Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008

Floor Speech

CONSOLIDATED NATURAL RESOURCES ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - April 10, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank my colleague from New Mexico for his tremendous work. I rise to thank all of my colleagues for supporting the public lands and natural resources package that was just passed by the Senate.

I, like many of my colleagues, have a vested interest in this bill. It contains my Wild Sky Wilderness Act which will designate over 100,000 acres as wilderness. This proposal is the result of almost 9 years of work by myself and Congressman Larsen of my home State. It has the support of the vast majority of the communities around the area, as well as outdoor enthusiasts, area businesses, and literally thousands of Washington State residents.

Congressman Larsen and I began working on Wild Sky back in 1999 because we were troubled by the rapid growth in Seattle and surrounding areas. We are so fortunate in our State to have unique and beautiful natural landscapes from the peaks of the Cascade Mountains, the northwest rain forest, the Olympic Peninsula to the mighty Columbia River. But many of our special lands could be jeopardized if we do not take action to preserve them now.

The Wild Sky Wilderness area will ensure that 106,000 acres of rolling hills, rushing rivers, and low-elevation forest in Washington State's Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest are going to be preserved for generations to come.

I am immensely proud of this legislation. The Wild Sky Wilderness area is just 90 minutes away from downtown Seattle. It will give more than 2.4 million from Snohomish, King, and Skagit Counties easy access to hike and camp in a distinctive northwest landscape, it will preserve unique low elevation ecosystems, and it is going to give the surrounding towns a great economic boost by increasing the number of visitors.

I am especially proud because so many people in Washington State are so excited about this wilderness proposal. Newspapers have endorsed it in more than 50 editorials, and more than 200 newspaper articles, op-eds, and letters to the editor have raved about it.

This is the fourth time the Senate has considered this bill. Wild Sky in the past has passed the Senate unanimously three times because we saw the value of this wilderness proposal and recognized that this bill is something my State supports.

Last year, for the first time, Wild Sky passed the House, and now passing the Senate, we are so close to making this truly a reality.

With that in mind, I want to take a few minutes to share with my colleagues what they just did. I want them to see some of the benefits this bill offers my home State of Washington and why people in my State are so eager to create the Wild Sky Wilderness.

Since the days when Native people and early settlers harvested salmon and timber from our streams and forests, people who live in Washington State have recognized the importance of our natural heritage. We have a great tradition in my State of respecting and enjoying the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Washington State is home to tremendously natural resources, and we have a proud history of embracing our national parks and our forests. The Wild Sky area is already being enjoyed by many of our citizens who hike or hunt or raft or camp there. And since we proposed designating it as wilderness, literally thousands of people have written Congressman Larsen and me to share their support. Many of those writers told personal stories about their experiences in the Wild Sky area.

Mike Town is a high school science teacher from Duvall, WA. He described introducing his students to a wild salmon spawning site near the Wild Sky Wilderness. Because that river's headwaters are in the proposed wilderness area, the water is still so pristine there that salmon are able to thrive, and today it is the one of the few places left in the Cascades where spawning salmon are still so numerous you could actually walk across the river on their backs.

Mike called that river one of the greatest spectacles in nature, and he said to me:

I cherish the belief that with federal protection for this area, my teenage students will have the ability to share the experience of spawning wild salmon with their grandchildren.

So the first reason we are so excited about Wild Sky is because it reflects the values of the people of Washington State.

But another reason this bill has so much support is because we worked hard to accommodate the needs of the users of this area. Very early on in the process, we reached out to all the local stakeholders to gauge their interest and ask if they had any concerns, and we were able to work with them and address many of the issues they raised.

We worked with Longview Fibre, a paper company that had some land in the proposed boundary. As a result, we were able to draw out certain areas and prioritize others that the company was willing to sell.

We heard from local and State snowmobile groups concerned that the boundaries of our original proposal would shut out important riding areas. So we took out a vast majority of those areas.

We ensured that float planes still have access to Lake Isabel.

We worked with the Forest Service and excluded heavily used areas around Barclay Lake and the only two areas where timber sales were being considered.

We made sure that Snohomish County and the Forest Service were comfortable with the emergency communication capability in and around the wilderness area.

And last winter, massive floods altered the path of the Skykomish River and displaced and destroyed parts of that road that provides access through our proposed wilderness area. So Congressman Larsen and I got back together and brought together Snohomish County, the Forest Service, and local advocates to responsibly adjust the boundaries of this wilderness to make sure the road could be rebuilt and remain open for future use.

Thanks to all of this work, we have the support now of many of the locally elected officials and most of the surrounding towns and counties. Local conservation, hunting, and fishing groups back this bill. The Seaplane Pilots Association and many local businesses endorse it, and the Under Secretary of Natural Resources for the Forest Service, Mark Rey, said the President will sign this bill.

Even though many people in Washington State understand and appreciate the value of wilderness, this bill has a lot of support because we were also willing to work with the diverse groups of people who have an interest in how this land is used. This truly was a public process.

Although we, of course, could not meet every single need, we have made every effort to accommodate everyone who engaged in this process, and thanks to this effort, this bill is an example of wilderness done the right way.

I wish to talk about the benefits of Wild Sky because I am so excited about what it offers people who live in my State and those who visit. Several years ago, I took a trip through the area where the Wild Sky Wilderness would be. It is very hard to put into words how beautiful this stunning, amazing area is that is 90 minutes from downtown Seattle.

A significant part of this wilderness is seemingly endless expanses of meadows. Rolling mountains can be seen that are covered with stands of huge old moss-covered trees, and some of those trees are over 100 years old.

From the ridges, you have incredible views of the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains.

This area is so unique. And one of the things that makes it unique is its relatively low elevation. About one-third of Wild Sky is below 3,000 feet. So the Wild Sky Wilderness area is going to bring new ecological systems into our wilderness lands that are underrepresented right now.

Wild Sky links our forests and meadows and steep craggy peaks, as you can see, and it is going to create a protected habitat corridor for all the wildlife living in this area. We have wolves and mountain goats, black and grizzly bears, and deer and trout.

Salmon spawning grounds teeming with fish--just like the one my town's science teacher showed his students--used to be very common, but today many of those species are struggling to survive. So at a time when we are asking private landowners to assist in recovering wild fish runs, I believe the Federal Government ought to do everything it can on its own land to help protect and restore that wildlife habitat.

Secondly, Madam President, the Wild Sky Wilderness is going to offer us great new recreational opportunities for people in a growing region. Wild Sky is unusually accessible because of its low elevation, and it is near an urban area. So families looking for a quick and easy access to nature are going to be able to enjoy this very pristine land. Climbers and hikers, hunters and anglers have already sent us letters and e-mails talking about the opportunities that Wild Sky offers.

Mark Heckert, who is a fish and wildlife biologist from Puyallup, wrote to me that he has taken his two sons to camp and hunt and fish in this area. He wrote me about how much he values the outdoors and said he hopes to secure the Wild Sky Wilderness for his children to enjoy. He said to me:

Wild landscapes like those provided in the Wild Sky provide the stage for a generational right of passage where young boys and girls can discover their connection to our land.

Creating this Wild Sky Wilderness is going to ensure that Mark and his sons can return to Wild Sky in the years to come.

Finally, Madam President, hikers, climbers, rafters, hunters, and anglers who visit us in the Puget Sound area--and I invite everyone who is listening to come and enjoy Wild Sky--will spend their money as they travel through this area. Recreational enthusiasts will see Wild Sky in the future listed on maps and guide books as a special destination, and those tourists will come and stay in our hotels and our campgrounds and eat in our restaurants and use local guides and outfitters.

In recent years, the outdoor recreation business appears to have stayed healthy, even during bad economic times, and Wild Sky is going to help contribute to that in the future. And, again, I invite all who are listening to come and enjoy this beautiful place that you saw get voted on here in the Senate this afternoon.

Madam President, those are just a few of the benefits of this Wild Sky Wilderness. We have done a lot of hard work on this bill in the last 8 years, and we couldn't have done it without the help of a lot of people. So let me take the last few minutes and thank all of the people across my State and here in the Senate who have worked so hard to get this bill done.

I thank Chairman Bingaman and his great staff, especially Bob Simon and David Brooks, for their help and their unwavering support of Wild Sky throughout all the years.

I thank Senator Domenici, who is leaving us this year to retire. Without him and his hard work on this bill, we wouldn't be here today.

I thank Senators CRAPO and MURKOWSKI for all they did over the past weeks and months to move this package forward. I couldn't have gotten here--we couldn't have gotten here--without their hard work.

I thank many of my staff members, especially Doug Clapp, who helped me originally develop this bill many years ago; Jaime Shimek, Evan Schatz, and Mike Spahn. I can't even begin to say all the names of my staff members who over the years have worked with us as we have developed this bill and gotten it over the finish line. I thank all of them.

I recognize the hard work and support of Congressman Larsen and his staff, Senator Cantwell and her staff. She is on the Senate floor this afternoon as well and serves on the committee. I could not have done it without her help and support. I know she has climbed into the Wild Sky and seen it as well as I have and is as excited as I am to be out there to see this completed.

I thank Under Secretary Mark Rey of the administration, who supported this bill for many years.

But above all, Madam President, I thank the people of my home State of Washington who have worked tirelessly to bring this idea from a proposal on a piece of paper 9 years ago to legislation that was passed in the Senate this afternoon.

I am going to be back when the President signs this bill into law and thank a broader list of people who have been so essential, but as I finish this afternoon I want to note the work of Tom Uniack and Mike Town, and I thank them personally for all their work. They have been so willing to listen and to answer questions and to give tours of the Wild Sky country and have worked with us every step of the way.

Tom and Mike, thank you. All your hard work has paid off, and we now have passed in the Senate a very popular bill.

Wild Sky is going to help my State take a great step forward in protecting our environment. It is going to enhance our economy, it is going to improve our recreational opportunities, and I can tell you, people from my State are eager to get this bill through the House quickly and on to the President's desk to be signed.

We took a major step forward toward this goal today, and, again, I invite all of you who are listening to come to the State of Washington and visit Wild Sky.

I thank the Chair.

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