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.

Brent Fenty, ONDA Executive Director, tells me his group is expecting somewhere between $7 and $12 million for conservation projects in the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in southeastern Oregon and the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Nevada.

The ultimate goal is to restore sagebrush areas and help the species that live there. Some of the projects include:

• Expand the refuges by buying up private land from willing sellers. Could be as much as 10,000 acres.
• Reduce grazing and stress on the land by paying ranchers to retire their grazing permits.
• Remove fences to make it easier for wildlife to migrate through the region.
• Restore habitat around springs.

The money doesn’t actually go to ONDA. The group and the Ruby pipeline company are forming a new non-profit to oversee the work. The donation will be paid out over 10-years.

Western Watersheds has a similar arrangement for about $15 million.

Fenty says between Oregon and Nevada, about 5 million acres of land will benefit. “I can’t think of another agreement in this region,” he says, “with the potential to do as much restoration work as this one.”

About The Pipeline

The Ruby Pipeline runs 675-miles from southwest Wyoming to Malin, Oregon. But only a small portion of the line runs through our state. The pipeline just received right-of-way permission from BLM and is awaiting the final green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Construction will probably start very soon. Most of the natural gas will be sold to utilities in California.

But here’s what else makes the pipeline really interesting, from an environmental point of view.

The pipeline competes for the same markets as the proposed Jordan Cove LNG project near Coos Bay. But instead of bringing in imported LNG, Ruby will supply cleaner and cheaper natural gas from domestic sources in the Rocky Mountains. The bankruptcy of Bradwood Landing is a sign that the LNG industry is on shaky ground. The Ruby pipeline just might kill off Jordan Cove.

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 Oregon Natural Desert Association sent out an alert about this meeting early this afternoon.

It says BLM is writing a new plan for the Lakeview and Southeast Oregon districts after an earlier version was tossed away by a federal judge two years ago. ONDA says the agency and environmental groups are close to agreeing on an update. This meeting is an early step towards making the changes official.

Details:

• When: 5:30pm to 8:30pm
• Where: Portland Audubon, 5151 NW Cornell Road, Portland.

Key Issues:

ONDA says they want BLM to protect some of the wild areas by closing them to off-roading and other motorized vehicles. The group says it’s identified three million acres in the SE Oregon and Lakeview districts that could potentially be new wilderness areas.

It wants BLM to take another look at protecting habitat for the Greater Sage Grouse. The Interior Department has put the sage grouse on a waiting list of species that deserve to be added to the Endangered Species List. Oregon has about 20% of the nation’s remaining sage grouse habitat.

ONDA also says BLM should consider ways to convince ranchers to voluntarily give up grazing permits. The group says these lands have been overgrazed and wants to find ways to reduce it.

For More Information:

ONDA Alert: Ask BLM for better protection for SE Oregon

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.

Here’s the threat. Forest Capital Partners owns most of the timber rights in the Mt. Emily Recreation Area even though the land is owned by Union County. The company wants to begin logging the 500 acre trails unit on July 1st.

Here’s the rescue plan. If Union County can raise $600,000 by the end of May, it can buy the trees and would operate the area under a sustainable forestry plan.

Sue Miller of the Friends group says with two weeks to go, they still need $500,000. “This is a one time opportunity for our generation to leave a legacy of sustainable forestry” she says. “We urgently need all donations, large and small.”

Complicating things – this is an all or nothing proposition. Raising some of the money won’t save some of the trees. The timber company wants all of the cash up front before calling off the harvest.

If you want to help out, check out the donation page on the Friends of Mt. Emily website. There are two ways to donate, either through the county or the Blue Mountains Conservancy. Either way, the contributions are tax deductible.

The Film Club at Eastern Oregon University has produced a short video about efforts to save the trees.

Video: MERA Trails Unit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcZXpjl-yOo

Council President David Bragdon releases a statement calling this a vote a “historic moment.” He goes on to write:

“Our work is not done. We need to refocus our efforts on how we can best invest in attracting more jobs and residents to our existing communities inside the urban growth boundary. Metro, local governments and the private sector need to work more strategically to invest limited public resources more wisely and encourage greater private investment in the communities we already call home.”

EARLIER:

The Metro Council put a final stamp of approval on a plan to guide growth in the region for the next 50-years. The vote was 5-2.

The plan creates 28,000 acres of urban reserves, areas outside the urban growth boundary that will be set aside for most new business and residential development.

It also preserves 272,000 acres as rural reserves, places protected as farmland and natural areas.

The broad outlines of this plan have changed little since it was introduced to the public earlier this year.

A series of public meetings, and an alternative plan offered by a coalition of farming and conservation groups had little impact. The coalition version called for 15,000 acres of urban reserves, saying that anything bigger could damage the metro area’s vibrant agriculture community.

In the end, the council decided to stay close to a plan that was drawn up by a group called the Core 4 committee. The committee was made up of a representative from the Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington county commissions. The fourth member was from the Metro council.

In order for any plan to succeed, it needs the approval of all four of these governments. So a version drawn up by their representatives was probably destined to survive all the others. Each of the counties approved their part of the agreement earlier today and on Tuesday.

The latest plan, as proposed by a committee called the Core 4, includes setting aside 27,000 acres for urban reserves and 270,000 acres for rural reserves. That leaves about 2300 acres in the “undecided” category.

It’s the latest step in an unbelievably complicated process that will determine how the Portland metro areas grows and develops over the next four or five decades.

Metro may be best known for the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) around the Portland region. That’s the magical line that roughly divides the urban areas from the rural areas.

What it’s looking at now is how to plan growth outside the UGB. A new state law says Metro needs to figure out what are the best places to set aside for future development (urban reserves) and what are the best places to preserve as farmland and natural areas (rural reserves). And if that wasn’t difficult enough, officials from Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, plus the Metro government, all have to agree on the same plan!

This is supposed to be wrapped up by the end of February. The Metro Council has a meeting scheduled for the 25th.

What happened today is that the Core 4 committee drew up a plan that covers 99.5% of the area outside the UGB. They couldn’t agree on what to do with the remaining half-percent. So each of the three counties will hold separate talks with Metro on working out those details.

Metro held six public events during January that were attended by hundreds of people who wanted to look at urban reserves maps, ask questions, and testify before the Council.

See: VIDEO: Jobs and the Economy Drive Metro’s First Hearing on Urban Reserves

The amount of land set aside for urban reserves is still almost twice as large as a proposal from a coalition of environmental and agricultural groups. They wanted Metro to set side only 15,000 acres for urban reserves. The biggest disagreement came over how much land to allow for development in Washington County. But the coalition proposal never gained traction with Metro officials.

See: Farmers, Conservation Groups Come Together On Urban Growth

But it’s home to wildlife as well. Herons, sea lions, otters and fish spend some or all of their lives here. Fall salmon numbers in the upper Willamette system have been surprisingly robust, giving hope that the endangered fish might be making a comeback. For that to happen, salmon and steelhead have to migrate at least twice through the dirtiest section of the Willamette. The working part of the river. A Superfund site.

Soon, the Portland City Council will hold a public hearing on a plan to reconcile all these different demands. Two of Portland’s best known environmental groups, Willamette Riverkeeper and the Audubon Society, are concerned over industry attempts to weaken some of the environmental protections in the plan. Those industry objections led Mayor Adams to cancel a public hearing that was scheduled for last month. It could also be the reason why Thursday’s planned hearing was put off as well.

The North Reach River Plan

The so-called “North Reach” of the Willamette runs from downtown Portland near the Fremont Bridge to where the river meets the Columbia.

In typical Portland style, the plan for this area is designed so that there’s something in it for everyone.

For Business:

• The plan protects prime industrial property along the riverfront, calls for spending more public money on infrastructure such as rail and road access, and simplifies rules needed for permits.

For Recreation:

• Creates a Greenway trail on both sides of the river. They are already walking and biking trails through the area. But the city’s plan calls more adding more trail miles, changing some of the current routes, creating scenic viewpoints and adding more spots for people to access the trails.

For Wildlife:

• Sets aside some 21 areas along the river for wildlife habitat. If a business tries to expand or build a new facility along the riverbank, it has to mitigate for that by restoring an equal amount of riverbank somewhere else on its property. If for some reason that doesn’t work out, the business could restore wildlife habitat somewhere else on the river, or pay a fee to the city for doing it. Eventually the goal is to create a privately run mitigation bank.

Why Business Is Unhappy

Businesses located along the river are vigorously fighting the plan. Many of them are represented by the Working Waterfront Coalition. The members say the costs of mitigation, or the fees they have to pay, are way too high. Back in July, Schnitzer Steel told the Portland Business Journal that if they wanted to build a new $20 million dollar dock, the costs of mitigation would tack on an extra $2.7 million. The business community says this will halt or slow expansion, the wrong kind of move especially during a recession.

“We’re not insensitive to the economic realities out there,” says Travis Williams, Executive Director of Willamette Riverkeeper. But he’s skeptical about business claims as to how much they’ll have to pay. “How does this kill you,” he wants to know, “Are you sunk because of this fee you can pay out over time?”

The Needs Of Wildlife

No expects this section of the Willamette to be restored to it’s former glory. All sides that it really is a working river, and will remain that way into the foreseeable future. But Williams sees the plan as a way to get back some of what’s been lost. “How is doing the right thing, and asking a bit more, somehow the wrong thing to do? How much do we water these things down?”

There’s an increasing consensus that even setting aside a small amount of land for habitat can make a difference for wildlife. The 21 natural areas in the plan will help salmon as they migrate through the area. They’ll provide resting places for salmon and steelhead to stop and feed before moving upriver to their spawning grounds. Williams says, “The science is telling us that’s what they use, that’s what they need.”

To Have Your Say:

Until a public hearing is scheduled, you can submit written testimony to…

Council Clerk
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Room 140
Portland, OR 97204
Fax: (503) 823-4571
Email: kmoore-love@ci.portland.or.us

According to the Medford Mail Tribune, more of this area will be protected thanks to the Nature Conservancy.  The group says it’s completed a $4 million deal to buy more than 1700 acres of Table Rocks land.  What the Nature Conservancy doesn’t own has special protection under the Bureau of Land Management.  Both organizations want to keep the area open to the public.

We’ve reported extensively about the plan before.  In a nutshell, it makes the Metolius Basin an Area Of Critical State Concern and prohibits destination resorts in the region.

Earlier story:

Metolius Plan Approved, Goes To Legislature

For now, it’s only a recommendation that goes to the Legislature which can adopt, change or kill the plan.  But it’s an important step in protecting the Metolius Basin from development.

Here’s what it does:

• Declares the basin an Area Of Critical State Concern.
• Prohibits destination resorts and golf courses in the Metolius Basin.  Allows for two small resorts that could include as many as 35 units and be up to 25 acres in size.
• Bans destination resorts and golf courses from a buffer zone surrounding the basin.  Allows for one small scale resort of no more than 125 units and 320 acres in size.

The Commission says its trying to find a way to balance the interests of protecting the environment and wildlife in the basin, against those of developers who’ve purchased large tracts of forest in the area and were hoping to build destination resorts.

And there’s the issue of taking away local control over the basin.  Jefferson County had approved those two destination resorts to create job and improve property tax revenues.   The plan encourages the County to consider new resort plans closer to Madras and speeds up the approval process by more than two years.

For a look at the complete plan go here:  (Opens a PDF file)

FINAL MANAGEMENT PLAN

When we last heard from the commission, they voted to make the Metolius Basin an “Area of Critical State Concern.” But it also left open some important issues, including how much of the basin will be protected from development, and what will happen to two destination resorts that are planned for the area.

Governor Kulongoski set this process in motion last year when he asked the LCDC to draw up a plan to protect the Metolius. The draft version produced by staff would have stopped the two destination resorts from being developed, and would have banned future large scale resorts.

The LCDC special meeting begins at 1pm. Whatever it decides, it’s a recommendation that goes to the legislature and lawmakers will make the final decision.

Meanwhile, March 24 is an important date for the future of destination resorts for another reason. That’s when the House Land Use Committee holds a hearing on HB 2227. The concern is that developers are promoting projects as destination resorts when in fact what they really want to build are new subdivisions. Erik Kancler of Central Oregon LandWatch says destination resorts don’t get as much scrutiny as subdivisions. HB 2227 directs the LCDC to study current law, see if it’s working, and if it needs to be rewritten.

That hearing starts at 3pm.