Wilderness Bill On Verge Of Becoming Law

Cross your fingers, throw salt over your shoulder, and knock on wood.  After four years in the making, a bill to add more than 200,000 acres of wilderness in Oregon might just become law in the next day or two.

Supporters are feeling about as confident as they can.  But as Sean Stevens of Oregon Wild tells us, “We’ve been here before,” only to see the bill lose by a narrow margin.

Soda Mountain Wilderness. Courtesy Oregon Wild.

What’s behind the optimism this time around?

Big majorities in the House and Senate voted for the bill in the past couple of weeks.  But the House failed to pass it because it was working under rules requiring a two-thirds majority vote.  It got 282 votes, two short of what it needed.

But action in the Senate has changed the rules.  When it passed the wilderness legislation last week, it included it as part of another bill to protect historic cemeteries.  So when the House votes again, it only needs a simple majority to pass.

Just how soon that can happen is a bit of a guessing game.  Stevens says he’s heard it could come up for a vote today, but thinks tomorrow or Wednesday is more likely.

If it passes, the bill increase protections for five areas around the state:

Mt. Hood: The bill adds 128,000 acres of wilderness and 80 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers

Badlands: Creates a 30,000 acre wilderness in the Badlands area near Bend.

Copper Salmon: Protects nearly 14,000 acres of old growth forests and adds more than nine miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers in Curry County.

Soda Mountain: Protects 23,000 acres of in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument by banning cattle grazing.

Spring Basin: Adds 8,600 acres of wilderness to an area near the John Day Wild and Scenic River.