Enviros Fight To Be Heard At Hells Canyon Hearing

The flow isn’t all downstream for an freshman Congressman who tried to shut environmentalists out of an upcoming hearing over the use of jet boats in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday before a House natural resources subcommittee on a bill to block the U.S. Forest Service from imposing limits on jet boats in a remote section of the rugged canyon bordering Idaho and Oregon. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Wes Cooley, R-Ore.

Initially, no environmentalists were scheduled to testify, not even the Hells Canyon Preservation Council (HCPC), the largest environmental group in Eastern Oregon.

Staffers said Cooley followed standard procedure for hearings and shouldn’t be expected to provide a forum for vocal critics of his bill.

“If they can’t find a member of Congress to listen to their point of view,… maybe that’s a signal that their view is a minority one,” said Cooley aide Brian McDonald.”

Environmentalists persevered, and committee Democrats recently made way for at least three representatives of the council and the rafting outfitters industry to testify.

“There is a little bit of justice left,” said. Rick Bailey, HCPC executive director. “We were able to get both sides of the story on the hearing schedule, but we had to fight for it.”

Activists on several fronts say the latest snub by Cooley fits a pattern.

Cooley didn’t consult the tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation last fall before offering a bill authorizing farmers to divert water from the Umatilla River for irrigation.

Government experts say the diversion has jeopardized salmon runs critical to the tribes’ economy.

Also, a congressional task force headed by Cooley was looking into the logging of salvage timber in the Northwest. Environmentalists said they were treated with such contempt at a September hearing that they refused to testify at a hearing in November.

They say access to the political process has grown worse under Cooley, who replaced Republican Bob Smith in 1994. They blame the change partly on the GOP takeover of Congress and partly on Cooley’s personality.

The battle over jet boats in Hells Canyon began more than a decade ago, when Congress declared that section of the Snake River to be a “wild and scenic river” and ordered the Forest Service to protect its scenic, recreational and environmental values. The agency’s proposal would ban jet boats along the wildest 21-mile stretch of the river for 24 days spread out over the summer. The plan seeks to give rafters some peace for a fraction of the summer.

The plan would take effect in summer of 1997 if Cooley’s bill does not become law. A companion bill has been offered in the Senate by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

“Frankly, Wes Cooley has become the best enemy we could ask for because he’s under extreme fire in Oregon,” Bailey said. A newspaper in Bend, Ore., has called for Cooley’s ouster. Others have accused of misrepresenting his military and college backgrounds and threatening a reporter.

, DataTimes