Senate OKs Wild Sky Wilderness
WASHINGTON – For the fourth and what supporters hope is the final time, the Senate has approved a bill to create a Wild Sky Wilderness northeast of Seattle – the first new wilderness area in Washington state in more than 20 years.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would designate 167 square miles in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest north of Sultan, Wash., as federal wilderness, one of the government’s highest levels of protection.
The Senate approved the plan 91-4 Thursday as part of a massive bill affecting public lands from coast to coast.
The bill, which combines 62 separate proposals related to public lands, would also designate a recreation trail in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest in honor of former Rep. Jim Weaver, D-Ore., and expands Idaho’s Minidoka Internment National Monument to include a site commemorating Japanese-Americans imprisoned on Bainbridge Island, Wash., during World War II.
The bill also would extend federal immigration and labor laws to the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Marianas, in the western Pacific, have been tainted by past associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and reports of sweatshop labor.
The overwhelming vote in favor of the bill belied a behind-the-scenes controversy that had delayed action on it for months.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wanted to amend the bill to allow loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. Current regulations require guns to be unloaded and safely stored on lands managed by the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.
Democrats and some Republicans objected, saying Coburn and some GOP allies were trying to score political points by injecting a “wedge” issue such as gun rights into a noncontroversial bill.
Coburn disputed that, saying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had agreed to allow him to bring a host of amendments to the floor. The Wild Sky measure would designate approximately 106,000 acres of low-elevation, old-growth forest in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest as federal wilderness.
Murray, who has championed the measure in the Senate for nearly nine years, said the bill was “an example of wilderness done the right way,” with support from a range of local groups and elected officials.
The proposed Wild Sky area is just 90 minutes from Seattle and offers millions of people access to “rolling hills and rushing rivers and low-elevation forests,” Murray said. These areas “will be preserved for generations to come,” she said.
A similar bill passed the House last April, following Democratic takeover of the chamber after a dozen years of Republican rule.
GOP leaders in the House had blocked the Wild Sky bill for years, saying that wilderness protection should extend only to lands untouched by humans.
The proposed wilderness area would block development or other economic activity in a sprawling area north of U.S. Highway 2 that includes habitat for bears, bald eagles and other wildlife, as well as streams, hiking trails and other forms of recreation.
Environmental groups hailed the Senate vote as a landmark victory.
“Senator Murray went to bat in the Senate and hit a grand slam. She overcame some tough obstacles and is sending Wild Sky on its way home for all Washingtonians,” said Jon Owen of the Campaign for America’s Wilderness, an advocacy group. “After two decades, the time for more Washington wilderness is now.”
The bill now heads back to House for final approval.