In Our View: Our Outdoors; White Salmon River and Upstate Forest Would Get Protection, but Help is Needed
Posted on: Monday, 1 August 2005, 18:00 CDT
Two treasured pieces of Washington state's great outdoors will gain new and well-deserved protection if two bills passed by the U.S. Senate this week become law.
One adds 20 miles of the upper White Salmon River in western Klickitat County to the nation's Wild and Scenic Rivers system. The White Salmon, which empties into the Columbia 65 miles east of Vancouver, is a spirited and beautiful stream from its headwaters on the western slope of Mount Adams. The other Senate action would create a 106,000-acre Wild Sky Wilderness area in the Mount Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest northwest of Everett.
The White Salmon River action appears to be virtually a done deal, with the House of Representatives already behind it and President Bush expected to sign it. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, carried water for this bill at their respective places of employment. They cheer its passage, as do we. Only three other rivers in this state have Wild and Scenic status: the lower eight miles of the White Salmon itself, which was protected in 1986 with the establishment of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, 10 miles of the Klickitat River and 157 miles of the Skagit River.
However the new protection for the upper 20 miles of the White Salmon isn't as big a deal as it might first seem. The stretch is in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, where any incursion by a gravel mining company, dam builder, off-road-vehicle club, etc. would not likely be approved anyway. The greater good from this week's Senate action will be if it eventually leads to protection for the 18 miles between the national forest and the lower eight miles that already are protected. The Forest Service in 1997 recommended those 18 miles be included in the Wild and Scenic Rivers system, but local opposition was fierce so proponents dropped that segment from the proposal.
The future of the Wild Sky measure, however, is not as bright, because of one of the 435 members House of Representatives members. Establishment of the Wild Sky Wilderness won Senate approval this week for the third time in four years and Sen. Patty Murray, D- Wash., the sponsor, hopes this time it takes. The roadblock is in the House, where Resources Committee chairman Rep. Richard Pombo, R- Calif., killed it last year. He says areas with existing roads should not be designated wilderness. However, Tom Knappenberger, spokesman for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Vancouver, says wilderness areas have been established in the past on land with roads, which were then closed off and allowed to become overgrown.
Washington's House Republicans, including Rep. "Doc" Hastings of Pasco, who represents the eastern half of the Gorge, could help this along by applying party pressure on Pombo.
Source: Columbian
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