A Bill just passed the house (285-to-140 vote) and is moving on to the senate which will allow for the protection of 23 million acres in the NW alone!
There were 160 proposals which, if passed by the house and not vetoed by the president (ha ha) will increase the total acres of wilderness in the US to 109 million acres and will include 470,000 acres in the Eastern Sierra and San Gabriel Mountains in California, 517,000 acres in the Canyonlands in Idaho, 11,700 acres of Lake Superior shoreline in northern Michigan, 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range, 1,000+ miles of scenic rivers, two parks in New Jersey, 750,000 acres in northeastern Oregon, and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington!
With 62,720,000 acres in Oregon (is my math right? 98,000 square miles * 640 acres/square mile?) that is ~ 1% of the total land area in Oregon which isn't really that much. There are likely smaller areas around the nation (in Hawaii?) but this is great for Oregon!
The BLM owns ~ 15 million acres in Oregon and over 400,000 acres in Washington
While that would likely only set aside < 5% of the BLM/USFS lands in Oregon, it would set almost all of Washingtons BLM managed lands in trust (likely most of the set asides are in the USFS managed lands). It is likely they will have provisions for cattle and sheep grazing in the wilderness areas if it passes as that is an important economic factor for many communities. Logging practices would change drastically at least in eastern Oregon.
What do you think?
Is this good for the NW?
Its worth noting that Oregon has the least wilderness by % area in the nation.
ReplyDeleteDefinately a good thing.
Also, I wish the DEQ would do this, "Polluters Beware: These Eco-Police Officers Are for Real"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/nyregion/26ecocops.html?ref=science
These numbers are patently false. There were 0, that is zero, acres of land protected as wilderness in Washington or Wyoming, and 202,000 in Oregon. Less than 20% of that -- 39,000 acres was in Eastern Oregon.
ReplyDeleteCurrently about 4% of Oregon is protected as wilderness (an increase from about 3.7%). California is at about 15%, Idaho is now at 8%, and Washington stands pat (remember, no new wilderness) at 10%.
Oregon specific maps can be found at www.oregonwild.org, and maps for the 2 million acres of wildenerness nationally can be found here http://www.leaveitwild.org/docs/Omnibus_Wilderness_Designations_03-2009.pdf. Note Washington and Wyoming.
Thanks for the update, I am guessing that the new numbers are based on provisions the senate changed? That is too bad about Washington and Wyoming. Small steps forward. Still a good thing overall?
ReplyDelete