Wilderness Update (2)
by… Robbin Schindele
After a tumultuous 2020, the Wilderness Committee is looking forward to getting back to in-person activities without fearing for our health and well-being as more and more of our friends, neighbors, and families get vaccinated. But until that happens we’ll be working under the governor’s social distancing restrictions and continue to communicate with you through online activities and written communication.
Tony Cannon is the new Wilderness Committee chair replacing Diana Pace who has done an excellent job for the past 2 years. She’s continuing as a Wilderness member and will still be doing many of the activities we have relied on her to do over the years. I want to give a huge shout-out to Diana for everything she does, the committee couldn’t do without her help and constant support.
Tony has been a stalwart member since joining the committee in 2019 and brings a broad range of experience and knowledge to the table, as well as enthusiasm and a commitment to the cause. He is an ardent environmental explorer searching off the beaten path to find beautiful and unique places in our forests. You can see great photos and videos of his expirations on his website: www.wildumpqua.com. Please tell Tony thanks for taking on the job.
The Wilderness Committee has some early plans for 2021. At 6:00 PM on Monday, March 29, Tony and I will hold an online presentation called “Exploring Wilderness Using LIDAR Imaging.” LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. These light pulses—combined with other data recorded by its airborne system — generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics.
The presentation focuses on how to use available online resources to learn more about Oregon’s wild places than is available from other mapping resources. The event will also feature real-time interaction with the audience. Please join us for this interesting event. You can register for the event on Umpqua Watersheds website: www.umpquawatersheds.org.
The committee also will be extensively promoting the Crater Lake Wilderness Proposal through a series of short (5 min) videos on social media sites suc
h as Facebook, Vimeo, and Instagram. The videos are meant to inform a wide audience about the proposal and the benefit of protecting the precious resources within the proposed area.
We hope to address the issues that make protection important to Oregonians and the world. We’ll address issues such as wildfires in wilderness, regrowth after wildfires, wilderness effects on water quality, the human dependence on water from wilderness, the effects of salvage logging, biodiversity in mature forests, everything in a forest is the forest, wilderness effects on human mental health, and the importance wilderness has in carbon sequestration and helping to abate global warming. We’re also planning to restart our grassroots postcard campaign and to restart our public hikes during the summer months.
It was 3 years ago this month that we erected our signs promoting support for the proposal along Hwy. 138 in Glide. I am happy to say they are still there and still looking great. They have endured in good shape longer than I thought they might. If you support the campaign and have a piece of ground along a busy road we’d be glad to create and erect a sign on your property. The committee will pay for the sign and erect it at no charge to you. If you’re interested contact: robbin@umpquawatersheds.org or diana@umpquawatersheds.org. Or call the office at 541.672.7065.
Another way you can help, if you are a business owner, is to show your support by becoming a business endorser. There’s no cost and it will help a great deal with our federal legislators. We have strong grassroots support in Douglas County but the legislators want to know we have local business support as well.
