[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 22654]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                HIGH STEENS AREA OF SOUTHEASTERN OREGON

  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Mr. President, I will not speak but a minute, 
along with my colleague, Senator Wyden. He and I come to the floor to 
celebrate what Senator Craig will do later this evening by unanimous 
consent, and that is passage of H.R. 4828. It has to do with the high 
Steens area of southeastern Oregon. It is a beautiful and pristine 
area.
  What we have done is truly bipartisan and truly historic in that the 
Sierra Club and the Oregon Cattlemen's Association enthusiastically 
support it. They support it because this has been a product of dialog 
and not Executive dictate. This has come about because people of good 
will have said: How can we protect the environment and protect the 
people as well? We have accomplished that in this bill. We are creating 
170,000 acres of wilderness and providing other places for people to 
pursue their ranching lifestyles, and we are preserving the economy of 
Harney County.
  I thank all of my colleagues--my colleague in the Senate, Senator 
Wyden; Congressman Walden; all of the Oregon Congressmen, Republicans 
and Democrats alike; and the Governor of Oregon as well; and Secretary 
Bruce Babbitt who worked with us in good faith to make this possible. I 
thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, my friend and colleague, Senator Smith, has 
said it extremely well, and I know our colleague Senator Reed is 
waiting to speak, so I, too, will be very brief.
  My view is that this Steens legislation is a monumental wilderness 
triumph. This legislation creates for the first time in statute cow-
free wilderness. In the past, wilderness designations allowed the 
continuation of historic grazing practices, but because the ranchers in 
the Steens recognize the delicate nature of this ecosystem and because 
they were willing to work with Democrats and Republicans in our 
congressional delegation, Congressman Greg Walden, Congressman Peter 
DeFazio, and so many of our colleagues, we were able to build a 
coalition for a truly historic approach to protecting our wilderness.
  We were able to find acceptable alternative grazing sites. Almost 
100,000 acres of the total wilderness designation is now going to be by 
law cow free. In my view, this is just an example, a precedent of how 
communities can work together to protect our treasures.
  All across this country when there are debates about national 
monuments, the sides go into opposing and what amounts to warring 
camps, the decibel level gets very high, and there is an awful lot of 
finger pointing and accusations.
  In Oregon, we did it differently. We came up with an Oregon solution. 
Like Senator Smith, I am very proud of what we have been able to 
achieve. This is a model that our delegation is going to use to tackle 
other critical natural resource questions and, frankly, we are 
especially proud tonight because we think that with our Steens bill, we 
set a model for other communities across this country.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

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