Wyden, Smith introduce Oregon wilderness bill

Senate legislation aims to protect 128,000 acres of Wilderness, 81 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers around Mount Hood and in the Columbia Gorge. Wyden and Smtih also introduce 23,000 acre Soda Mountain Wilderness plan.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A bill to expand the Mount Hood wilderness area by more than 128,000 acres was introduced Wednesday in the Senate in a bipartisan push to get it approved before the end of the year.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., joined his colleague, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to propose legislation that will increase existing wilderness protection by nearly 70 percent around the tallest mountain in Oregon and the nearby Columbia River Gorge.

The bill also would extend federal wild and scenic river protection to another 80 miles of rivers. And it would set aside more than 18,000 acres for a Mount Hood National Recreation Area, improving access for mountain biking and other recreation.

"We are keeping our promise to Oregonians and answering their calls for more protection for Mount Hood and the Gorge," Wyden said in a joint statement released with the bill.

Smith and Wyden both said they will work with the Oregon delegation to the House to get the bill to President Bush before the end of the year.

The House approved a bill earlier that expanded the protection to 77,000 acres.

But Wyden and conservation groups have strongly praised Smith for building bipartisan support to expand the House bill and extend the wilderness protection to 128,000 acres — or 200 square miles.

"I think that Sen. Smith deserves a lot of credit," said Steve Pedery, spokesman for the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "He could have stuck with the lower acreage proposal from the House."

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, the lone Republican in the House delegation, also will help push the latest proposal through the Republican-controlled Congress.

The main concern is whether the House will sign off on the Senate version in time, Pedery said.

But the bipartisan effort, along with overwhelming support among voters and conservation groups, create a good chance for success. And the lame duck session of Congress following the November mid-term election will provide extra time for passage, Pedery said.

"When you have both Republicans from Oregon saying we need more wilderness, it's hard to say no," Pedery said.

Smith and Wyden also announced a compromise agreement to remove cattle from the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument on the California border.

The legislation authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to permanently retire grazing allotments under an optional buyout agreement with ranchers and designates approximately 23,000 acres of new wilderness as the Soda Mountain Wilderness.

Dave Willis, chairman of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, said ranchers wanted more than the $300 payment offered for each animal unit month — the way the federal government calculates how much cattle will eat in a month.

As a result, conservationists have offered additional payments from private contributions to be funneled through the council in order to encourage the optional buyouts for all the ranchers involved.

The compromise agreement has widespread support among ranchers and conservation groups, Willis said.

"It's not every day that folks on different sides of the barbed wire fence have an opportunity to compromise," he said.

The chief concern, as with the Mount Hood bill, is congressional approval before the end of the year, Willis said.