Key talking points thanking Senator Ron Wyden on important local conservation issues.

Wild Rivers: 

  1. Senator Wyden, thank you for reintroducing the Oregon Recreation Enhancement Act and for advocating for Oregon’s public lands and forests in your role on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources committee. I love our wild rivers, and I am excited to see the potential to enhance southern Oregon’s recreation economy with this bill. Not only does this piece of legislation expand the Wild Rogue Wilderness, it establishes a permanent ban on toxic mining in the headwaters of the neighboring Illinois and Smith River watersheds. I hope to enjoy the Rogue Canyon National Recreation Area once your bill passes through Congress.  

  2. I love our local rivers, and I remain supportive of efforts to expand Wild & Scenic River protections across the state of Oregon. Along with the Oregon Recreation Enhancement Act, your River Democracy Act would benefit local streams and waterways. These bills help address injustices and corporate giveaways with the 1872 Mining Law, and I encourage you to keep working on legislation that protects drinking water sources, our wild, free-flowing rivers, and critical fish habitat threatened by ongoing resource exploitation on public lands. 

  3. As a river guide/outfitter/fisher-person, it’s important to me because <add in what’s important to you>.

Old-growth forests: 

  1. The Biden Administration issued an Executive Order last year to protect mature and old-growth forests, yet the Medford Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is moving forward with projects that target these older forests. The Last Chance timber sale outside of the community of Williams, OR is the agency’s latest proposal, and I am concerned about its negative impacts on wildlife, water quality, and forest health. The project targets a few thousand acres of mature and old-growth forests for commercial logging, a lot of which is in critical riparian habitat close to streams. We know older forests store massive amounts of carbon and are the most fire resistant. How are you supporting efforts to implement Biden’s executive order and protect our remaining older forests on public lands? 

  2. The Biden Administration has set forth a process to protect forests in southern Oregon, yet the local BLM office is moving forward with projects like the Last Chance timber sale, targeting our mature and old-growth forests outside of the community of Williams, OR. I would like to encourage you to keep a watchful eye on how the new Department of Interior Public Lands Rulemaking effort unfolds in the next couple of months, and be a strong advocate for conservation across western Oregon’s old-growth BLM forests. 

Wildfire/Prescribed Fire:

  1. Wildfire in the era of climate change is a serious threat to communities throughout southern Oregon. We need to prepare our communities and forests for more severe wildfire by incorporating Cultural Fire in forest management, increasing investments for prescribed fire, strengthening zoning and building codes for better community protections, and bettering the forest management that protects fire-resilient old-growth forests. What are you doing to protect communities from destructive wildfires?

  2. Are you working with federal agencies to advocate for better forest management practices, including increasing the scale of prescribed burns and protecting fire resistant trees?