Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley cast his first vote in the U.S. Senate on Sunday in support of a bill that would protect public land around the country, including several sites in Oregon.
Merkley was one of 66 senators who voted in favor of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. The act, authored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, incorporates more than 180 separate bills and measures that seek to afford protection to wilderness areas, mainly in the West.
Merkley, the former Oregon House speaker, was the underdog in his race against former Republican Sen. Gordon Smith. Merkley edged out Smith by just over 3 percentage points, or 59,000 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Among the areas protected by the bill are 202,300 acres of land and more than 80 miles of rivers in Oregon, including Mount Hood, Oregon’s tallest mountain, and the Oregon Badlands near Bend.
“This will help us preserve our national treasures and protect our natural wilderness,” said Julie Edwards, a spokesperson for Merkley.
A final version of the bill could pass as early as this week. The protected areas will be designated as national wilderness, which will prohibit logging, development and the use of motorized vehicles within their boundaries. The nation currently contains over 100 million acres of national wilderness.
The other Oregon areas designated in the act are the Elk River in Southern Oregon, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument near Medford, and the Spring Basin, also near Bend.
Many of the bills languished in the Senate for several years, but had not been voted upon because of threats of a filibuster from Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma.
Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon’s senior senator, authored seven bills in the package: the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act of 2007, The Copper Salmon Wilderness Act, the Oregon Badlands Wilderness Act of 2008, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Voluntary and Equitable Grazing Conflict Resolution Act, the Spring Basin Wilderness Act of 2008, the Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act of 2008 and the Watershed Restoration and Enhancement Agreements Act of 2007.
November elections increased the Democratic majority in the Senate to at least 58 senators, giving them enough votes to prevent Coburn from blocking the bill.
Coburn expressed concern that the bill would frustrate oil exploration on the designated lands and eat up government funding.
Edwards said Merkley would now focus on creating jobs and finding ways to help cure the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.
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