Bridging a Great Divide: The Battle for the Columbia River Gorge

Foreword

vii Foreword I have just returned from a hike in the Columbia Gorge and it reminded me how much we owe Kathie Durbin for giving us the story of how this magical place was preserved—and how the battle to keep it continues. Wildflower blossoms glistened through raindrops; I didn’t know the flowers’ names but Kathie would have. Giant moss-covered evergreen trunks towered into the low-hanging clouds and their branches diverted the worst of the rain. Kathie would have reveled in this slosh through the woods. For Kathie journalism wasn’t just a job; it was a passion. She was dogged in pursuit of a story, thorough in gathering facts, accurate in reporting, and fiercely competitive. Her intensity about the things she cared about sometimes turned people away. Others relished her sly sense of humor that skewered the self-important—and sometimes herself. She stepped on some extremely large toes, but even public officials who endured her interrogations respected her integrity. She was more than a top-notch reporter, however ; she was a devoted mother to daughters Audrey, Brenda, and Stefanie, an avid hiker, a poet, a cook, a friend, and an excellent companion on the trail or at a party. After she earned her journalism degree from the University of Oregon in 1975, Kathie stepped into a world where pockets remained of the longstanding prejudice against women reporting general news. She chose to ignore that obstacle and pursue her dream—covering news. She took on every topic she was assigned, always trying to bring readers stories that touched them in some way. She followed her passion for reporting to the Eugene Register-Guard, then to Willamette Week in Portland, the Portland Oregonian and finally the Vancouver, Washington, Columbian. At the Oregonian she was assigned to the county courthouse beat and then to education, covering each in turn with enthusiasm. However, it was in her assignment to cover the environment in 1989 that she found her true calling. Jim Britell of the Kalmiopsis viii FOREWORD Audubon Society called the six-part Oregonian series, “Forests in Distress,” that Kathie and Paul Koberstein co-wrote in September 1990 “probably the turning point in the long battle over the fate of our forests.” That battle over logging old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest— a fight that came to be called the “spotted owl wars”—brought Kathie a national reputation. She even won rare respect from the often insular Washington press corps, whose members tend to disdain reporters from the hinterlands. The forest conflict spilled into Congress and the administration of George H. W. Bush and the Capitol reporters recognized that Kathie’s coverage was thorough, accurate, and fair. They read her work to learn where they should look for their next story. After Kathie left the Oregonian in 1994, she and Koberstein co-founded and co-edited Cascadia Times. She also chronicled the lengthy forest battle in a fine book, Tree Huggers: Victory, Defeat and Renewal in the Northwest Ancient Forest Campaign, published in 1996. That book remains the definitive history of the struggle over management of Northwest forests. She continued writing about environmental issues for High Country News, National Wildlife, Amicus Journal, Audubon magazine, Defenders of Wildlife and the Seattle Weekly. The Tongass National Forest caught her attention and she produced another fine book, Tongass: Pulp Politics and the Fight for the Alaska Rain Forest, in 1999. At times Kathie might have found life easier had she been willing to confine her work to less controversial issues. Instead, she continued to find ways to do the work she seemed meant to do. When the Columbian assigned her to cover the Columbia River Gorge she found another subject that engaged her. She reported the removal of the Condit Dam from the White Salmon River and squabbles over land use decisions. As she neared retirement she began to think that the history of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act and its effects would make an interesting book. She was right. Freed from daily journalism in 2011, she sought out the people who had created the act and the people who implemented it and the people who fought against it. As she was completing the interviews and beginning the writing she was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. It was ironic—as she herself noted ruefully—that now that she had retired and could devote all her time to a project she really cared about she was forced to race...