SHELTON — Accompanied by elected officials from Jefferson and Clallam counties, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks are visiting the Skookum Bay Taylor Shellfish facility in Shelton today and will tour nearby forest areas that would be affected by their proposed Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 2012.
The legislation, now pending in the House and Senate, was a compromise proposal developed from the Wild Olympics Campaign.
It would designate more than 126,500 acres of new wilderness in Olympic National Forest. Nineteen Olympic Peninsula rivers and their major tributaries would be designated “wild and scenic.”
Murray and Dicks said they have made compromises to overcome objections the designations would be too restrictive on logging.
Murray, D-Bothell, and Dicks, whose congressional district includes the North Olympic Peninsula, is being joined on today’s tour by state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim; John Austin, one of the three Jefferson County commissioners; Mike Doherty, one of the three Clallam County commissioners; Connie Gallant of Quilcene, chairwoman of the Wild Olympics Campaign; Al Carter, a former Grays Harbor County commissioner; and Michelle Sandoval, a member of the Port Townsend City Council and the city’s former mayor.
