November 29th, 2006

Departing Congress may ditch Hood bill

From The Oregonian: "Land swap - Oregon lawmakers are trying to protect more of the Mount Hood National Forest"
by Michael Milstein

Environmental activists issued a final plea Tuesday for the Oregon congressional delegation to pass a bill setting aside more of Mount Hood as wilderness this year, even as the chances of that happening are rapidly dwindling.

With a clock behind them loudly ticking off the seconds until Congress returns to work next week, local conservation leaders said too much work has been invested into the bill to let it languish.

But with Congress expected to meet for only about one more week this year, it appears increasingly unlikely that a final version of the wilderness bill will make it through both houses.

That would leave lawmakers to begin the process again during the next session of Congress.

The biggest problem for the bill is its inclusion of a controversial land swap that remains unacceptable to the Senate and the Bush administration, said the chief of staff of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

But conservationists argued that a failure to pass the bill would leave Oregon with a lump of coal for Christmas, which they illustrated with a hunk of coal on a table at their news conference in Portland.

"There is no excuse to not get a Mount Hood protection bill done this year," said Jeremiah Baumann of the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group.

The House passed a bill in July that sets aside about 77,500 acres of the Mount Hood National Forest as wilderness off-limits to logging, roads and other development. That bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Greg Walden, a Hood River Republican, and Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat.

But a Senate version introduced by Wyden and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., calls for more than 125,000 acres. The two bodies have not agreed on a compromise acreage, and the Senate has not passed the bill.

Oregon lawmakers said they still hope to reach an agreement on the measure and that it can succeed this year.

Walden is willing to compromise on the details if the Senate can pass the measure, his spokesman Dallas Boyd said. If it doesn't, Walden will be "terribly disappointed the opportunity will have been missed."

The bill's greatest obstacle remains its provision requiring a controversial land trade, said Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff.

It would give Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Area 120 prime federal acres at Government Camp in exchange for 769 acres the ski area owns at Cooper Spur on the mountain's north slope.

The Government Accountability Office has criticized the deal as not meeting accepted appraisal standards that are meant to assure a fair trade. The Bush administration has also said the trade does not make sense.

The language governing the swap cannot pass the Senate in its current form, Kardon said.

He said Wyden believes the trade, which began in the House version of the bill, is in the public interest. But he said safeguards are needed so passing the bill does not run the risk of undermining public support for other land swaps.

Because Democrats will be in the majority during the next session of Congress, Wyden and other Oregon Democrats will hold more prominent positions, with the clout to push for more wilderness acreage. Wyden sponsored an earlier version of the bill that called for much more acreage, and he will probably take over the subcommittee that would handle such wilderness bills next year.

"The acreage numbers are not going to go down with Sen. Wyden as chair," Kardon said. "There's only one direction they can go, and that's up."

But conservation groups say it's crucial to pass the Mount Hood bill during this session so Congress can move on to other important wilderness and environmental initiatives next year.

Michael Milstein: 503-294-7689; [email protected]