Bipartisan wilderness meeting set for Hood River

By Contributing Writer, 11-30-05

On Saturday, Dec. 3, you could help decide the fate of Mount Hood.

Congressmen Greg Walden (R-Oregon) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) will host Mt. Hood wilderness summits in Portland and Hood River to get the public's comments on the proposed expansion of federally designated wilderness areas around Mt. Hood and in the nearby Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The summits follow-up a blueprint offered by the two Congressmen on Tuesday the third and most modest proposal for adding to the mountain's wilderness areas in the past year.

The Hood River summit will be at the Best Western Hood River Inn, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. 1108 E. Marina Way, Hood River, Oregon. From I-84 take exit 64. The Congressmen will accept written comments as well at either of their web sites. Residents are encouraged to offer their thoughts and opinions on the wilderness proposal. Oral statements are limited to two minutes, and speaker should bring two written copies for the record.

The Walden-Blumenauer plan would increase the wilderness area around Mt. Hood by roughly 40 percent, by adding 75,000 new acres permanently off limits to development. But theirs is far less ambitious than an earlier proposal from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), which called for 177,000 acres. That plan failed in the GOP-controlled Congress last year, but the Walden-Blumenauer compromise has as one of its proponents longtime Republican Walden, of Hood River.

There's a third Mt. Hood-area wilderness plan, too, proposed by the Oregon Natural Resources Council. That proposal calls for 261,000 acres of newly protected wilderness around Hood and the Columbia Gorge. Given the lack of traction for the original Wyden effort, the ONRC plan impresses one as even less immediately attainable. The group has relates some striking figures, however, noting that 13 percent of California is designated wilderness, and 10 percent of Washington state. And Oregon? We have 3.6 percent. Their plan would up that total to...3.7 percent.

All of the proposed wilderness areas are currently in federal ownership, primarily as existing national forestland. More than four million people annually visit Mt. Hood, Oregon's highest mountain, to hike, ski, mountain bike, hunt, watch wildlife. A million receive their drinking water from it. Native Americans regard it as sacred.

Wilderness designation would protect roadless areas from commercial and industrial uses such as logging, road construction and rock pits. Mt. Hood National Forest's own studies indicate the demand for wilderness type of recreation is not currently met by areas already set aside.

More than 300 people attended each of the two previous summits held by Walden and Blumenauer to promote Mt. Hood-area wilderness expansion, one summit in both 2003 and 2004. Supporting the wilderness designation are a number of conservation groups such as: Hood River Wilderness Committee, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Sierra Club, Oregon Natural Resource Defense Council. The main opposition has come from the International Mountain Bike Association and its local affiliate, and other motorized recreation groups. Communities located near the expansion are concerned about the ability to contain fires.

There's also an economic argument raised against increased wilderness protections: Jason Spadaro, president of SDS Lumber, which employs more than 300 Gorge residents at his plant facilities in Bingen, testified to a U.S. Senate subcommittee in September 2004 in opposition to Wyden's Mt. Hood wilderness plan.

Taking out additional national forest land from regional timber harvest, said Spadaro, does "not serve the public interest. If we desire the multiple benefits that our forests are capable of providing in wildlife habitat, water quality, scenic beauty and economic benefit, we must open the door to actively managing our forests to achieve these outcomes not lock the door."

Congressmen Blumenauer and Walden say their focus is on creating a long-term plan to manage the mountain's limited resources, and that their proposal doesn't eliminate national forest lands scheduled for timber harvest. But it is the wilderness proposal that drives the planning process.

Wyden has said previously that With millions of current visitors to Mt. Hood and the Columbia Gorge, and millions more to come, it is time to protect these cherished lands and prepare for our future, before we love the mountain to death.

by Dan Richardson and Susan Hess, of New West Columbia Gorge. Hess's personal web site is www.columbiagorgeinstitute.com.


CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article referred to the Oregon Natural Resources Council by an incorrect name. Sorry about that. [End of article]