They’re just trying to have it both ways.
Can we allow some industrial development on West Hayden Island, while leaving enough of the area untouched so it can useful as wildlife habitat?
Thursday’s vote on the Portland City Council is a tentative, ”yes”.
On Thursday, the Portland City Council will make a critical decision about the future of West Hayden Island.
Here’s the issue. Should the area remain undeveloped and preserved for nature? Or should the Port of Portland be allowed to build a new marine terminal?
The Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge in Oregon. From Wikimedia Commons. Photographer unidentified.
The company behind Oregon’s newest natural gas pipeline will donate at least $22 million for conservation projects in our state and across the West.
It’s the result of a three-way deal between the Oregon Natural Desert Association, Western Watersheds Project and El Paso Corp. The money will be used to undo some of the environmental damage that results from building the Ruby pipeline, and to preserve sagebrush habitat.
A scene along Wassen Creek in the Devil's Staircase area. Photo by Kristian Skybak. For more see http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristiansven
Update: Adding Press Release by Cascadia Wildlands
A bill to protect the Devil’s Staircase, and another that expands the Oregon Caves National Monument, have been approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The vote is a “milestone” according to Senators Wyden and Merkley. The bills now go before the full Senate for consideration.
Getting caught up here on some news that I missed.
I’ve written before about attempts by environmental groups to protect Steens Mountain from energy development.
Environmental groups wanted the state to add Steens Mountain to a list of places in Oregon where energy development is prohibited. But the Energy Facility Siting Council – which decides where large wind farms are located – recently rejected the idea.
Late notice, I know. I just got word of this a short while ago.
If you’re in the Portland area you may want to attend a meeting this evening on a new management plan for BLM land in Southeast Oregon.
The Chetco River in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. Photo by Lee Webb, U.S. Forest Service.
Plans for a huge gold mining operation has put the Chetco River in Southern Oregon on this year’s “Most Endangered Rivers” list.
Some 50-million acres of our country’s wildest places will be protected for at least another year.
Photo from Friends Of Mt. Emily.
An icon of Northeast Oregon has a date with the logger, unless a lot of money can be raised quickly.
What’s at risk is 500 acres of the Mt. Emily Recreation Area near La Grande. A timber company is getting ready to cut down most of the big trees in the Trails Unit, a section that’s hugely popular with hikers, bikers and horseback riders.
Local efforts to save the trees are falling behind and falling short. So the group Friends of Mt. Emily is appealing statewide for help.
Cathedral Rock along the John Day River. Photo from the National Park Service.
It looks like the Wyden-Merkley bill creating a new Wilderness Area in Eastern Oregon finally gets a hearing this morning.
The Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests will take testimony starting at 11:30am Pacfic time. The hearing will be streamed live.
