Wyden calls for more wilderness protection
By RAELYNN RICARTE
March 27, 2004
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden wants to celebrate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition by nearly doubling the protected wilderness areas on Mt. Hood.
Wyden’s draft legislation calls for 160,000 more acres of designated wilderness along the expedition’s path through the Columbia River Gorge. The Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act of 2004 also includes designating four river segments under the Wild and Scenic River System.
“For the million of current visitors to Mt. Hood and the Columbia Gorge, and for the millions more who will follow, the time has come to prepare for our future and protect these cherished lands,” Wyden said in his Thursday announcement.
After consulting further with civic leaders in Oregon, as well as his colleagues in Washington, D.C., Wyden plans to introduce the legislation within the next several weeks.
The wilderness areas Wyden is proposing for added protection include:
* About 65,000 acres that incorporates the historic Tilly Jane trail, Lost Lake, Shellrock Mountain and Mill Creek Buttes, the historic Barlow pass and Bonney Butte, Twin Lakes, and the Lower White River.
* Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness additions, about 36,000 total acres. These areas provide a viewshed of the Gorge, including the headwaters of Multnomah Falls and McCall Point.
* Approximately 23,600 acres in the transition zone between the east and west side ecosystems. The Badger Creek Wilderness additions would include the Lower Badger Creek/Jordan Creek, Hellroaring Creek, Fifteenmile Creek and Boulder Lake.
* Popular recreation areas of the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness additions that incorporate about 34,900 acres. The proposal includes the watershed for the City of Sandy, Alder Creek, Salmon River Meadows, Eagle Creek, Mirror Lake and Abbot Burn/UpperSalmon River Meadows.
The four river stretches proposed for the National Wild and Scenic River System include almost 25 miles of the East Fork Hood River and about five miles of the Middle Fork Hood River. The plan also calls for protection of a nine-mile stretch of the Zigzag River and about eight miles of Eagle Creek.