Wilderness designations shouldn't wait

The lame-duck Congress should pass new protections for Oregon this year.

All eyes are now on Barack Obama's transition team and the new Congress that will convene next year. But between now and then, there is unfinished business to attend to.

Included in that business is a package of bills that would create two new wilderness areas in southwest Oregon and expand a third in the northern part of the state. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008 includes 150 separate bills. Those affecting Oregon have been years in the making and they should pass now, before a new Congress convenes with its focus on huge national issues such as the faltering economy and major health-care reform.

Sen. Gordon Smith won't be among those returning to Washington in January. He'll be coming home, replaced by Jeff Merkley, who defeated him in Tuesday's election.

But for the rest of this year, Smith is still a senator.

He worked with Sen. Ron Wyden to craft a compromise that would expand the Mount Hood Wilderness, one of the Oregon bills in the package. Smith and Wyden both support the two new southwest Oregon wilderness areas also included in the omnibus measure.

The Senate is expected to take up the measure in a lame duck session beginning later this month, and there is support in the House to take action as well. President Bush has said he will sign the omnibus bill if it reaches his desk.

The measure would create the 23,000-acre Soda Mountain Wilderness, encompassing a portion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and the 13,700-acre Copper Salmon Wilderness, protecting the headwaters of the Elk River east of Port Orford. Both areas are unique examples of Oregon's natural beauty.

The Soda Mountain area at the juncture of the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges is unique in its geology and soil structure, and supports a wide variety of plants and animals.

Creating the Soda Mountain Wilderness involves buying out public land grazing leases now held by cattle ranchers. The money to compensate the ranchers for the lost grazing privileges was raised privately by environmental groups supporting the wilderness, and ranchers have agreed to accept what the groups are offering.

Those agreements represent a great deal of work and cooperation by environmentalists, ranchers and the Bureau of Land Management, which supports the wilderness designation. The legislation has languished for too long.

The Copper Salmon Wilderness, approved in the House last spring, includes an intact ancient forest in addition to the headwaters of the Elk River.

The bill also would protect 11 additional miles of the river under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and protect some of the last remaining stands of Port Orford Cedar in the drainage.

The Copper Salmon proposal is supported by Port Orford's mayor and chamber of commerce, the Curry County Board of Commissioners, fishing and hunting groups and Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Smith has served rural Oregon well in his 12 years in the Senate. It would be a fitting legacy of his tenure to protect these wild places for future generations of Oregonians.