New Wilderness for Mt. Hood: Bark analyzes new bill
Will new legislation introduced by Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Greg Walden solve problems or create more?
Last Wednesday, March 29, Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Greg Walden introduced the Mt. Hood Stewardship Legacy Act, or HR 5025 (see link below for copy of HR 5025). The bill would add 77,500 new acres of wilderness and 23 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers in the Mt. Hood National Forest. On the surface it appears to be a step in the right direction, but as a whole the bill is only protecting 9 percent of Mt. Hood’s threatened forests AND it contains a loophole that could increase logging of Mt. Hood’s eastern pine forests for the next ten years! As the Oregonian stated in their March editorial on the Congressmen’s plan, “Yet the time has come for anyone with a bigger, better idea on Mount Hood to step up and shoulder the political burden.” Bark couldn’t agree more.How the Blumenauer/Walden Wilderness Bill falls short for Mt. Hood:
Recreation:
As one of only 14 “Urban” National Forests in the country, management direction on Mt. Hood should prioritize a strong recreational infrastructure. Unfortunately, HR 5025 misses the mark…
• In the year 2040, the Forest Service forecasts that "Wilderness" recreation will be supplied at 16% of the demand, and "Developed" recreation will be supplied at 103% of the demand. HR 5025 includes a unique provision that allows permit fees (like that obtained from ski areas) to be retained and used locally. But among uses for the fees are administrative costs and environmental analysis (to analyze the impacts of increased logging?!). In addition the spending of the funds will be recommended by a new Recreation Advisory Committee, which includes a representative of the timber industry!
• HR 5025 states that IF the Forest Service is going to close a road, that they shall consider whether it could be converted to other recreational purposes, like mountain biking. A legacy of logging has left Mt. Hood National Forest with 4,000 miles of roads that dirty our rivers, fragment wildlife habitat, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars to maintain. Why allow the current Bush administration Forest Service to decide IF closing roads is a good idea? Any legislation to improve Mt. Hood National Forest must include mandatory road closures.
Water:
Nearly one-third of Oregonians get their drinking water from Mt. Hood National Forest. With trends in global warming and a growing population, preservation of Mt. Hood’s rivers should be a top priority.
• The Congressmen have proposed to protect 23 miles of Mt. Hood’s rivers as Wild and Scenic. The Forest Service itself has found 11 rivers suitable for Wild and Scenic River designation in Mt. Hood National Forest. So why have the congressmen only proposed five for protection? Amazing stretches of river like the Collawash Fork of the Clackamas River not only deserve protection but need it immediately because of threats posed by logging.
• The drinking watersheds for the city of Sandy and upper Hood River valley communities will be protected through new Wilderness protections. The legislation affords no or little protections for Mill Ck, Eightmile Ck, Fifteenmile Ck, Salmon River, or the Clackamas River. These rivers provide drinking water to The Dalles, Mosier, Dufur, Sandy, and Oregon City, respectively. All Oregonians deserve to have their drinking water protected from logging and road-building, but HR 5025 doesn’t afford those protections.
Wildlife
Mt. Hood used to be home to grizzly bear, lynx, condors, and wolves. Today these species no longer exist on Mt. Hood and the northern spotted owl, coho salmon, and other wildlife remain threatened by logging and road-building.
• HR 5025 only protects 30% of the remaining roadless forests surrounding Mt. Hood. It only protects 9% of the forests open to logging and road-building. Past logging and human-caused fires have left little old-growth forests. Hundreds of species of plants and animals are known to be dependant on old-growth forests. Even patches of old-growth as small as one acre have been found to provide critical habitat for these species. HR 5025 falls short of protecting all of Mt. Hood’s remaining old-growth forests. Bark believes that ALL old growth deserves protection.
• HR 5025 requires the Forest Service to come up with a 10-year plan for logging Mt. Hood’s fire-adapted eastern pine forests. While logging and fire-suppression activities have altered the diversity of some of Mt. Hood’s pine forests, HR 5025 does nothing to direct the Forest Service to address the root causes of the problem, namely, logging and fire-suppression. Instead, the congressmen have left the door open for increased logging and continued fire-suppression, perpetuating the very problem they purport to be addressing!
BARK NEEDS YOUR HELP TO IMPROVE THE BILL!
The next step in this process is for the senate to introduce a version of the bill. This will then eventually be compared to the house bill and a committee will hammer out a compromise between the two bills (assuming that they are not identical).
There are two ways that you can help right now:
Contact Oregon Senators Ron Wyden (D) and Gordon Smith (R) today and tell them three things:
1) Any new legislation for Mt. Hood National Forest must prioritize clean water, recreation, and wildlife habitat above the status quo of logging, road-building, and development. This is a good opportunity to tell the senators a personal story about why you care (don't worry about statistics, personal conviction is often more powerful!).
2) The Blumenauer/Walden legislation (HR 5025) falls far short of protecting Mt. Hood's forests and rivers. Mt. Hood deserves to have all of its roadless and rare old-growth forests protected.
3) No bill promoted as protecting Mt. Hood's forests and rivers can contain logging language like that found in HR 5025. Logging, road-building, and development have fragemented the landscape, destroyed wildlife habitat, and dirtied our drinking water. The senators have an opportunity to start fixing the damage done by the past, but additional logging, road-building, and development is not the way to do it.
Senator Gordon Smith, Portland Office
One World Trade Center
121 SW Salmon Street, Suite 1250
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503.326.3386
Fax: 503.326.2900
E-mail through web: http://gsmith.senate.gov/public/
Senator Ron Wyden, Portland office
1220 SW 3rd Avenue
Suite 585
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503.326.7525
Fax: 503.326.7528
E-mail through web: http://wyden.senate.gov/
Or write a letter to the editor of the Oregonian!
Did you know that the 'letter to the editor' section of the newspaper is the second most read section next to the funnies? Your 150-word opinion to the Oregonian can have a huge influence!
Writing a letter is easy:
1) Read the recent article about the Mt. Hood Wilderness (see bottom of this page).
2) Decide what issue is the most important to you. Consider one of the concerns outlined above or choose your own.
3) Write your letter. They must be 150 words or less, so consider choosing just one or two issues. Add a personal touch (personal conviction is just as important to the newspaper as it is to your senators), and most importantly...
4) Send it in!!! You can e-mail your letters to : [email protected].