Top Line: Oregon’s senior senator is poised to leave a legacy of national recreation areas. Just how many and how good that legacy will be is up to him.
Figure 1. A lone hiker (well, save for the photographer) in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Source: Forest Service.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) strongly believes in the outdoor recreation economy. He currently has two bills before Congress related to outdoor recreation—one that would, among other things, establish a National Recreation Area System (NRAS) and one that would establish two new “national” recreation areas in Oregon. He is likely to soon introduce a bill expanding one of Oregon’s three existing national recreation areas.
The big question is how much of a legacy he will leave with his Recreation Not Red Tape Act (S.1874; 117th Congress), which the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recently held a hearing on. Here are the opening lines of the bill:
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) outdoor recreation and the outdoor industry that outdoor recreation supports are vital to the United States;
(2) access to outdoor recreation on Federal recreational lands and waters is important to the health and wellness of all people of the United States, especially families and young people;
(3) in addition to the overall economic benefit of outdoor recreation, the economic benefits of outdoor recreation on Federal recreational lands and waters creates significant economic and employment benefits to rural economies; . . .
Besides establishing an NRAS, the bill would, among other things, retool how the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management permit recreation outfitters and make it easier to buy recreation passes online. The current legislative language leaves a lot to be desired, as can be seen by comparing it to the language establishing existing and pending NRAs in Oregon.
Figure 2. The Snake River flowing through Hells Canyon. Source: Forest Service.
Oregon’s Three Existing National Recreation Areas
Oregon’s first national recreation area was established half a century ago this year. Its latest was created more than a decade ago in 2009.
• Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area (Figure 1), established in 1972, consists of 31,000 acres in two units on the Siuslaw National Forest in Lane, Douglas, and Coos Counties.
• Hells Canyon National Recreation Area (Figure 2), established in 1975, encompasses 498,888 acres (also ~150,000 acres in Idaho) on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in Wallowa and Baker Counties.
• Mount Hood National Recreation Area (Map 1 and Figure 3), established in 2009, includes 34,550 acres in three units on the Mount Hood National Forest in Wasco and Hood River Counties.
Map 1. The existing Mount Hood National Recreation Area in three units. It is expected that forthcoming legislation would add Mount Hood itself (whitish circle north by northwest of largest unit) and much more. Source: WyEast Blog.
Senator Bob Packwood (R-OR) was instrumental in the establishment of both the Oregon Dunes and Hells Canyon NRAs. Senator Wyden and Representative Earl Blumenauer were instrumental in establishing the Mount Hood NRA. Senator Wyden and Representative Blumenauer are also likely to soon introduce legislation that would dramatically expand the existing Mount Hood NRA. Indications are that the purposes clause will provide good conservation protections.
Figure 3. We can hope that soon, the Mount Hood National Recreation Area will be much enlarged. Source: WyEast Blog.
Two New National Recreation Areas Pending
Senator Wyden’s Oregon Recreation Enhancement Act (S.1589; 117th Congress) would, among other things, establish the nation’s first two “national” recreation areas on BLM lands:
• Rogue Canyon National Recreation Area (Figure 4), consisting of 98,150 acres in Josephine and Curry Counties, administered by the Medford District of the BLM, and
• Molalla National Recreation Area (Figure 5), consisting of 29,984 acres in Clackamas County, administered by the Northwest Oregon District of the BLM.
The strikethroughs reflect the fact that although the Senate and its Committee on Energy and Natural Resources are controlled by Democrats, the committee nonetheless reported out a Republican-approved version of the bill. When the bill was first marked up and reported out of committee, a Republican staffer really didn’t want there to be any NRAs on BLM lands, so they were downgraded to mere “recreation areas” (RAs).
But the staffer forgot to strike national everywhere in the bill. The first sentence summary in the bill that was reported out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on November 17, 2021, still uses the word national:
To designate certain land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service in the State of Oregon as wilderness and national recreation areas.
The legislative language establishing the Rogue Canyon and Molalla NRAs will afford a decent degree of conservation protection to the areas. All uses in the area must be consistent with this good list of purposes: “protecting, conserving, and enhancing the unique and nationally important recreational, ecological, scenic, cultural, watershed, and fish and wildlife values” of the areas.
Figure 4. The Rogue River National Recreation Trail within the Rogue Wild and Scenic River. Legislation is pending to protect the entire Rogue River Canyon as an expansion of the Wild Rogue Wilderness or a new Rogue Canyon “National” Recreation Area. Source: Bureau of Land Management.
Future National Recreation Areas
Not all of Senator Wyden’s efforts on behalf of national recreation areas are adequate. As introduced with cosponsor Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) but not yet reported out of committee to the Senate floor, the senator’s bill to establish a National Recreation Area System (the Recreation Not Red Tape Act, S.1874; 117th Congress) has legislative language that falls far short of legacy worthy. As now drafted, the language would change the color on the map for new NRAs but hardly the management on the ground.
To establish future NRAs that would benefit this and future generations of Oregonians and all Americans, an “organic act” for the NRAS must, at a minimum, include the following:
· a strong set of purposes that clearly call out the extraordinary natural, scenic, and/or cultural values that make the area worthy of being an NRA
· a compatibility requirement that ensures that overrecreation does not overrun the special values for which the NRA was established
· a comprehensive federal mineral withdrawal that prevents any kind of mineral exploitation
· a provision that facilitates the acquisition of nonfederal inholdings from willing sellers or donors
· an explicit federally reserved water right
· a voluntary relinquishment opportunity for the equitable ending of livestock grazing in the NRA
As Table 1 indicates, the bill as introduced falls short in all of these areas compared to the language establishing the other existing and pending NRAs in Oregon.
I supported Senator Wyden’s original NRAS language when it was introduced in 2016. I withdrew my support when he introduced his current NRAS language in 2019, which has carried over to the present. An identical version has been introduced by Representative Blake Moore (R-1st-UT) in the House of Representatives. One of its cosponsors is Representative Don Young (R-AK), who has a 9 percent lifetime rating from the national League of Conservation Voters. Over the decades I have foundthat if Don Young is for something, I’m likely against it.
Figure 5. The Molalla River in the proposed Molalla “National” Recreation Area. Source: Oregon Wild.
Recommendations
I have previously argued that national recreation areas (with strong conservation protections, of course) should be the new equivalent of ranger districts—which are so twentieth century—in the twenty-first century.
Below are my suggestions to improve Senator Wyden’s two NRA bills.
Oregon Recreation Enhancement Act
Reinsert National in the names of the pending Rogue Canyon and Molalla Recreation Areas. Establishing mere “recreation areas” on BLM lands when the areas are undoubtedly of national importance sends a wrong message from Congress to the BLM and the public: BLM lands are second-class public lands. They are not.
Recreation Not Red Tape Act
1. Insert a provision that would require that at least two national recreation trails (NRTs) be established on each national forest ranger district or BLM resource area. The NRTs would become part of the National Trails System (think Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail).
2. As is being contemplated in the forthcoming Mount Hood National Recreation Area expansion legislation for the Mount Hood National Forest portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, include language that would establish a protective corridor along all national scenic trails.
3. Either improve or scrap Section 304, which would establish a National Recreation Area System. Improvements needed include
• a strong set of conservation purposes,
• a strong compatibilityrequirement,
• comprehensive mineral withdrawal,
• an easy way to acquire nonfederal inholdings from willing sellers,
• an explicit federally reserved water right, and
• a voluntary grazing permit retirement provision.
If it is not possible to make these improvements, the senator’s National Recreation Area System legislation should not become law. Better to go after additional one-off NRAs than establish an NRA framework that makes matters worse.
For More Information
Other Public Lands Blog posts:
• Dancing on the Dark Side: Wyden Guts His Own National Recreation Area System Bill (September 15, 2017)
• A National System of National Recreation Areas (August 26, 2016)
• Preremembering Bob Packwood, Oregon Conservationist (January 13, 2017)
Kerr, Andy. 2015. 21st-Century National Recreation Areas for Oregon’s National Forests and BLM Public Lands. Larch Occasional Paper #20.4. The Larch Company, Ashland, OR, and Washington, DC.
Bottom Line: 2022 could be a great, a mixed, or a horrible year for national recreation areas, depending on Senator Wyden’s efforts.