Forest Service backs wilderness protection for Coast Range old growth forest

Forest Service backs Devil’s Staircase Wilderness

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The U.S. Forest Service has endorsed designation of a new wilderness area in an area of Oregon’s Coast Range known for a remote waterfall called the Devil’s Staircase.

Deputy Chief Joel Haltrop appeared Thursday before a congressional subcommittee in Washington, D.C., in support of the bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

It would create the Devil’s Staircase Wilderness on 30,000 acres of federal land east of Reedsport, and designate Wasson and Franklin creeks as wild rivers.

Conservation groups say the rugged area encompasses the best old growth forest and most dense concentration of northern spotted owls in Oregon’s Coast Range. There is no trail to the falls, which are formed by a series of sandstone slabs.