Above, a logging truck leaves Mt. Hood National Forest down Highway 35. Proposed legislation would add more protections and limit logging opportunities for lumber companies.
Above, a logging truck leaves Mt. Hood National Forest down Highway 35. Proposed legislation would add more protections and limit logging opportunities for lumber companies.
Noah Noteboom photo
HOOD RIVER — The Hood River County Commission is drafting a “Letter of Concern” in response to Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Sen. Ron Wyden’s proposed legislation for conservation and protection of the Mount Hood Recreation Area and the Columbia River Gorge. On Jan. 18, Congressman Blumenauer presented the potential legislation at the Hood River County commission meeting to protect natural habitats and increase recreation opportunities on specifically on Mount Hood. The proposed legislation would add thousands of acres to the recreation area, transforming much of the land designated for timber production to recreation space. Blumenauer and Wyden have been holding public forums since 2014. Following the public input, they gathered additional feedback from tribal sovereigns, local elected officials, businesses, and others.
The last legislation passed to add protections to Mt. Hood National Forest was in 2009, when President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act. The bill protected lands nationwide, with Oregon and Mount Hood receiving some of the highest-level property protections from the federal government. Blumenauer and Wyden also played roles in the passage of the 2009 bill. The passage designated three separate “units” of land as usable recreation space. The three sections are known as the “Mt. Hood,” “Fifteenmile” and “Shellrock” units. The bill designated 127,000 acres around Mount Hood with the wilderness protection — the strictest form of land protection offered by the government — and almost 80 miles on nine different rivers were added to the National Wild and Scenic River System.
A group of hikers takes a break while snowshoeing.
Noah Noteboom photo
A lot has changed in the 13 years since the Omnibus bill was passed. According to Erik Fernandez, Wilderness Program manager for Oregon Wild, it’s time to start thinking about the future of Mount Hood. Oregon Wild is an environmental advocacy group based in Portland.
“The pressures on Mount Hood have profoundly changed over the past decade, it’s time for a modern-day plan that better balances recreation, wildlife, carbon storage, fire, and transportation around the mountain,” said Fernandez.
The 2009 bill excluded the Tamanawas Falls area and Salmon River keyhole from protections because then-Sen. Gordon Smith insisted they be open to logging.
“We are concerned that the legislation will have great sections that could end up with loopholes large enough to drive log trucks through,” said Fernandez.
Proposed Legislation
Blumenauer wants to create sustainable and equitable outdoor recreation opportunities for everyone. As the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many people outdoors, he wants to provide safe options for outdoor enjoyment. His legislative concept states that to accomplish that there is a need for “relief at crowded trailheads, dispersal of use through better maintenance of existing trails and infrastructure and investment in new, sustainable recreational opportunities.”
Designating more wilderness land is also a priority for legislators. According to the U.S. Forest Service, wilderness is defined as “area of undeveloped federal land without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions.” By giving the land a wilderness designation, Blumenauer wants to preserve animal habitats and protect clean water and air. His plan would be to dd more protections to iconic locations such as Tamanawas Falls, Mount Defiance, Bluegrass Ridge and the Salmon River keyhole area.
A young sapling grows in the White River Snow Park at the southern base of Mount Hood.
Noah Noteboom photo
Today, there is only one small area designated as a National Recreation Area (NRA) on Mount Hood. Blumenauer’s proposal would substantially expand the NRA while protecting land from threats of logging. The proposed “Polallie Cooper” logging project would impose on Blumenauer’s proposal to protect land around the Tamanawas Falls Forest area. If the logging project were to move forward before the potential legislation, tree cutting would come within 900 feet of the Tamanawas Falls trail network.
The proposed plan would transform land designated for timber production to more space for recreation. Heather Staten, policy director for Thrive Hood River, said the county commission’s letter to Blumenauer is a positive step forward for everyone involved.
“Those are exactly the kinds of comments Congressman Blumenauer will incorporate into whatever the eventual legislation looks like,” said Staten.
Hood River commissioners are hesitant to sign off on the idea of designating more land as wilderness. In their letter addressed to Blumenauer, they state that “irrigation water and recreation access are critical interests to our county and its residents.” In their letter, they make a point that many of the current programs and institutions are underfunded. The commission goes on to say, “Adding new items to the agenda needs to be accompanied with adequate funding for both the existing underfunded roles as well as the new priorities.”
Les Perkins, who serves as Hood River County Commissioner for District 4 and as the general manager for the Farmers Irrigation District, says the current proposal would make it more difficult to maintain and advance the irrigation infrastructure throughout the valley. When the irrigation systems are destroyed it is their job to supply water while fixing the damages.
“We divert water from the streams, pipelines and canals,” said Perkins. “We want to make sure we are able to access those and aren’t going to inhibit us from making improvements or repairs.”
It is not just the irrigation system that could be affected. Climate change, avalanches, receding glaciers and wildfire challenge infrastructure around the forest. Commissioners wrote that added layers of restrictions “can also block our ability to address future unforeseeable demands.”
Hood River Commission Chair Mike Oates confirmed that a final draft of the letter was sent to Blumenauer. In an email to Columbia Gorge News, he responded by saying he is “pleased by the robust level of engagement from the community thus far and is carefully considering each piece of feedback.”
Wasco County
The Wasco County Board of Commissioners also discussed the forest land proposal in January and early February.
In December and January, a letter was drafted by Kelly Glover, planning director for Wasco County, and submitted as testimony with unanimous consent of the board. “This letter lays out some of the most critical issues that we want considered,” Glover said. The proposal “has pretty broad, sweeping impacts to residents of Wasco County.”
Glover explained the legislative concepts “will have an impact on many of our core service programs including: law enforcement, fire fighters, 911 dispatch, search and rescue, ambulance, land use planning, assessment and taxation and code compliance.”
Wasco Commissioner Scott Hege noted the scope of the proposal was just too broad and highlighted the letter’s recommendation the board would “encourage the concept to be revised to address one targeted area at a time.”
“The sheer breadth and depth of the legislative concept scope has far reaching impacts that will be difficult to address comprehensively,” the letter stated. “Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge have different stakeholders, resources, recreation types, and constraints and deserve to be evaluated separately.”
The letter noted Wasco County “strives to preserve and protect these sites for future generations,” but that can be challenging as the popularity of many locations has some unintended consequences: Damage to protected resources from over-use, increased fire risk, conflicts with agricultural and forestry operations, increased emergency calls to under resourced rural service providers and trash, traffic, and trespassing are issues faced by local governments, even though many of these sites are publicly owned and managed.
“We strongly support additional resources to our programs to accommodate any expansions to recreation sites,” the letter states.
The commission supported additional emergency services funding being provided in conjunction with outdoor recreation, and wilderness areas, as service districts are still statutorily obligated to serve these often remote destinations.
In addition, local emergency service professionals “can provide significant insight into wilderness closures that can have unintended consequences for patrols, enforcement, and search and rescue,” the letter stated. “We encourage their involvement in developing these concepts.”
The Wasco board gave full support to wildfire planning, rehabilitation, and restoration plans for the Mt. Hood National Forest focusing on a science-based approach to forest management.
“We would also encourage the inclusion of drought resilient practices that can support sustainability for our beloved forest lands,” the letter states. “We would ask consideration for a revision to USFS firefighting policies that would allow for more aggressive firefighting and forest management. We also need continued support for our Rural Fire Protection Districts and Rangeland Protection Associations including broad financial assistance and promotion of volunteerism, which has dramatically decreased in the last decade.”
In addition, many of the lands under consideration in Wasco County intersect with tribal reservation and treaty lands, Glover said. “It would be really beneficial, out of respect for our tribal partners, for us to have some kind of intermediary appointed either at the state or federal level that could work on a government-to-government basis with our tribal treaty partners.”
Although the Wasco commission recognized the demand for recreation trails in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, they asked that “significant consideration” be given that many of the recreation areas are “working landscapes that are critical to our local, regional, and statewide economy,” and that the removal of these sites from active farming or forestry “can have serious impacts.”
“We would encourage that, rather than conversion of these lands to public ownership, the legislature explores public private partnerships that would allow some limited public access while maintaining these sites for farm and forest use,” the commission wrote.
And to avoid further decrease in the county’s tax base, the board “would ask that for any new (publicly) designated land, there be a recommendation for the conversion of land-locked public lands...to private ownership.”
Or “there may be solutions that don’t involve dedicating those areas as completely public lands,” Glover said.
Commissioner Steve Kramer expressed concern regarding the scope of the proposal as presented, noting Oregon currently has 2.5 million acres of wilderness and 47 wilderness areas, as well as wilderness study areas and a “long list of federal lands” within the state.
“There are positive aspects to some of this,” Kramer noted, “but a lot of stuff has been loaded up into the legislation that doesn’t belong there.
“This is going to shut a lot of people out of a lot of ground, I don’t really care for that,” Kramer said during a February board meeting.
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