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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., made good on his promise, made last week in Bend, and introduced legislation Thursday to create a nearly 30,000-acre Badlands wilderness area east of Bend.
The senator also proposed, in separate legislation, a new Spring Basin wilderness on more than 6,800 acres overlooking the John Day Wild and Scenic River.
Here's the full news release announcing the two bills:
Two-thirds of Clark County voters support protecting additional public lands in Nevada, according to a recent poll by Public Opinion Strategies.
Conservation groups Friends of Gold Butte and Nevada Wilderness Coalition, who commissioned the poll, said they will use the results to lobby elected officials to push their plan for federal wilderness and conservation protections of the rugged Gold Butte region of the Virgin Mountains, which is in the southeast corner of Nevada, just west of the Arizona border.
When veteran logger Don Hamann talks about the future of a profession whittled down in recent years by a growing economy and environmental restrictions, he beams with optimism.
"There is an incredible opportunity out there," he said. "Not only an opportunity but an incredibly important task that needs to be done.
"Part of it is educating people, particularly the next generation, to do the work and understand the need," said the Butte Falls resident.
"There is lots and lots of work out there."
Highways and dams came in waves through the 1950s and '60s, choking rivers and cutting into mountainsides.
A few believed that the way to stop this was to put soles onto sand.
Fifty years ago, a few dozen men and women set out on the coast of Olympic National Park for a hike that would alter the history of the state and nation.
In "The Hike that Saved the Coast," a free presentation at Peninsula College Friday night, two of the women on that wind-washed outing in August 1958 shared their fond memories, and a still-bright belief in the value of wilderness.
When it was disclosed that Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey would be on hand for the Wild Sky Wilderness dedication, "prince of darkness" and "Darth Vader" jokes were passed among conservationists.
Rey was the only guy in a suit beside the Skykomish River, but the former timber lobbyist behaved impeccably. He remembered a long-ago university lecture by a longtime nemesis, former Sierra Club boss Doug Scott, and gave an effusive tribute to the late Republican Rep. Jennifer Dunn.
A rushing river and jagged Cascade peaks were visible in the background. The sun had just come out.
After nine years of meetings, compromises and political battles won and lost, wilderness enthusiasts gathered in the small town of Index on Friday to celebrate the long-sought creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness.
"Oh my God, can you believe this?" U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said to the cheers of a crowd of more than 100 people gathered in the back yard of a home next to the North Fork Skykomish River.
With four condors flying directly over him as if on cue, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon unveiled sweeping legislation at the Bear Divide Picnic Area in the Angeles National Forest Thursday morning designed to protect nearly 42,000 acres of regional wilderness areas.
"I am pleased that after years of working with local leaders, wilderness activists and recreational enthusiasts, we finally have a practical solution to preserving the wild heritage of the 25th Congressional District," said 25th District U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon.
Legislation to protect almost half a million acres of federal public lands in California has been introduced in Congress on a bipartisan basis.
The Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act will give wilderness designations to 472,804 acres of public land, the highest level of protection and conservation for federal lands.
The bill designates 430,671 acres of wilderness in Mono and Inyo Counties and establishes more than 45 miles of the Owens River Headwaters and Amargosa River as Wild and Scenic Rivers.
Congressman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., entered legislation in the House of Representatives Friday that would designate a stretch of the Amargosa River on the California side a wild and scenic river.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
The designation would fulfill a dream for many years of some residents of southeastern Inyo County like Brian Brown, owner of the China Ranch Date Farm, and a founding member of the Amargosa Conservancy. It would protect flows on 23 miles of the river from Shoshone to Dumont Dunes.
