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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

From Caves to Coastal Forest, More OR Land Up for Protection

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Thursday, June 18, 2009   

Cave Junction, OR – Oregon has gained thousands of new acres of federal wilderness this year through passage of the Omnibus Wilderness Bill in Congress, and now there's a push for more. Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Peter DeFazio have teamed up to to protect more wild Oregon country. Their three new bills would extend federal protection to parts of the Lower Rogue River, the Oregon Caves and the remote Devil's Staircase area on the central Oregon coast.

David Dreher, an Oregonian working for the Campaign for America's Wilderness, does not expect any major problems getting them passed.

"These things are relatively non-controversial; you've got the Senator supporting it and the local House member, which helps a lot. I wouldn't expect these to take years – it could take a year or two."

Dreher points out that the Rogue River and Oregon Caves already have some federal protection – this legislation increases it. Overall, the legislation would add nearly 30,000 acres to Oregon's wilderness totals. The next steps are hearings for the bills in the U.S. House and Senate committees; they have not yet been scheduled.

The package includes "wild and scenic" designation for 143 miles of rivers, mostly tributaries of the Rogue. This creates a half-mile buffer of protected area on both sides of the waterway, restricting logging and mining. Dreher says the focus on clean water is one reason these bills won't face much opposition.

"There are always philosophical objections to wild and scenic rivers or wilderness, like there are with any issue. But I don't know of anyone who doesn't think we shouldn't be protecting the water quality of the Rogue River, or the water quality of the unique Oregon Caves hydrology."

The bills are S 1270 (Oregon Caves), S 1271 (Lower Rogue) and S 1272 (Devil's Staircase).




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