Trails Club of Oregon - Conservation

The Trails Club Conservation Committee monitors conservation issues of interest to the club. Items of interest are posted here.

The postings are pretty much in temporal order with the newest articles at the top.

Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs Summer Conference 2011

This years conference was held the weekend of August 26-28 at the Mazama Lodge on Mt. Hood near Government Camp. The theme was "Defending Our Environmental Legacy in the West".

The Friday evening program was presented by Erik Fernandez from Oregon Wild. He talked about the recent environmental victories including Wilderness additions to the Mt. Hood Wilderness and the addition of Soda Mountain into the wilderness system. Also the need to protect wildlife habitat.

There were numerous sessions on Saturday, each session explored the theme yet were quite varied in subject matter. Topics included such issues as Timberlines proposal for a Downhill Lift Assisted Mountain Bike Park and Rolling Back Protection for Wolves and Grizzly Bears Under the Endangered Species Act. A highlight for many attendees was the saturday afternoon field trip led by Professor Richard Waring, OSU Forestry Dept. His topic was Clues to Future Forests on the Mt. Hood. There were two other field trips/hikes led by Lisa Osburn and Stephen Brown of our Trails Club.

Although the attendance was small in number, with several Clubs not sending representatives, all of us that did participate were pleased with the session presentations which included opportunities for question-answers with the guest speakers and social activities with excellent food provided by the Mazama kitchen staff. Next years convention site will be determined later.

submitted by conservation committee chair.

Conservation - September 2010 notes

Our monthly conservation meeting for September included lively discussions about the proposed water bottling plant and the casino, both would be located within or very near the city limits of Cascade Locks. Other discussions revolved around the Forest Park Report and the coal fired power plant at Boardman. Roger Cole provided the committee with an informative program entitled The Dirty Truth about Coal, Why Yesterday's Technology should not be a part of Tomorrow's Energy Future.

The conservation committee will not be sending a representative to this years Federation of Outdoor Clubs annual convention which will be held October 1, 2 and 3 near Mill Valley, California, however we will be forwarding a Resolution regarding the coal fired power plant near Boardman. We are considering a name change for our committee, not official but just considering. How about Environmental Action Committee. Call your conservation chair if you have another name change suggestion.

Conservation - What's in a Name

Conservation - Preservation of natural resources such as rivers and forests, with the careful utilization of these resources to prevent depletion.

Environmentalism - Protection of water and air so that there is a minimum degradation from man made utilization of our resources. Example might be: Adequate standards for leaching of ore in the mining process or logging practices near bodies of water or coal fired power generating plants.

To me conservation and environmental practices go hand in hand for any compromise of guidelines for logging, mining, natural gas trunk lines, etc. will affect wildlife, fish, fowl and plant life. Case in point being the proposed casino at Cascade Locks. The air quality in the Columbia Gorge would be so degraded by the impact of increased auto traffic to the casino site that there would be a large increase of acidic rain and smog that would be harmful to our environment.

A goal of our conservation committee is not to create a situation of hostility towards utilization of our natural resources but one of cooperation to insure proper controls are in place, monitored and enforced. Unless guidelines are monitored closely developers will usually take short cuts to improve their profit margins, ignoring sound and safe environmental practices. With all this in mind perhaps our conservation committee needs a name change to better reflect our goals with a possible side benefit of generating more interest in conservation from our Club membership.

submitted by the conservation chair - Aug 2010

Wind Power

The Conservation Committee has been studying windpower for some time. We submitted a Resolution to the 2009 meeting of the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs, which was adopted

Resolution

The FWOC reffirms its 2003 Resolaution strongly recommending the use of windpower as an alternative to fossil fuels in producing electrical energy, and recommending that site-specific environmental constraints be adopted, including the following:

All states should be urged to develop a stqtewide process for reviewing and licensing all wind power installations.
Applicants should present data on the possible environmental impacts of these projects on each site involved and make them available to the public.
Impacts should include birds and bats and their flyways and Important Bird Areas (IBA's) should be protected.
The review and licensing process should be integrated into state environmental protection laws and stqtewide land use planning programs, in the form of Administrative Rules, enforceable under state law by the Attorney General and through law suits brought by citizens who are given standing as a right.
The cumulative impacts of various comprehensive projects should be evaluated.
All records supporting license applications and determinations, and all monitoring studies should be public.
Licensing agencies should be able to reject applications that would impose too many avoidable impacts or substantive unavoidable impacts.
BPA should prepare a programmatic EIS covering all aspects of wind power: turbines, towers, buildings, transmission lines, roads.
US Fish and Wildlife Service should be granted statutory authority to enforce guidelines.

The Committee is studying how it might take action on some of these clauses. We are seeking out other groups that have action plans.

Submitted by Sydney Herbert - Aug 2010

Tillamook Forest Plan

The Conservation Committee has taken an active interest in the Tillamook State Forest. At the last Legislative Session, an attack was made on the Forest Plan. The coastal counties insisted that they were promised higher timber returns than they were getting, so the Board of Forestry (after heated public hearings) ordered a new Forest Plan to be drawn up. This Plan would eliminate groves designated to develop into old growth forest, would reduce the rotation age, would mandate timber as the priority use and generally turn the forest into a tree plantation. The revised Plan will have public hearings, and we will participate. The Forest gives rise to six rivers which have the only healthy runs of anadromous fish.

Submitted by Sydney Herbert - 14 Aug 2010

Soda Mountain Update

There were public lands protection gains in 2009: a new, congressionally designated 24,100 acre Soda Mtm Wilderness in the southern backcountry of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and 59,598 acres of public lands in and near the Monument are now legally cow-free, with grazing leases terminated via private buyout (pursuant to congressional action)with funds raised from private donors.

However, these wins are merely steps in a much longer journey to get the best protection possible for this ecologically unique Cascade-Siskiyou connection area. 4000 acres of inholdings have been bought out, and there are plans to buy about 6000 acres of former Boise-Cascade private timberland using Land and Water Conservation Funds. Continuous pressure must be applied to get management activities to be consistent with the purposes of the Act that created the Monument. The culture of the BLM is not protective. In the past, Monuments were put into the National Park Service. Now, there is an effort to carve out from tjhe BLM lands a National Landscape Conservation System. It remains to be seen whether the present Administration will issue Orders that implement this System. The Medford District has not retired as many grazing leases as it should, and it has not closed as many roads as it should. Some groups are ready to sue. Stay tuned.

submitted by Sydney Herbert

Susan Saul Honored by Mazamas
Dec 2009

November 21st, 2009 was a special day for one of our Trails Club members. This member, also active in other outdoor clubs, was recognized and justly honored by receiving the Richard Montague Conservation Award by the Mazamas.

Among her significant efforts were to establish and co-sign the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, expand two wilderness areas and create four new ones during the Washington Wilderness Act of 1984, to found the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, lead the Washington Trails Association Advocacy program, champion Protection of the Dark Divide Roadless Area and stop the construction of a cross-monument highway.

Your accomplishments are most remarkable for they represent a dedication and focus seldom seen.
Thank you Susan Saul.

A Big Thank You to Our Club President
Nov 2009

Any successful organization that relies on volunteers always needs people willing to give of their time and talents. We have been most fortunate to have Susan Saul as our president, as she has brought leadership skills, dedication and insight to our club.

The Conservation Committee has been most pleased that Susan is conservation minded and she has been active in this work since about 1977. She was a prime mover and co-signer of the legislative bill that created Mt. St. Helens National Monument and she continues to be a force in protecting that area so it can remain in its natural state.

We thank you Susan for your continued support in conservation issues.

Submitted by Conservation Chair

CONSERVATION ALERT - LNG Terminal

Developers have unsuccessfully tried to construct liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on the California Coast for the importation of this highly flammable gas. Now Oregon is targeted for three LNG terminals for the off-loading from tankers. Two terminals would be located near Astoria and one near Coos Bay/North Bend.

Since the primary users reside in California and Nevada, pipelines need to be constructed to transport this gas to market. This would require a minimum 50-foot wide corridor for construction and maintenance and would cross rivers, go through national forests, go over the Pacific Crest Trail and over private property, with private property being claimed through the eminent domain process.

Currently the proposals are in various stages of federal and state permitting processes for the terminals. Ultimately it will be the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to accept or deny construction of the terminals and connector pipelines. It is estimated nearly one thousand miles of gas pipelines would crisscross the state of Oregon.

FWOC ANNUAL CONFERENCE (August 2009)

The host outdoor member club, The Hobnailers, provided a pleasant environment and a busy agenda for the 2009 conference attendees.

In reflection, this writer recalls three presentations as being particularly informative and interesting. They were the Columbia River Watershed History, The Conservation History of Mt. St. Helens by our club president Susan Saul, and the Power Point presentation by the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.

Sunday morning was a busy time as the club representatives reviewed, discussed and finalized the thirty plus resolutions submitted by FWOC members. Our Trails Club Conservation Committee has since looked at the resolutions and has singled out the Molalla River Wild and Scenic Designation for our immediate support which will include an on-the-ground visit.

Forest Park Conservancy - 2009 All Trails Challenge

Ever thought about hiking every mile of trail in Forest Park? How about doing that and being eligible to win some great prizes. The Forest Park Conservancy has launched the 2009 All Trails Challenge. The All-Trails Challenge (ATC) is an outreach by the Forest Park Conservancy to encourage walkers and runners to cover 70+ miles and more than 11,000 feet cumulative elevation gain of selected trails and roads in Forest Park by December 31st. For more information go to www.forestparkconservancy.org or contact them by phone 503.223.5449. Note: The Trails Club of Oregon is a member of the Forest Park Conservancy!

NEW WILDERNESS FOR MOUNT HOOD & GORGE

President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act on March 30, 2009, marking the final step for expanded wilderness protection in Oregon. The legislation expands the Mount Hood and Mark O. Hatfield Wildernesses, creates new wilderness for Copper Salmon, Soda Mountain, Spring Basin and Badlands and designates National Recreation Areas and additional Wild and Scenic Rivers.

In addition to permanently protecting wildlands where we hike and backpack from logging and road building, the legislation has some specific effects for the Trails Club.

At Nesika, the Larch Mountain addition to the Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness means that all land on the right (east) side of the Multnomah Basin road from the brown gate to the end of the road, on the right (east) side of the tractor trail from the end of the road to the Trails Club property boundary, and on the east side of the Trails Club property is now Wilderness.

At Tyee, the land exchange with Cooper Spur means that we eventually might have some new neighbors to the west of West Leg Road. The legislation calls for new appraisals of the areas involved in the land exchange and should be completed in the next 1.5 years. One of the Government Camp tracts designated for exchange is just west of the Summit Ski Area and above the area that currently has houses. Portions of the Alpine, Crosstown and Glade ski trails go through the tracts identified for exchange.

Some 240 miles of trails are now protected in the newly designated areas, including the National Recreation Areas. Forest Service wilderness regulations mean that group size will be limited to 12 on many trails often used by the Trails Club. Trip leaders will need to find out whether wilderness regulations apply to the trail they are using. Guide books will be out of date until new editions are published. We'll get the database on the TCO website updated as soon as the information is available.

To see detailed maps of the new Wilderness lands, visit the Oregon Wild website at http://www.oregonwild.org/wilderness/mount_hood_wilderness_campaign/lewis-and-clark-mount-hood-wilderness-maps

Conservation Issues July 2009

Among the several projects either under construction or planned that the Trails Club Conservation Committee believes need monitoring because of their impact on our environment are:

The proposed Warm Springs Casino at Cascade Locks. This is of the utmost concern because the Director of the Dept. of the Interior will soon be making the decision to approve or deny the siting of this casino in the Columbia Gorge. It is estimated the casino would draw 8,200 visitors per day or about three million per year. This mega-casino will cause increased air pollution, harm to fish, wildlife and water quality. Scenic impacts with profuse lighting and immense parking lots, urban expansion into the National Scenic Area and a dangerous precedent will be set.

This casino if built would cause irreversible damage to our stunning landscape and natural resources now protected in the Scenic Area and we as individuals can inform the Director of the Interior of our concerns by writing or E-Mailing him. This procedure works!

Other concerns to be addressed in upcoming Blazers include the proposed LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) pipeline that would begin at a docking facility near Astoria to the vicinity of Mist where there would be a huge storage deposit and continue through western Oregon eventually to another storage area in central California for the sole purpose of Californians. Damage to the environment for the construction of roads and maintenance would be forever an eyesore and impossible to restore to its natural state. Another concern is the massive construction of windpower projects with inadequate guidelines to protect the birds.

TCO JOINS ANTI-CASINO COALITION

On the recommendation of the Conservation Committee, the board voted to join a coalition of organizations opposing the proposal to construct an off-reservation casino in the Columbia River Gorge. Like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone, the Columbia River Gorge is a federally protected iconic landscape. Development of a 600,000-square-foot casino resort and associated parking lots and retail structures in the heart of the Gorge and within one-half mile of a wilderness boundary would significantly harm the natural environment and resources.