PUBLIC LANDS: Wyden spars with NPS, USFS over Oregon Caves expansion

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) blasted the Forest Service and National Park Service yesterday for withholding support for his legislation that would expand a national monument.

S. 1270 would expand the Oregon Caves National Monument to include more than 4,000 acres of the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest, transferring management responsibility for the land from the Forest Service to the National Park Service.

At a hearing of his National Parks Subcommittee, Wyden said the bill is necessary because the Forest Service's management of the land has been inadequate to protect the caves, citing logging and livestock grazing along the monument's boundary.

The Forest Service deputy chief, Joel Holtrop, said his agency shared Wyden's goal of providing environmental protections for the Oregon caves but said his agency thought that could be best accomplished through an agreement between the Forest Service and the National Park Service. Holtrop and acting National Park Service Director Daniel Wenk said the two agencies needed another six months to discuss a joint plan.

Wyden was outraged, accusing the Forest Service of lacking leadership and saying he would continue pressing for the bill's passage without waiting for the administration's approval.

Wyden noted the Forest Service had asked for more time when he and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) pushed similar legislation last summer (E&E Daily, Sept. 12, 2008). "I'd like to see an agreement that has some teeth in it for cooperative management, but I don't see any evidence of that," he said. "What's going to happen in the next six months than didn't happen in the last 12?"

When Wenk responded that he could not answer that, Wyden demanded to know why he should support their position. "All I see is foot-dragging," he said, "and it's not acceptable."

There may be a disagreement between the two agencies as well. The National Park Service's management plan for the monument calls for the expansion, but the agency is willing to work with the Forest Service to see if another alternative is possible, Wenk said. The Park Service had previously supported the legislation.

As well as expanding the monument, Wyden's legislation would also designate 7.6 miles of the River Styx as "recreational" under the Wild and Scenic River Act, making it the country's first subterranean waterway designated under the act.

Other bills fare better
The Forest Service strongly supported S. 635, which would declare Illabot Creek in northwestern Washington as a "wild and scenic" waterway, adding additional protections against development along the river. Holtrop noted the creek's value as a salmon nursery and as a wintering grounds for one of the country's largest bald eagle populations. He testified in support of companion bill H.R. 1593 earlier this month (E&E Daily, July 9).

The National Park Service supported the intent of H.R. 2430, which would direct the agency to lift a ban on stocking non-native fish in the North Cascades National Park and surrounding lakes. Volunteers have been stocking non-native trout and other sport species in the park for more than a century, but service officials said the introduction of non-natives violates their mandate to protect intact ecosystems and on July 1 banned the practice for the remainder of 2009. Wenk said his agency supported the bill but wanted to amend some language to ensure it more closely complied with its 10-year analysis of the species' environmental impacts by using only nonreproducing species at low densities.

NPS also supported S. 2330, which would direct Interior to study the feasibility of declaring Camp Hale as a national park unit, and S. 742, which would expand the boundary of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and designate it as a National Historical Park.

Wenk said the agency needed more time to develop an official position on S. 715, which would establish a pilot program for the preservation of historic lighthouses.