The U.S. Senate has passed a bill to protect vital additions to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness while also adding three new spectacular rivers to the our state’s Wild and Scenic River system. The House passed the package earlier last week.
“These low elevation forests and wild rivers provide us all with clean drinking water, habitat for salmon and native fish, and a place to enjoy the outdoors with our families. We applaud the tireless efforts of Senator Patty Murray, Representatives Dave Reichert and Susan Delbene to ensure that these values are protected far into the future,” said Donald Parks, Sierra Club volunteer who worked for passage of the original legislation in the 1970’s.
“Washington’s newly protected wildlands and rivers will continue to augment our vibrant rural economies, while offering generations of families the opportunity to retreat from our urban lifestyle to camp, hike, paddle, and enjoy the best the Evergreen State has to offer.”
These proposals have strong bipartisan support from a wide range of stakeholders, elected officials, and local residents since they were first introduced. Senator Murray, Representative Reichert and Representative DelBene have worked with the local communities to ensure that their input was included and their concerns were met.
The Alpine Lakes bill has been endorsed by more than 70 local elected officials and more than 100 outdoor local businesses in the Snoqualmie River Valley along with leading members of the outdoor industry and 125 conservation, recreation, hunting and fishing and religious leaders.
These provisions were part of a larger public lands package attached to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The total lands package includes the designation of Illabot Creek as a Wild and Scenic River (14 miles), additions to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness (about 22,000 acres) near North Bend, along with the designation the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Pratt Rivers as Wild and Scenic (about 37 miles total).
In addition to the good conservation measures the package also contained a number of provisions opposed by members of the conservation community including controversial land transfers in Alaska and Arizona. While we applaud the progress made here in Washington, we are concerned over the apparent trend toward corporate give-a-ways of public land. Americans and indigenous peoples should not have to pay this price for securing clean water and outdoor recreation experiences for families.
Mr. Parks concluded,
“Protected landscapes are the engine that drives our state’s strong recreation based economy. Our wild forests, free-flowing rivers and iconic landscapes are an asset to local and regional businesses and their employees because of their role in attracting and retaining a highly qualified and competitive workforce.”
Background:
Originally designated in 1976, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area has since become one of the most popular wilderness areas in the country. This legislation would add an additional 22,000 acres of low elevation lands to the existing wilderness in King County.
The proposed Wilderness additions are comprised of dense low-elevation forests whose robust wildlife populations include cougars, black bears, bobcats, elk, deer, and cutthroat trout. The area also provides core (optimum) habitat for wolverine and mountain goat. The inclusion of low-elevation land conserves diverse ecosystems and adds biodiversity to the Wilderness area.
Existing close-in recreation opportunities are protected such as hiking, backpacking, climbing, snowshoeing, horseback riding, hunting, fishing, and cross-country skiing.
Washington State only has 200 miles of rivers designated under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act – far less than neighboring Oregon, which boasts 2,000 miles. This legislation would designate the first wild and scenic river designations in the central Cascades, targeting the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Pratt Rivers. These rivers are home to world-class fishing, kayaking, and whitewater rafting. Their protection under the National Wild and Scenic River System safeguards high water quality for downstream residents and preserves critical wildlife and riparian habitats. These rivers will be protected as free-flowing streams that are within easy reach of a major urban centers, providing residents of the greater Seattle-Bellevue area with increased access to water-based recreation.
Illabot Creek, a fifteen-mile long tributary to the Skagit River features high wildlife and fisheries values along with mature riparian forest and aquatic habitat along the creek. A nationally significant value of the creek includes feeding and daytime perching habitat for bald eagles as well as nearby communal night roost areas for one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles in the lower forty-eight states.