FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Soda Mountain Wilderness Proposal Goes Before Senate Committee

Melting Pot of Biodiversity Moves Closer To Permanent Protection

The Senate subcommittee on Forest and Public Lands hears testimony on the Soda Mountain Wilderness Bill. The legislation seeks a compromised solution that would result in reduced cattle-grazing and a new 23,000-acre Wilderness area in southern Oregon.

After years of advocacy and negotiations with cattle ranchers, the Soda Mountain Wilderness proposal is now one step closer to permanent protection after a hearing today in the Senate subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. The approximately 23,000-acre proposed Wilderness is in the southern backcountry of Oregon’s 53,000-acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument southeast of Ashland. The Proclamation that established the Monument in June 2000 calls the area “an ecological wonder.”

Private cattle on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument have been an increasing source of controversy in recent years. Last year, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) introduced S.2379, calling for a compromise solution that would compensate Monument area cattle ranchers who choose to voluntarily relinquish their public lands grazing privileges, while also giving Wilderness protection to the portion of the Monument with the highest ecological value. Ranchers as well as conservation groups support the compromise.

“The Soda Mountain area has an amazingly diverse array of plants and animals. It is really exciting to see congress moving forward with the compromise,” said Erik Fernandez, Wilderness Coordinator for Oregon Wild. “As we stare down the barrel of global warming, it’s critical that we protect our forests carbon sinks as Wilderness to minimize further warming and its impact on wildlife”. 

Dave Willis, chair of the Ashland-based Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, says S.2379 would go a long way toward giving the Monument protections it still lacks. “It’s very normal and necessary for the backcountry of National Parks and Monuments to be designated as Wilderness,” he notes. “In fact, the National Park Service manages more of the National Wilderness Preservation System than any other federal agency.” The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is managed by the Medford District of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Willis points out that western Oregon BLM land is profoundly wilderness-poor: “Despite decades of the ‘multiple-use’ mantra, less than one per cent of all western Oregon BLM land has been protected as Wilderness.”   

The Soda Mountain area in southwestern Oregon is an ecological mulligan’s stew. Vegetation from the state's eastern desert whorls together with moist Cascadian forests, valley oak savannah, Mediterranean chaparral, and the mixed conifer forests of the more coastal and botanically diverse Siskiyous. According to the proclamation that established it in June 2000, the Monument was “set apart and reserved…for the purpose of protecting” its native species and natural features. The 23,000-plus acres of Wilderness protection in the Monument’s southern Soda Mountain backcountry would ensure that much of this area would be safe from future development.

Though the Monument Proclamation signaled a likely end to private commercial cattle grazing on public Monument lands after expensive government studies, that cessation is not automatic and will not likely occur without what Willis calls a long legal rodeo.  “That’s why we’re grateful to Senators Wyden and Smith for offering a forward looking resolution to this controversy that can be a win-win for the land, the taxpayer, and a variety of resident and absentee ranchers, as well. We hope Congressman Walden will soon offer companion legislation in the House of Representatives.” 

The Soda Mountain area is a spectacular entrance point for many trekking into Oregon on the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. Protecting the forests along the west’s most famous trail is critical to its integrity.

According to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument’s Proclamation, the biodiversity of the Monument’s “towering fir forests, sunlit oak groves, wildflower-strewn meadows, and steep canyons” is “unmatched in the Cascade Range…The area is home to a spectacular variety of rare species of plants and animals whose survival in this region depends upon its continued ecological integrity.” Roosevelt elk, cougars, black bears, golden and bald eagles, goshawks and falcons roam its lands and fly its skies.

“It’s a National Monument now,” says Willis. “It’s not a National Cow Pasture.”

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