Mark Hatfield
As public lands conservationists continue their fight to save the last of the mature and old-growth forests for the benefit of this and future generations, we must not forget the preforests.
Read MoreWhile we should appreciate the greatness of great leaders, we must not ignore the things they did that were the opposite of great.
Read MoreIf not for the Cold War (1945–1991), there might well have been a national park in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains.
Read MoreMany conservation organizations are quite concerned and are girding their collective loins for battle. The Forest Service insists that the changes they propose won’t undermine the intent of the Eastside Screens. Who’s right?
Read MorePart 2 discusses multiple failures to establish additional national parks in Oregon.
Read MoreSenator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is asking his constituents to nominate possible new wild and scenic rivers for Oregon. You have until January 20, 2020. This opportunity is unprecedented and potentially historic. All hands on deck!
Read MoreFigure 1. Darlingtonia California, a carnivorous plant, along Rough and Ready Creek in a watershed of extraordinary biological diversity. The watershed is threatened with nickel mining, and wild and scenic river status would help end the mining threat. Source: Sandy Lonsdale. First appeared in Oregon Wild: Endangered Forest Wilderness by the author.
While Oregon leads the nation in number of units in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (NWSRS), Oregon trails in (1) total number of protected wild and scenic river miles, (2) total acreage within the NWSRS, and (3) percentage of the state’s total stream mileage protected in the NWSRS.
Read MoreCompared to its political equal Washington, arch-liberal California, arch-conservative Idaho, and politically purple Nevada, Oregon has the least designated wilderness acreage and the smallest percentage of the state’s lands protected as wilderness.
Read MoreCurrently, less than 1 percent of Oregon streams, by mileage, are included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. An estimated additional 10,000 miles (less than 3 percent of the total mileage) of Oregon streams are eligible for inclusion.
Read MoreDespite its imperfections, the Wilderness Act is a wonderful law, worth defending against all attacks and attackers.
Read MoreMany politicians call for a return to the era of bipartisanship as a solution to any woe. This call has resonance because the bipartisan era occurred in the living memory of baby boomers. But in the long arc of history this era did not last long, and the evidence of today does not give much hope of a return to it.
Read MoreMillions of acres of federal old-growth forest still stand because of former Oregon governor Barbara Roberts (D). The Upper Klamath River would have another damn dam and not be safely within the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System if not for Roberts. Oregon would have some god-awful cyanide heap leach gold mines if not for her. If not for her . . . (there’s much more).
Read MoreAs Jim Weaver quietly lives out his days in his beloved Oregon, this and future generations are in his debt because even though he represented the congressional district ranked highest for timber production in the nation, Weaver was a strong and tireless proponent of wilderness. There are wilderness areas today safely on the map, both inside and beyond his congressional district, because Jim Weaver stood up for the wild in Oregon in ways that no elected official had done before or has done since.
Read MoreGiven Oregon’s historically close ties to the timber industry, it is hard to imagine that a U.S. senator from Oregon could be a co-sponsor of the original legislation that became the Wilderness Act of 1964. Yet Senator Richard Lewis Neuberger was no ordinary U.S. senator.
Read MoreThe Snake River in Hells Canyon would be dammed today if not for former Senator Bob Packwood (R-OR). The French Pete watershed would not have been returned to its rightful place in the Three Sisters Wilderness if not for Packwood.
No, Packwood is not dead yet, but he is in his ninth decade (and with all his marbles, the last time I saw him). I am implementing a new policy to remember some Oregon public lands conservation greats before they, in words from Hamlet’s "To be, or not to be" soliloquy, “have shuffled off this mortal coil mortal coil.” It is an interesting exercise and a challenge to write a remembrance of someone not yet passed. I’ll call it a premembrance.
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