News
Curry County Reporter
Joel Summer
January 24, 2007
A full court press being mounted for Copper Salmon Wilderness designation
With the Democrats in control of the 110th Congress proponents of the Copper Salmon Wilderness Area along the Elk River northeast of Port Orford have decided it's time for a full court press to get their designation through Congress before the Congress becomes distracted with national elections.
And the wilderness advocates are pulling out some big guns starting with Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
In December, Kulongoski personally lobbied Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) for DeFazio's support of the legislation.
Kulongoski followed up with a letter.
"Many sportsmen and fishing guides throughout the region and state believe that this watershed deserves wilderness protection," said Kulongoski. "Oregon State University scientists have documented the health of the fall Chinook salmon and winter steelhead populations in the Elk River system and believe that the watershed harbors some of the best available spawning and rearing habitat remaining for coastal anadromous fish."
Yesterday, Jim Rogers, Jerry Becker, and others met with DeFazio's Chief of Staff, Karmen Fore, in Eugene, to try and map out a workable strategy for getting the Copper Salmon proposal through Congress.
When this issue last arose toward the tail end of the 109th lame-duck Congress, the Copper Salmon proposal was a dead issue, but the possibility of getting through the Mt. Hood Wilderness and the Soda Mountain Wilderness near Medford was a real possibility. As it turns out designation for those much larger wilderness areas died as well.
Rogers thinks a stand-alone bill may be the best way to go because Copper Salmon may still be perceived as being of second-tier importance behind Mt. Hood and Soda Mountain. Obviously, the Mt. Hood Wilderness area, about 10 times the size of Copper Salmon, has the broader support of the bulk of Oregon's population base. And it seems a deal was struck years ago in getting the Soda Mountain area through Congress.
Rogers doesn't necessarily feel it is a disadvantage to have a stand-alone bill supporting the Elk River habitat.
"It allows us to try and incorporate some other local issues into the Copper Salmon proposal. For instance, it might allow us to remove the culvert at Blackberry Creek and replace it with a bridge," said Rogers. "The culvert is acting as a four mile fish barrier. Blackberry Creek is not technically in the Wilderness Area, but it is along the Elk River and in the same environs."
Gov. Kulongoski is not the only one lending support to the proposal for a wilderness area. A wide-ranging group of hunting and fishing conservation organizations, have also lent their support to the effort.
This group includes the Berkeley Conservation Institute, Association of Northwest Steelheaders, Oregon Chapter of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the McKenzie Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Native Fish Society, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Federation of Fly Fishers, Izaak Walton League, and the Public Lands Initiative of Trout Unlimited.
Rogers said when the Republican Rep. Richard Pombo was in charge of the Natural Resources Committee, he forced proponents of wilderness designations to get support all the way down to the county level.
Rogers said that as a result, the Curry County Board of Commissioners passed a standing resolution in support of the proposal. Rogers believes that this support will pay dividends in the current Congress.
Rogers, Becker, and others have been fighting the good fight now for 11 years. This may be their last, best chance for passage of a wilderness designation. Rogers feels the "window of opportunity" will open this spring and close by the end of the summer of 2007 when Congress' attention turns to the 2008 national elections.
So here is keeping our fingers crossed on this one. One last chance. Let's get it done.