decades.

Thursday's 77-20 vote was expected but does not end the drama. The lands bill is popular and was approved by large majorities in both the House and Senate earlier this year. But it has been unexpectedly -- and repeatedly -- stalled by a small number of opponents.

It returns now to the House where the legislation fell two votes short of passage last week amid a partisan dispute over allowing guns in national parks. The bill collected 282 votes but needed a super-majority of 284 because of the parliamentary procedure that brought it to the floor.

Hoping to protect the bill from difficult amendments and parliamentary tactics in the House, Senate leaders attached the wilderness package to a separate bill protecting Civil War battlefields.

That bill had been passed by the House. The altered original bill now returns to the House where it could come to a vote as early as next week.

"I think the general understanding is, it will be able to be passed with a majority vote (in the House). But I'm a little bit hesitant to celebrate given the history," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said after the Senate voted.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also expressed optimism, but like Merkley, felt his enthusiasm tempered by the bill's difficult history.

"I believe we're going to get this done," he said. "This question of protecting our treasures is becoming the longest running battle since the Trojan War."

The legislation -- a package of nearly 170 separate bills -- would confer the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada and Oregon's Mount Hood to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

In Oregon, the measure would protect about 204,000 acres -- 128,000 at Mount Hood. Other provisions would protect nearly 31,000 acres in the Badlands just east of Bend, 23,000 acres in southwestern Oregon's Soda Mountain region, 13,700 acres of old-growth forest in the Siskiyou National Forest, and 8,600 acres overlooking the John Day Wild and Scenic River.

Charles Pope: 202-731-5152; OregonianDC@gmail.com