Oregonians know Ron as a senator who listens and innovates. For example, Ron has secured landmark health care and economic wins for our workers and retirees. Always citing the need to "throw open the doors of government for Oregonians," he holds an open-to-all town hall meeting in each of Oregon's 36 counties each year. Thus far he has held more than 970 meetings, as well as several virtual town hall meetings sponsored by the nonpartisan Town Hall Project. Wyden's dedication to hearing all sides of an issue and looking for common sense, nonpartisan solutions has won him trust on both sides of the aisle and put him at the heart of so many of the Senate's most important debates. In 2011, the Almanac of American Politics described Wyden as having "displayed a genius for coming up with sensible-sounding ideas no one else had thought of and making the counter-intuitive political alliances that prove helpful in passing bills." The Washington Post's Ezra Klein wrote: "The country has problems. And Ron Wyden has comprehensive, bipartisan proposals for fixing them."
Senator Wyden has made a career of seeking consensus among environmentalists and natural resource businesses, engendering a greater mutual respect for the environment. Wyden is a climate champion, working hard in the Senate to develop comprehensive solutions to tackle the climate crisis and protect our natural spaces for generations to come.
Wyden’s record has resulted in saving endangered species and Oregon’s special places. In Oregon, Wyden helped expand wilderness protections for Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, Copper Salmon, the Oregon Badlands, Spring Basin, and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The addition of 1,986 miles of Oregon rivers to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system means Oregon now has the most wild-and-scenic river designations in the continuous United States.
Senator Wyden has worked to protect pristine waters in southwestern Oregon from dangerous nickel mining, and to protect the livelihoods of ranchers in Eastern Oregon from hazardous uranium mining. Wyden has taken the lead in protecting old-growth forests and has advocated reform of federal government land management practices. He believes that extractive industries such as oil and coal should pay for all of the costs they impose on public lands and that American taxpayers should get a fair return on commonly held natural resources.
During his tenure, Senator Wyden has been a leader in supporting the collaborative process for land management in rural Oregon, from the collaborative sage grouse habitat conservation plans that prevented a listing of the Greater Sage Grouse to the establishment of a 10 Year Stewardship contract that saved one of the last sawmills in eastern Oregon. In 2019, after months of collaboration with local ranchers, environmental groups, local and state universities, Ron introduced legislation to provide Masher County several economic development opportunities by maintaining and improving rangeland to support local ranchers and protecting the Owyhee River Canyonlands and surrounding area for recreation and wildlife habitat.
In 2008 Senator Wyden won passage of the Combat Illegal Logging law that is having a real effect on the survival of endangered forests around the world by cutting off the market for illegal timber.