Group names Oregon's Rogue River to threatened river list
Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:30 PM PDT
By Jeff BarnardThe Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleGRANTS PASS, Ore. — A conservation group Thursday named the Rogue River to its annual list of the most threatened rivers in the nation.
American Rivers said logging and road building planned in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Kelsey-Whisky logging project will harm water quality and salmon habitat in the Rogue, and put it No. 2 on the list.
The Rogue is the most popular wilderness whitewater run in Oregon and one of the first eight in the country to be protected by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
“Logging the Rogue River would be like tearing down the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument for their marble,” Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, said in a statement.
BLM spokesman Jim Whittington said the listing is unwarranted, because the nearest timber sale is more than a mile from the protected section of the Rogue, cannot be seen from the river, and may well be canceled depending on developments in protections for the northern spotted owl, a threatened species.
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., expressed outrage that BLM continues to try to log in the Rogue watershed, given the number of recreation businesses that depend on it.
He has introduced legislation that would include 142 miles of Rogue tributaries in the national wild and scenic river system, including Kelsey and Whisky creeks, which give the logging project its name.
A court-ordered U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review of whether the logging would jeopardize the survival of the northern spotted owl, known as a biological opinion, is pending, Whittington said. And the area including the Upper Kelsey timber sale could be designated critical habitat for the owl under the BLM’s plan to boost logging across Western Oregon.
He added that an independent review of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s draft recovery plan for the spotted owl, expected to be released next week, could result in a more critical look at all BLM timber sales.
The draft recovery plan would make increased logging on federal lands possible by reducing the importance of protecting old growth forests. But it flunked its initial peer review and has since undergone another independent review, which has yet to be released.
The country’s most endangered rivers, according to Washington-based advocacy group American Rivers:
1. Catawba-Wateree River (N.C., S.C.)
2. Rogue River (Ore.)
3. Cache la Poudre River (Colo.)
4. St. Lawrence River (N.Y., Canada)
5. Minnesota River (S.D., Minn.)
6. St. John River (Fla.)
7. Gila River (N.M., Ariz.)
8. Allagash Wilderness Waterway (Maine)
9. Pearl River (Miss., La.)
10. Niobrara River (Wyo, Neb.)
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