He vows to protect Badlands, takes heat over timber receipts

March 17, 2000
By Julie Johnson
The Bulletin

Environmental concerns dominated the discussion at a town hall meeting with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on Thursday in Bend.

Wyden fielded questions about federal protection for the Badlands Wilderness Study Area east of Bend and for Steens Mountain in Eastern Oregon. He was applauded for his promises to protect the sensitive areas, but criticized for his stance on federal payments to counties based on timber receipts from national forests.

Wyden met with Deschutes County residents to fulfill a campaign promise he made when he was elected in 1996 to visit each county in Oregon once each year to hear the concerns of residents.

The environment seemed to be on the minds of most residents who attended Thursday's meeting. Wyden vowed to fight for the highest possible level of federal protection for Steens Mountain in Harney County.

Environmentalists have been lobbying to designate the mountain a national conservation area, and the Clinton administration is considering a national monument designation for the pristine mountain range. Some recreationalists and ranchers have opposed both recommendations.

Wyden also said he thinks a wilderness area designation for 34,000 acres of desert east of Bend would make it through Congress, but probably not this year. He said his staff has been working with a group of area ranchers, environmentalists and property owners to make sure all parties are involved in the process.

But a local representative of the Sierra Club called Wyden's bill that would increase payments to counties with national forests in their boundaries `misguided.`

Wyden has introduced legislation that would increase the amount currently paid to support schools and roads in rural counties, but would leave the payments connected to the amount of timber harvested in national forests. The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations want the federal government to `decouple` the payments from the amount of trees cut.

Wyden said decoupling would never pass in Congress and that it would be a mistake, leading to a perception that the federal government would be subsidizing Western states unfairly.

Earlier in the day Wyden met with Crook County residents in Prineville and toured a Habitat for Humanity project in Bend. A local partnership between Habitat for Humanity and a group of at-risk youth in the county's community justice program was the inspiration for a recent appropriations request Wyden made to set up similar programs nationwide.