threat to watershed = PWBs land swap deal this week

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Stephanie Stewart and Mike St Clair

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Feb 8, 2010, 7:01:54 PM2/8/10

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Hello –

We often hear the City Council assure us that logging and development could never happen in the Bull Run watershed because the land is Federally managed and therefore Federally protected. This week Portland Water Bureau brings to council a land-swap proposal involving land in our watershed. This swap will remove some of our watershed lands out from underneath significant Federal protections.

Oregon Wild has reviewed this proposal and finds a serious flaw with it; read their alert below. Your action is requested. Please write or call Council by end of business day Tuesday.

Stephanie Stewart

MTNA Land Use Co-chair

stewart...@gmail.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Oregon Wild <newsl...@oregonwild.org>
Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 11:53 AM

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Dear Citizens,

We need your immediate help. The Portland City Council is poised to vote on two critical Bull Run issues on Wednesday, February 10th.

Contact information for City Council

Amanda Fritz
503.823.3008
ama...@ci.portland.or.us

Nick Fish
503.823.3589
ni...@ci.portland.or.us

Dan Saltzman
503.823.4151
d...@ci.portland.or.us

Sam Adams
503.823.4120
sama...@ci.portland.or.us

Randy Leonard
503.823.4682
ra...@ci.portland.or.us

The City of Portland's Water Bureau and the US Forest Service want to exchange lands in the Bull Run Watershed. The upside? This could increase efficiencies and costs (the City would not have to apply or pay for permits now required by the USFS when working in the Bull Run.) The downside? Federal lands have far more protections that City lands, including the application of landmark environmental laws like the ESA and NEPA.

Oregon Wild has worked with other stakeholders and the Water Bureau on a proposed protection code for City lands. It has some strong points, including protective restrictions on human entry and a general prohibition on cutting of trees (provisions similar to those in the unique federal law that applies to the Bull Run). But the proposal still falls short in one key area.

It lacks a timely notification system and sufficient protections for citizen involvement. The public must have the opportunity to engage should the code be violated, or if a future City Council and/or Water Bureau decide to log City land or if they decide to engage in other activities that could harm the Bull Run. If public federal lands are to be traded to the City, we should not take a step backwards in the protection and public oversight of these important lands.

We can do better!

There should be NO land exchange until the City's own protection code includes a timely public notification process and, at the very least, a hearing process for dealing with controversial proposals like tree cutting.

But Commissioner Randy Leonard (who oversees the Water Bureau) insisted this week that the proposed code will not be changed.

Please call or e-mail all of the City Commissioners and ask them to 1) delay the vote scheduled for next Wednesday and 2) make improvements in the proposed protection code.

If the vote proceeds as scheduled on Wednesday unchanged, please ask Commissioners to vote NO on both items: NO on the proposed protection code and NO on the Agreement to Initiate the land exchange with the US Forest Service.

For the Bull Run,
Regna Merritt
Executive Director
Oregon Wild

PS: Thanks to citizens like you, we've already stood up for the Bull Run this past year and kept our world-renowned water from being chemically treated. Call or e-mail the City Commissioners to keep the momentum going and ensure that our clean drinking water stays pure and protected.

Thanks for taking action to protect and restore the wildlands, wildlife, and waters of Oregon. Salmon, old-growth forests, and pristine rivers don't have a voice. But you do.