News
Curry Coastal Pilot
Keith Chu
September 22, 2007
Senators say “yes” to wilderness plan
Oregon's senators promised to push forward a proposal to protect the headwaters of Elk River – and showered Curry County representatives with warm words – during a U.S. Senate hearing on Thursday.
"To the folks who have journeyed across the land from Curry County to be in the U.S. Senate, I have heard your plea," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., addressing Port Orford Mayor Jim Auborn and longtime wilderness supporter Jim Rogers.
The bill, sponsored by Wyden, would set aside 13,700 acres of forest as a wilderness area, permanently off-limits to logging and development. The land encompasses the headwaters of Elk River and butts up against the Grassy Knob Wilderness.
Advocates say the watershed is a key spawning ground for several species of fish, including chinook salmon, winter steelhead, coho salmon, cutthroat trout and rainbow trout.
"Although the entire area has been off-limits to logging for the past 13 years, there will inevitably be continued attempts to go back after the North Fork's timber, each furtive attempt further damaging and eventually irreparably destroying our world-class salmon fishery," Rogers said.
"The only way to really protect this unique, extremely important area for perpetuity is by awarding it Congressional protection as wilderness."
The Curry County Commission passed a resolution supporting the wilderness proposal in 1999, which it still stands by, said Commissioner Lucie La Bonté, who did not make the trip to Washington.
"I would say fishermen all over the county are in favor of this," La Bonté said. "If anything happened to the Elk River fish run you could be losing a whole lot of jobs in north county."
Because the wilderness stands to protect fishing jobs by preserving salmon habitat opposition to the measure, even by people has dampened against wilderness areas in principle, La Bonté said.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, introduced an identical bill in the U.S. House.
"The rugged Elk River watershed is a rare stronghold for salmon and contains one of the largest intact ancient coastal forests in Oregon," DeFazio said in a statement. "Copper Salmon is a jewel that is deserving of protection for future generations."
Mark Phillips, a lobbyist for the Coquille Indian Tribe, said the tribe does not have a problem with the wilderness designation, as long as it is guaranteed access to the land for traditional hunting, fishing and gathering activities.
Forest Service policy allows tribal access to wilderness areas, Holtrop said.
That should satisfy the tribes, but "they'd just like to have it in writing," Phillips said.
Sen Gordon Smith, R-Ore., endorsed the bill on Thursday, but asked that it take into account the tribes' concerns.
It has been more than 10 years since activists began seeking wilderness protection for the headwaters of Elk River, Rogers said.
The U.S. Forest Service would support the bill, with a few changes, said Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the National Forest System for the agency.
The agency wants to thin some areas of the forest and leave a buffer zone near some roads rather than drawing the wilderness boundaries right against the forest roads that border the proposed wilderness area.
"Treatment of these stands would improve habitat conditions for fish and wildlife, reduce effects from insects and disease and provide defensible space fore firefighters in the event of a wildfire," Holtrop said.
Auborn said the fact that economic and environmental interests converged on this bill made it an easy sell, even in a place that can be politically divided.
"In Port Orford we don't get unanimous support on very many things," Auborn said.
"Neither do we in the Senate," Wyden replied.
Earlier this year Wyden and Smith sponsored a bill to protect much of Mt. Hood as a wilderness area. That bill has passed out of committee and is awaiting a vote by the full Senate.