House Poised To Protect Washington's Olympic Wilderness, Rivers
Washington would get 126,544 acres of new protected wilderness on the Olympic Peninsula, and see portions of 19 rivers and tributaries become part of the National Wild and Scenic River System, under legislation poised to pass the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The legislation, crafted by U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., has generated much support -- and little shouting.
A few "No Wild Olympics" signs have popped up along the south shore of Lake Quinault. But the legislation comes with endorsements from 550 Peninsula businesses (prominently Taylor Shellfish), four major Indian tribes, plus former mayors of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, and mayors of Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Ocean Shores and Elma.
The new wilderness lands are found in Olympic National Forest, which circles around Olympic National Park like a donut. Especially popular among lovers of the Olympics, protection of ridges above Lake Quinault.
Wild Olympics is part of a 1.37 million acre wilderness bill that includes mountains of Colorado and lands in northern and central California. A possible roadblock to getting President Trump's signature is addition of 191,000 acres to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area above Los Angeles. Its sponsor is Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chief impeachment manager at Trump's recent trial.
Gone are days, 40-50 years ago, when lines of logging trucks showed up to protest creation of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and North Cascades National Park.
Kilmer embarked on a copious consultation process around the Peninsula following his election to Congress in 2012. A previous version of Wild Olympics had been introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and predecessor Rep. Norm Dicks.
"As someone who grew up in Port Angeles, I've always said that we don't have to choose between economic growth and protecting our environment -- We can do both," Kilmer said last year, as he and Murray reintroduced Wild Olympics.
He described the legislation as a "practical, balanced strategy that will protect the wildenst and most pristine places on the Peninsula while ensuring we can keep and grow jobs in our natural resource industries."
The Olympic Peninsula has become an increasingly recreation draw, nationally and regionally. Roy Nott, a former timber industry CEO, wrote last year in the (Aberdeen) Daily World: "Protected public lands in the wilderness create comparative economic advantages for rural communities."
During years when Republicans controlled Congress' lower chamber, wilderness bills went to the House Natural Resources Committee to die. The chief executioner, for several years, was the panel's chairman, Washington Rep. Doc Hastings.
But Murray persuaded a retiring Hastings to put the Pratt River, in eastern King County, into the existing Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and to protect the Middle Fork-Snoqualmie River -- closest mountain valley to Seattle -- under the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pushed a public lands bill through Congress last year that created new wilderness elsewhere in the west.
By: Joel Connelly
Source: Seattle Pi