S.Amdt. 6415

This amendment, proposed by Mr. Wyden and Mr. Merkley, aims to add a section titled Oregon Recreation Enhancement to bill S. 4784. Its purpose is to protect and enhance the ecological, scenic, cultural, and recreational values of specific lands in Oregon.

The amendment proposes the following changes and additions:

• Designation of Recreation Areas: It establishes the Rogue Canyon Recreation Area (approximately 98,150 acres) and the Molalla Recreation Area (approximately 29,884 acres) as managed recreation areas.

• Wildfire Management: It requires the Secretary to conduct a wildfire risk assessment and develop a wildfire mitigation plan. This plan must include vegetation management, evacuation routes for nearby communities, and strategies to share those routes with the public.

• Land Protections and Restrictions:

  • It generally prohibits the construction of new permanent or temporary roads in the recreation areas, unless necessary for public safety or to implement the wildfire mitigation plan.
  • It withdraws Federal surface and subsurface land within these recreation areas from mining, mineral leasing, and geothermal leasing.

• Wilderness Expansion: It adds approximately 59,512 acres of Federal land to the Wild Rogue Wilderness. These additions are also withdrawn from mining and mineral leasing.

• Additional Land Withdrawals: It withdraws "eligible Federal land" in Curry and Josephine Counties (specifically areas in the Hunter Creek and Pistol River Headwaters and Rough and Ready and Baldface Creeks proposals) from public land entry, mining laws, and mineral or geothermal leasing.