Wild Sky proposal presented

A bipartisan agreement to create a wilderness area northeast of Seattle was presented to the chairman of the U.S. House Resources Committee on Thursday, despite some election-year jockeying for position.

Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., who is running for the Senate against incumbent Patty Murray, took the new Wild Sky proposal to Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and then announced the news to reporters.

Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who worked out the proposal with Nethercutt, had thought the three would make a joint announcement. In the end, the Democrats said, it is creating the long-sought wilderness that is most important.

“I’m willing to work with anyone and everyone, including the guy who wants my job, to get this done,” Murray said.

Nethercutt presented a map that the three Washington lawmakers had agreed upon to Pombo, who has the power to put it up for a vote. The new proposal would create a 103,661-acre wilderness in the Cascade Range. That’s 2,688 acres less than a bill by Murray that previously passed the Senate but stalled in the GOP-controlled House.

Nethercutt said he visited the proposed area in April and came away impressed.

“I said ‘Richard, it’s beautiful, and it needs to be preserved,’.” Nethercutt said. “I made it clear that I want a bill. I want something to move.”

Murray said all the key low-elevation acreage has been preserved in the new proposal. Removal of that land would be a deal breaker, she said.

While Nethercutt had hoped that Pombo would agree to put the bill up for a vote, with a goal of getting it to the president’s desk this year, Pombo agreed only to schedule a hearing on July 22.

“We were hoping for more,” said Alex Conant, a spokesman for Nethercutt. “We remain real optimistic we’re going to get a bill through this year.”

It is now a race against time to get the proposal through the House and Senate, the lawmakers said, because Congress has only 19 more scheduled days for this year’s session.

Nethercutt said President Bush told him during a campaign visit to Spokane last month that he would sign the bill if it reached his desk.

Pombo has long opposed the creation of more wilderness in the United States, and if the bill is put up for a vote, it would be only the second time Pombo has allowed that in his committee, Nethercutt said.

Nethercutt said he did not know what Pombo might change before putting the proposal up for a vote.

“He wants to look at the boundaries,” Nethercutt said.

Murray said any changes would void the agreement.

With the Murray-Nethercutt race one of the most closely watched in the nation, the proposal is loaded with political baggage.

“This is all taking place in the context of one of the most high-profile Senate races in the country,” Larsen said.

Nethercutt has trailed the incumbent in polls and fund-raising, but President Bush came to Spokane in June to campaign for him, and First Lady Laura Bush is hosting a fund-raiser in Washington, D.C.

Murray’s bill would have permanently banned development in about 106,000 acres in the Cascade Range. It twice passed the Senate but met resistance in the House, where GOP leaders were concerned it went too far to halt logging and other economic activity.