Sometime in the future, be it 10 or 50 or 100 years from now, our descendants will travel east from Vancouver and take in the wondrous scenery of the Columbia River Gorge. And they will be thankful.
Thankful that a slice of nature that helps define the Pacific Northwest has been preserved. Thankful that their ancestors saw fit to ensure that preservation. Thankful that growth and sprawl have not been allowed to sully the scenery.
Each of those benefits can be traced to the creation of the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area Act. Forged out of a compromise by the federal government in 1986 and signed into law by President Reagan, the act is in its 25th year, marking a quarter-century of a grand experiment in land-use laws.
The act drew a boundary around an 83-mile-long swath of the Gorge encompassing 292,630 acres, reaching from Washougal to Wishram on the Washington side and from Troutdale to the Deschutes River in Oregon. It established a bistate commission to oversee the preservation of the land, and provided federal funds to spur compatible economic development in 13 towns and cities on both sides of the river.
Not that the plan was greeted with cheers from all quarters. According to a recent story in The Columbian by reporter Kathie Durbin, the flag at the Skamania County courthouse was lowered to half-staff to mark the act’s signing.
That reflects the difficulty that comes with any attempt to balance environmental protection with economic development. The two concerns are not diametrically opposed, but they often are difficult to reconcile. As anybody who has followed decades of debate in this region over protecting salmon or preserving habitat for the spotted owl can attest, environmental concerns often are addressed at great economic expense.
The Columbia Gorge Scenic Area created a toll that has been paid by the communities within its boundaries. Cascade Locks, Ore., for example, has struggled to attract business to the area, suffering such a severe population decline that the town’s high school closed in recent years.
While we recognize the economic hardships suffered by people within the Scenic Area, we feel that the benefits have outweighed the costs. And we hope that future governments continue to understand those benefits.
For nearly a decade now, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have sought to build a large casino at Cascade Locks. When John Kitzhaber returned to office last year as Oregon’s governor, his consistent opposition to off-reservation casinos led the Warm Springs tribes to begin building a casino on their Central Oregon reservation rather than pressing for the Cascade Locks site.
All of this might come as an afterthought to the residents of Clark County. Yet it reflects the importance of preserving the scenic area — for all residents of the Northwest and visitors to the area. While Cascade Locks might be in Oregon, the presence of a vast casino there would diminish the experience of residents on this side of the river.
As author Washington Irving once said, “There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations.”
And the Columbia River Gorge is majestic.
With growing populations and expanding sprawl, pressure will mount in coming years for the act to be scaled back, for a little growth to be allowed here and a little more to be allowed there. And when that pressure mounts, we hope that leaders will pay heed to the Tragedy of the Commons and not allow little nibbles to lead to the degradation of the area.
Their descendants will thank them for it.
