Poll shows support for protecting lower Rogue

The poll, commissioned by the American Rivers conservation group and conducted by Moore Information, showed that 77 percent supported additional protection, said Bob Moore, a pollster with the Portland-based firm.

"The majority of voters clearly favor additional protection along the Rogue, including boaters, hunters and anglers and hikers," Moore said. "Voters in the Rogue River valley were especially supportive of the proposal."

Released Tuesday, the poll taken Jan. 3 and 4 was of representative voters in Jackson, Josephine, Douglas and Curry counties, he said.

A clear majority was also supportive when asked specifically about legislative proposals to designate a new roughly 58,000-acre wilderness and additional wild and scenic river protection, according to the pollsters.

Oregon's U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, and U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, have introduced legislation in Congress that would expand permanent protection along the lower Rogue.

In 2010, the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry coalition based in Portland, dropped its opposition to wilderness designation for the largely roadless Zane Grey tract immediately downstream from the existing Wild Rogue Wilderness in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

Under the compromise between environmental groups and the council, the proposal had been reduced by some 13,000 acres with the wild and scenic rivers protection cut from 143 miles of tributary streams to 93 miles and reducing stream buffers. The designation is intended to protect the valuable salmon and steelhead fishery in the watershed.

However, Grants Pass resident Jim Frick, head of the Southern Oregon Resource Alliance, says his group is adamantly opposed to the designation. He cited the withdrawal of potential mining and logging areas if the legislation were to become law.