PORTLAND, Ore. - A bill to protect thousands of acres and miles of river in Oregon has passed out of a key U.S. Senate committee.

The Oregon Wildlands Act, introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., would designate more than 200,000 acres as wilderness and national recreation areas and add more than 250 miles of wild-and-scenic river protections to the state.

Much of it is centered around the Rogue River, one of the original eight to gain wild-and-scenic protections 50 years ago, but Robyn Janssen, director of Rogue Riverkeeper, said those protections only extend a quarter-mile up the waterway's canyons, leaving much of the area vulnerable to development.

"The forest and wild lands way up on the ridge tops above the river aren't protected," she said, "and those really important tributary streams that feed lots of cold, clear water into the Rogue and support our amazing salmon fishery, those tributaries aren't totally supported and protected."

The bill would add acreage to the Wild Rogue and Devil's Staircase Wilderness areas and wild-and-scenic river protections to western Oregon rivers. It also would give recreation-area protections to the Molalla and Rogue rivers.

The bill, Senate Bill 1548, represents more than 20 years of negotiations, and backers have said it would conserve lands integral to Oregon's recreation economy, which generates $16.4 billion annually in consumer spending and supports more than 170,000 jobs, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.

Janssen said greater safeguards would protect jobs near the Rogue River.

"It is a really important resource for us in so many different ways, but especially for the local economy," she said. "And if it wasn't protected and it was being developed or being abused by resource extraction, those jobs would be threatened."

Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Chris Daughters, owner of the Caddis Fly Angling Shop in Eugene, said he believes that without protections, the region's world-class fisheries are in danger. He said he also wants the next generation to enjoy these lands.

"We can talk about the immediate needs of the angler, we can talk about the immediate needs for the businesses and the critical outdoor industry in the state of Oregon from fishing, hiking, boating, etc.," he said, "but we've got to look down the road for our children as well."

The text of SB 1548 is online at congress.gov, and OIA data is at outdoorindustry.org.

---

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


get more stories like this via email

Tributes and memorials are pouring in for victims of the deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County.

The storm stalled over the Texas Hill Country early Friday morning and the river rose 26 feet, wiping out campgrounds, homes, roads and bridges.

Casey Claiborne, a former anchor at KTBC-TV in Austin, and his family are vacationing in the area. He said they escaped the catastrophe because their home sits high on a hill.

"There was a debris line that had gone over the mailbox and it had receded back down but it was just below the little guardrail on the side of a road," Claiborne recounted. "It was an apocalyptic scene. I could see a crashed car. The car was still on; there was some sort of a kayak trapped underneath."

President Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for Kerr County following the storms. The designation means residents will have access to federal funding for recovery efforts.

The banks along the Guadalupe River are home to multiple summer camps. About 700 children were in attendance at a Christian camp called Camp Mystic. Many of the victims of the deadly floods were attending camps.

Claiborne added it is personal for his wife and family.

"This is a small, narrow road that just goes into the middle of nowhere, beautiful Hill Country on the river," Claiborne explained. "There are camps just all up and down the road and so she was a camper and a counselor at one of those camps. And so, she feels a lot of pain for Mystic."

There are no warning sirens in the area. The National Weather Service issued multiple flash flood warnings before daylight on Friday but victims said they did not have enough time to prepare or escape the water.

Christy Noem, secretary of Homeland Security, said the Trump administration plans to fix the agency's technology.

"One of the reasons that when President Trump took office that he said he wanted to fix, and is currently upgrading the technology and the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years," Noem stated.


get more stories like this via email

Supporters of public lands will gather in Santa Fe next week to oppose pending legislation that would sell off millions of acres in 11 Western states, including New Mexico.

The Monday afternoon rally is scheduled during this year's Western Governors' Association annual meeting. The event includes U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who backs the legislation - while New Mexico's entire congressional delegation opposes the land-sale provision.

"As written, the bill would put more than 100 million acres of public land up for sale," said Kate Groetziner, communications manager for the Center for Western Priorities, "and it would actually mandate the sale of at least 2 million acres."

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has long advocated for public land sales, arguing only "underused" parcels would be considered. But data from the Wilderness Society show more than 250 million acres could qualify - roughly equivalent to the land mass of California, New York and Texas combined. Only Montana would be excluded from the sales, after Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., carved out an exemption.

The second Trump administration renewed the effort to sell public lands to boost oil and gas production, increase logging and mining, and accommodate data centers for artificial intelligence and computer networks. That messaging was expanded in March, when Burgum announced a task force to explore building "affordable" homes on Western public lands to ease the nation's housing shortage.

Groetzinger said the way it's written now, the bill is a giveaway to private developers and the ultra-wealthy who could build luxury homes near U.S. forest land.

"Some of the lands that will be most at risk are those close to Western towns and cities, the lands where people like to get out after work and recreate," she said. "Another concern we have is that there's no affordability requirement; the text of the bill does not include any requirements that the housing be affordable."

The Interior Department is also considering reversing protections for more than 300,000 acres surrounding New Mexico's historic Chaco Canyon, according to a letter sent to tribal governments last month. The reversal would open the lands under mineral leasing laws.


get more stories like this via email

International tourists visiting U.S. national parks may pay more at the gate starting next year.

Advocates have called it a "common-sense policy" that could raise needed revenue for maintenance. In its 2026 "Budget in Brief," the U.S. Department of the Interior has included a surcharge for the 14 million foreigners who visit America's national parks annually.

A 2023 report from the Property and Environment Research Center found a $25 surcharge would just about double fee revenue to the National Park Service, adding $330 million to its coffers.

Tate Watkins, research fellow at the center, said the revenue could go a long way.

"With a relatively small increase in fees for visitors from abroad, you could raise a really significant amount of revenue that many parks really, really need," Watkins pointed out. "Especially the ones that are bigger, attract more visitors and have seen booms in visitation over recent years."

Watkins noted routine maintenance at Yellowstone, the nation's oldest park, costs about $43 million annually, while the park has a maintenance backlog totaling $1.5 billion. The Interior budget comes as the U.S. Senate's reconciliation bill proposes moves which could hinder park operations, including pulling $267 million in remaining Inflation Reduction Act funding earmarked for the Park Service.

Watkins stressed current park fees make up a small slice of travel budgets for those visiting from outside the country, usually less than 3%.

"When you think of the types of visitors who are able to pay multi-thousands of dollars for a big, often bucket-list trip to some of the incredible sites that we have at our national parks, most wouldn't blink at paying a little bit more, or even potentially a decent amount more," Watkins asserted.

According to the report, it is common practice around the world to charge international visitors more. Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia, for example, charges foreigners $55, almost four times the citizens' rate of $14.


get more stories like this via email