Friends of the Columbia Gorge Protecting the Gorge Since 1980 Spring 2011 Newsletter Inside: Support Public Land Acquisition Page 2 25 Years of Gorge Protection Page 4 Energy Development Challenges the Gorge Page 8 A spectacular view from upper Catherine Creek, on public land Friends of the Columbia Gorge protected by the U.S. Forest Service. Photo: Don Jacobson ©Donjacobsonphoto.com Founder Nancy Russell, 1932-2008 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Maria Hall CHAIR Keith Brown* VI C E CHAIR Karen Johnson SE C RETARY /TREA S URER Rick Ray* AT-LARGE ME M BER Cynthia Winter* AT-LARGE ME M BER Charlie Webster AT-LARGE ME M BER Chris Beck Broughton H. Bishop Ken Denis Bob Hansen* Eric Lichtenthaler* Robert Matteri Aubrey Russell Pat Wall Mark Waller Polly Wood* Public Lands Funding FRIENDS OF THE COLUM B IA GOR G E LAND T RUST very year, more land in the Columbia Gorge, along with our allies BOARD OF T RUSTEES Columbia River Gorge National and supporters, is fighting to ensure Aubrey Russell PRE S IDENT Scenic Area is protected thanks to Congressional support for LWCF. To date, Bob Hansen* SE C RETARY /TREA S URER Ethe federal Land and Water Conservation we have sent 1,400 letters to Congress Jim Desmond Dustin Klinger Fund (LWCF). This program provides urging full support of the program. Christine Knowles* funds for state and federal agencies to We applaud Oregon’s Senator Ron Rick Ray* acquire land from willing sellers for parks Wyden for defending LWCF during budget and trails, fish and wildlife, and to ensure negotiations. Senator Wyden’s eloquent STAFF Nathan Baker STAFF ATTORNEY that significant national landscapes are letter to Senate leadership emphasized Justin Carroll GRANT S & CONTENT SP E C IALI S T preserved for future generations. “America’s long bi-partisan tradition of Peter Cornelison* FIELD RE P RE S ENTATI V E Many iconic Columbia Gorge protecting land and water for people Anna Gilbert CON S ER V ATION ORGANIZER Kevin Gorman EXE C UTI V E DIRE C TOR landscapes have been protected with and nature.” Maegan Jossy OUTDOOR PROGRA ms COORDINATOR LWCF funds, including Cape Horn, Franz Please take action! Contact your Michael Lang CON S ER V ATION DIRE C TOR Lake, Table Mountain, Catherine Creek, Congressional delegates today (see below) Marilyn Lipko DE V ELO pm ENT Ass I S TANT Tom McCall Point, Memaloose Hills, and to urge full support of LWCF. Tell them Kate McBride* LAND TRU S T MANAGER Rick Till CON S ER V ATION LEGAL ADV O C ATE Burdoin Mountain. that LWCF funds are vital to securing Sandy Wright DE V ELO pm ENT DIRE C TOR During this 25th-anniversary year permanent protection for treasured * Gorge area residents of the Scenic Area Act, Friends of the landscapes in the Columbia River Gorge. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT Legal Counsel: Gary Kahn Newsletter Design: Kathy Fors and Citizen action makes the difference! Your actions for Gorge Kathleen Krushas / To the Point Publications protection are crucial to our success. Contact your Senators and Representatives using the Publications Editor: Betsy Toll information below, or check www.senate.gov or www.house.gov for other offices. PORTLAND OFFICE Oregon Washington 522 SW Fifth Avenue, #720, Portland, OR 97204 Sen. Ron Wyden, (202) 224-5244 Sen. Patty Murray, (202) 224-2621 (503) 241-3762 http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/ http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm GOR G E OFFICE Sen. Jeff Merkley, (202) 224-3753 Sen. Maria Cantwell, (202) 224-3441 205 Oak Street, #17, Hood River, OR 97031 [email protected] http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/ (541) 386-5268 Rep. David Wu, (202) 225-0855 Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, (202) 225-3536 Rep. Earl Blumenauer, (202) 225-4811 Rep. Norm Dicks, (202) 225-5916 Rep. Doc Hastings, (202) 225-5816 Rep. Greg Walden, (202) 225-6730 Rep. Jay Inslee (202) 225-6311 Rep. Peter DeFazio, (202) 225-6416 Email your Congressional Representative by Rep. Kurt Schrader, (202) 225-5711 logging on to www.house.gov/writerep/ Link to us on Twitter and Facebook Cover photo: Looking north from Oregon, Hood River Mountain rises on the left, with Burdoin 2 from our website: www.gorgefriends.org Mountain mid-ground, below Mount Adams. Photo: James Holloway Photo: Peter Cornelison Director’s Letter obody loved buying land in the Scenic Area, this issue of our newsletter Gorge, or talking about buying is dedicated to the public land acquisition land in the Gorge, more than efforts that have shaped, and in some NFriends founder Nancy Russell. places saved, the Gorge. Subdivisions have In the last decades of her life, Nancy been stopped, recreation opportunities purchased thirty-three Gorge properties, created, and habitat preserved. Thanks to from small wooded parcels in the west these purchases, many of the jaw-dropping to expansive open-range pieces further landscapes the Gorge is famous for have east. She sold eleven of those properties remained unspoiled. to public agencies, then bought more land with the proceeds and donated the “I’m cheap with During that same time, however, we remaining lands to Friends of the Columbia have also seen more than 1,000 new houses Gorge Land Trust. everything but land!” built, along with increasing proposals for Nancy was a frugal person by nature. – Nancy Russell commercial and industrial development. She rarely took vacations and was perfectly Those two powerful forces in the content with the same car, same clothes In the past twenty-five years, Gorge – protection and development – and same home for decades. But when it incremental and cumulative efforts by will race headlong into the next quarter came to buying land in the Gorge, her Nancy Russell, the Trust for Public century, competing for the last of the passion overrode frugality. Land purchases Land, the U.S. Forest Service, and other Gorge’s undeveloped, unprotected lands. could save the Gorge, so what would she conservation buyers have protected more How that race ends depends on all of us. rather do? Like a parent who will do than 40,000 acres in the Gorge. Visualize anything to save their child, Nancy was Portland’s expansive Forest Park, and then willing to do anything to save the Gorge. multiply it eight-fold. That’s how much Celebrating the 25th-anniversary year Gorge land has been protected by land Kevin Gorman of the Columbia River Gorge National acquisition in the last quarter century. Executive Director [email protected] Nancy Russell hiking at Friends of the Memaloose in 2005. Columbia Gorge Photo: Aubrey Russell works to ensure that the beautiful and wild Columbia Gorge remains a place apart, an unspoiled treasure for generations to come. 3 Looking southwest from Memaloose hills. Photo: Jim Chase How Land Acquisition Saved the Columbia Gorge Kevin Gorman, Executive Director, [email protected] hen President Reagan Since that time, more than 40,000 Setting the stage signed the Columbia River acres have been acquired by public agencies. As Friends of the Columbia Gorge began Gorge National Scenic Area These purchases have preserved iconic pushing for protective federal legislation in the Wlegislation in November 1986, his signature landscapes, habitat corridors for flora early 1980s, the need to include a strong land set in motion a chain reaction still playing and fauna, and Native American cultural acquisition component in the Gorge legislation out in the Columbia Gorge today. The sites. Multiple acquisitions have resulted was hotly debated. Friends was certain that Scenic Act established the Columbia River in restoration of the Historic Columbia a land-use zoning overlay would not stop Gorge Commission with a mandate to create River Highway as well as new recreation development threats, it would only manage a Gorge-wide land use plan. Restoration of opportunities at Catherine Creek, Cape them, and not always effectively. Opponents of the Historic Columbia River Highway was a Horn, and Dalles Mountain. In fact, more acquisition argued that the federal government priority, and initial funding was also written than half of the 80-plus annual hikes led by would pursue condemnation of land via into law to develop what would eventually Friends of the Columbia Gorge are in areas eminent domain and the Gorge would soon go become Skamania Lodge and the Columbia that were not open to the pubic in 1986. the way of Appalachia. Gorge Discovery Center. The National Scenic Area Act set the Friends founder and board chair Nancy But the stroke of Reagan’s pen also wheels in motion, but the legislation was Russell understood the value of public triggered what may well be the most tangible, just a starting point. Getting from that point acquisition and began working with the Trust measurable benefit of the Columbia River to where we are today required vision, for Public Land (TPL), a national land trust Gorge National Scenic Area Act: the purchase courage, and dedicated persistence from that sells land to public agencies and then of land from willing sellers into public countless individuals, organizations, and uses the proceeds to buy more land to be ownership for conservation purposes. public agencies. protected. Anticipating the federal legislation, 4 Over the next 25 years, public land acquisition will continue to play a pivotal role in Gorge protection. Nancy and Bruce Russell provided TPL a $300,000 no-interest loan to purchase important properties in the Gorge. The Meyer Memorial Trust then stepped up with a no-interest $600,000 revolving loan fund, which would eventually help leverage more Waterfalls at Catherine Creek. Photo: Greg Lief / Liefphotos.com than $35 million in acquisitions. At that early point, the Scenic Area Act had not yet passed, but at Nancy’s urging Senator Mark Hatfield was an eyesore for miles around, and the Forest TPL used those funds to buy twelve of the In October 1986, with strong support Service listed it as a priority acquisition.