Considering how important the new Wilderness Bill is to Oregon, it’s surprising to see that today’s coverage in newspapers around the state is low key. While the Oregonian gave it front page prominence, most of the other papers we check seemed satisfied to run a wire service version of the story, or hardly mentioned it at all.
But there are two exceptions.
The bill adds 127,000 acres of wilderness around Mt. Hood and more than 200,000 acres in the state.
The Bend Bulletin plays up the postive reaction with a headline that simply says, “Good News For The Badlands.” The bill creates a 30,000 acre wilderness in the Badlands area east of Bend. The favorable reaction includes comments from the Oregon Natural Desert Association which says it’s important to preserve wilderness close to the city because that’s what draws people to Central Oregon.
But some of the coverage in the Medford Mail Tribune focuses on how the bill will impact local ranchers. Their reporter interviewed a rancher who’s family has been grazing cattle in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument for more than 50 years. The bill creates the 23,000 acre Soda Mountain Wilderness within the monument and rancher Bob Miller will lose his grazing rights after the bill becomes law. He tells the paper he’s relieved to get this behind him.
