EDITORIAL: Going Rogue | Compromise would add 58,000 acres of wilderness

With the possible exceptions of Mount Hood and Crater Lake, nowhere in Oregon better symbolizes the state's incomparable wild beauty than the Rogue River.

Located in Southern Oregon's Siskiyou Mountains, the Rogue inspired legendary Western author Zane Grey to write novels, including "Rogue River Feud" and "Riders of the Purple Sage" and to live on its banks in a cabin that remains standing to this day.

The Rogue was one of the original eight rivers designated as national treasures when Congress passed the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968. Every year the wisdom of that designation is validated as tens of thousands of people boat, fish or hike this extraordinary river and experience its roiling whitewater, its wealth of wildlife and its prolific salmon and steelhead runs.

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act provides protection for a quarter-mile-wide corridor along each side of the river. But much of the watershed - including tributaries with history-evoking names such as Whisky, Big Windy, Mule, Missouri, Rum and Wildcat creeks, and the roadless areas they run through - lacks significant federal protections. As a result, they remain vulnerable to logging, mining and other resource extraction activities.

Efforts to expand federal protection have faltered in recent years. Several years ago, conservation groups proposed adding nearly 60,000 acres to the existing Wild Rogue Wilderness, but the proposal ran afoul of opposition by then-Sen. Gordon Smith. A subsequent proposal to double the width of the protected corridor on the main stem and to protect 143 miles of tributaries as wild and scenic rivers failed because of opposition from the timber industry.

Even with wilderness-friendly Democrats in control of both chambers of Congress, it appeared until recently that a Rogue proposal would not be part of any wild and scenic rivers bill or wilderness legislation approved in the current session.

But a breakthrough announced Monday offers hope that additional Rogue protections may yet win approval. A coalition of conservation groups announced that the American Forest Resource Council, a major timber industry organization, has agreed to not oppose efforts to win wilderness protection for 58,000 acres of federal land along the upper 24 miles of the wild section of the Rogue.

When Congress created the Wild Rogue Wilderness in 1978, it protected a portion of the river running from Marial, the approximate halfway point of the 40-mile wild section of the river, to near the takeout at Foster Bar. The proposed expansion would run from Marial upstream to Grave Creek, where rafters typically put in on the river, and extend several additional miles upstream to include the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Rand Visitor Center, where rafters pick up permits to run the river.

Both the timber industry group and the conservation organizations deserve credit for reaching a compromise that hopefully will inspire similar collaborations across the state.

For conservation groups, the agreement offers the potential of wilderness designation - the gold standard of protection for federal lands. Protection of the Rogue's tributaries would enhance the river's valuable fish runs, which are essential to Oregon's recreational and commercial fishing industries and contribute an estimated $1.5 billion annually to the West Coast's economy.

For the timber industry, the agreement, if approved by Congress, would avoid the precedent of protecting tributaries as wild and scenic rivers and of expanding the protected corridor along the main stem of the Rogue. It also provides a welcome opportunity for the industry to, in the words of council President Tom Partin, show that its members are not always "the black hat guys" on wilderness proposals. In fairness, the council already demonstrated that with its support for the recent expansion of wilderness areas on Mount Hood.
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Rep. Peter DeFazio and other members of Oregon's congressional delegation should embrace this promising compromise and start building support for Wild Rogue Wilderness legislation.