Oregon Wild Fall 2011 Volume 38, Number 3 Keeping public lands in public hands 1 Fall 2011 Volume 38, Number 3 Formerly Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC). Working to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy. Main Office Western Field Office INSIDE THIS ISSUE 5825 N Greeley Avenue Portland, OR 97217 P.O. Box 11648 Eugene, OR 97440 Phone: 503.283.6343 Fax: 503.283.0756 454 Willamette, Suite 203 www.oregonwild.org Phone 541.344.0675 Fax: 541.343.0996 Keeping public lands in public hands {4-7} The e-mail address for each Oregon Wild Conservation & Restoration Coord. Doug Heiken x 1 staff member: [email protected] Old Growth Campaign Coordinator Chandra LeGue x 2 The legacy of Dinah-Mo Peak {8-9} (for example: [email protected]) Wilderness Coordinator Erik Fernandez x 202 Eastern Field Office A special match {15} 16 NW Kansas Avenue, Bend, OR 97701 Director of Finance & Admin. Candice Guth x 219 Phone: 541.382.2616 Fax: 541.385.3370 Development Coordinator Jonathan Jelen x 224 Healthy Rivers Campaign Coord. Ani Kame’enui x 200 Eastern OR Wildlands Advocate Tim Lillebo Outreach Associate Denise Kayser x 213 Wildlands Advocate Rob Klavins x 210 CHOVER P OTO: JOHN WALLER Public lands are enjoyed by many and provide ecological benefits Conservation Director Steve Pedery x 212 we can’t get anywhere else. So why are they always at risk? Read more on page 4. Executive Director Scott Shlaes x 223 ([email protected]) Director of Comm. & Development Sean Stevens x 211 Wildlands Interpreter Wendell Wood x 200 Oregon Wild Board of Directors Gary Guttormsen, President Vik Anantha Rand Schenck Leslie Logan, Vice President Jim Baker Brett Sommermeyer Megan Gibb, Treasurer Pat Clancy William Sullivan Daniel Robertson, Secretary Shawn Donnille Jan Wilson Oregon Wild is a tax-exempt, non-profit charitable organization. www.facebook.com/OregonWild Newsletter printed on New Leaf 100% recycled, 50% post-consumer, FSC-certified paper with soy based inks. @oregonwild Fall 2011 Volume 38, Number 3 2 From the Director’s Desk The long haul Scott Shlaes Protracted and patient effort is When you see the news, or talk with a gratification; the steady cycles of the needed to develop good character. family member, friend or neighbor, you season, the migratory journey, and the know that we live in uncertain and return of natural balance to our forests -Heraclitus sometimes scary times. Now more than require the long and patient view. ever it is important to find good in our Oregon Wild’s work is one of protracted world. And to find people doing good We have been here before; in a time and effort. For 37 years we have fought for and work and embrace their efforts. When you place where some find it convenient to celebrated this special place. Over time, are intentional about seeking out the disregard the value of our lands, water, COVER PHOTO: JOHN WALLER Public lands are enjoyed by many and provide ecological benefits we’ve protected 1.7 million acres of values that define you, do not be surprised and wildlife in the name of economic we can’t get anywhere else. So why are they always at risk? Read more on page 4. Wilderness, 1,900 miles of Wild & Scenic when you begin to see them enacted pressure. Together we will continue to rivers, the oldest and most pristine forests, everywhere. oppose this shortsighted view and speak and the magnificent wildlife that call out on behalf of the special places that these places home. However, we have As you read our latest report to you, we we love. more to do. hope you will see Oregon Wild’s work as an extension of your values. Thank you for your financial support and In a world of instant response, this work your engagement with our work. You are stands out. It requires enduring patience, You’ll see that we continue to advocate for a critical partner in our efforts to keep sound strategy, and the support and preservation of bedrock environmental Oregon a special place to live, work, and efforts of thousands of people like you. laws like the Clean Water Act and Clean raise a family. Our work would not be possible without Air Act. You’ll see others like yourself that your personal connections to the natural have committed their time to For the wild, world, or your value system that sees conservation advocacy and how our state beyond the immediate and recognizes the benefits from their efforts. You’ll see that importance of a natural environment that in spite of societal trends urging instant sustains, teaches, and inspires us. JU STIN KRUG Orange Peak Falls 3 Fall 2011 Volume 38, Number 3 Keeping public lands in public hands The O&C lands and the end of county payments Steve Pedery, Conservation Director ost Americans hear the word number of politicians are opposing has led some county leaders – and Oregon have few options to fall back from the Clean Water Act to the “public lands” and think of our the very concept of public lands. even Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) – on, but have done little to prepare. A “Wilderness and Roadless Area nationalM parks, forests, and grasslands to begin advocating for the perfect storm is brewing over county Release Act of 2011” proposed by Rep. – special places where we can still The political and economic climate privatization of public lands as a funding, which could mean huge cuts Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). find wild rivers, abundant wildlife, – particularly in Oregon – is putting scheme to raise money. in county services, from law additional pressure on our public The roadless release act would and opportunities to enjoy hiking, County payments expire enforcement to road maintenance. camping, and fishing. However, for lands. County governments in County leaders are desperate for eliminate the 2001 Roadless Area western Oregon, specifically the Conservation Rule, and put nearly 60 decades the term “public lands” was The Secure Rural Schools program, money, and some have begun to also synonymous with cheap places so-called “O&C Counties”, are advocate for a return to million acres of pristine National facing massive budget shortfalls in which provides tens of millions of Forest lands on the chopping block. It to log, mine, drill, or graze livestock. dollars in federal funding to rural environmentally destructive logging on And today, a small but increasing the coming years. With little prospect public lands as a means to generate would also eliminate Wilderness of a bailout from U.S. taxpayers, this county governments, was enacted Study Area protection for tens of back in 2000 as a temporary offset revenue (even though demand for timber in the U.S. is at an all-time low). millions of acres of Bureau of Land DARRYL LLOYD Since the early 20th century, Americans have found solitude and for the reduction in logging – much Management (BLM) lands, opening wonder in their public lands. of it old-growth logging – on federal Some, including the Association of them up to mining, oil and gas public lands. The lion’s share of this O&C Counties (AOCC), have begun drilling, and livestock grazing. money goes to 18 counties in Oregon advocating for the sale or lease of with a historic link to the Oregon & publicly-owned land to private timber At a recent Congressional hearing on California Railroad lands that spread operations. Though the lands belong the proposal, Rep. McCarthy, the like a checkerboard across the to all Americans, they argue that the third-ranking House Republican western part of the state. The dollars revenue generated should go directly leader, defended his plan. “Millions of these counties have grown to western Oregon counties. acres of land across the United States accustomed to receiving from U.S. are being held under lock and key taxpayers are staggering (in 2006 A storm in Congress unnecessarily,” he said. alone, Douglas County received $51,897,828). In the last issue of Oregon Wild, we Bruce Babbitt, who served as U.S. reported on the explosion of anti- Secretary of the Interior under The recent Congressional battle over environmental riders in the U.S. then-President Clinton, also testified the debt ceiling put an exclamation House of Representatives. New at the hearing. He described the bill as point on this problem. Secure Rural proposals have continued to spring up “…the most radical, overreaching Schools funding expires in 2012, and over the course of the summer, attempt to dismantle the architecture it is highly unlikely Congress will ranging from Sen. Ron Wyden’s of our public land laws that has been extend it. Affected counties in western (D-OR) plan to exempt logging roads proposed in my lifetime.” Fall 2011 Volume 38, Number 3 4 “We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. that as much as 75% of the land sales But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our had violated federal law. Then- forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are President Theodore Roosevelt exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed intervened, proclaiming his intent to into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing “clean up the O&C land fraud mess, navigation.” –Theodore Roosevelt once and for all!” Over 1,000 Oregon politicians, businessmen, and railroad grazing interests, as well as many south to the California border. executives were indicted. politicians from western States. This Oregon then gave the land to a dynamic is still reflected in Congress railroad company, purportedly to sell The O&C lands went back into today.