Effort to protect Rogue River back in Congress
A law that would expand the protection of the Rogue River is headed to Congress.
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A third attempt at expanding protection of the Rogue River by another 58,350 acres has been introduced in Congress.
House Resolution 3436 was introduced last week by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat whose 4th District includes much of rural Josephine County.
The would-be protected land is in the Zane Grey Roadless Area, upstream of the current 358,000-acre Wild Rogue Wilderness. Zane Grey is essentially the land north of the river between Grave Creek and Marial.
The bill would also add 93 miles of tributary streams in that area to the National Wild and Scenic Rogue River, preventing mining on those and another 50 miles of tributary streams.
"It's the Rogue River. Regardless of your political persuasion most people want to see it protected," said Shane Jimerfield of the conservation group Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. "It's a foundation of many of the local businesses.
"The bill has pretty broad support. Whether that's good enough for the current makeup of the House of Representatives is yet to be seen.
"We're excited. We hope Congress will take it up and get it across the finish line."
Two previous bills proposing protection were defeated.
But after negotiations last spring between the Wild Rogue Alliance and the American Forest Resource Council, the AFRC dropped opposition to the plan, when the amount of proposed wilderness was decreased by 13,000 acres, and the number of streams classified as Wild and Scenic was reduced.
Jimerfield cited a recent study showing $30 million in economic output from the Wild and Scenic Rogue; including $16 million related to sport fishing.
