National Wild and Scenic Rivers System
The White House is very interested in protecting Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands as a national monument before the end of Biden’s first administration. However, President Biden won’t proceed without the all-clear from Oregon’s two US senators. Your help needed. Now.
Read MoreNearly 4,700 miles of Oregon’s free-flowing streams will be added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System if legislation introduced this past Wednesday by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) becomes law.
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 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 MoreThere are times when Congress acts in a visionary manner. (Is it less so today, or is it just me?) Such was the case in 1968 when it enacted into law the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
Read MoreThe federal public lands along more than half of the stream mileage in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (NWSRS) can be mined, notwithstanding its congressional “protection” in wild and scenic rivers (WSRs). This is because the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (WSRA) established three different classifications for WSR segments—wild, scenic, and recreational—and banned mining or not based on the classifications. The WSRA needs fixing to offer uniform protection against mining in the NWSRS.
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