Senate panel backs Oregon, Idaho deals

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee Wednesday endorsed an Idaho land swap and a plan to create federal wilderness protection for nearly 14,000 acres of national forest land along Oregon's southern coast.

The Copper Salmon Wilderness, proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., will be included a huge public lands bill to be debated by the Senate. The measure was among 42 separate bills approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Seventeen bills -- including the Oregon measure and the Idaho land exchange -- will be combined in a measure that includes about 60 individual land bills, Senate aides said Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring the bill to the Senate floor soon.

Wyden said he was pleased at the committee's unanimous vote and noted that Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., is a co-sponsor. The bill would protect 13,700 acres of coastal forest and salmon streams at the headwaters of the Elk River near Port Orford, Ore.

The proposed wilderness is part of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and is considered one of the best habitats on the West Coast for chinook salmon, winter steelhead, coho salmon, cutthroat trout and rainbow trout.

Copper Salmon also supports healthy populations of blacktail deer, elk, black bears and mountain lions, and it provides opportunities to hunt in freedom and solitude, Wyden said.

The Idaho measure would trade about 10 acres in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness for a similar total at the Diamond D Ranch north of Stanley. The exchange would result in no net-loss of designated wilderness.

"Everybody wins in this situation," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the bill's sponsor.

The Diamond D Ranch would stop paying fees to use land it has been working since before wilderness was designated, and the Forest Service would save taxpayer money and valuable time spent completing paperwork, he said.

Wyden said later he would seek to bring to the Senate floor separate legislation expanding wilderness area around Mount Hood by about 125,000 acres.