By Connie Gallant
PERMANENT PROTECTION FOR THE Olympic Peninsula’s ancient forests, free-flowing rivers and stunning scenery made a gigantic leap forward in June with the introduction of the historic Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rivers Act of 2012.
Years in the making, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks’ and Sen. Patty Murray’s landmark legislation would designate more than 126,500 acres of new wilderness in Olympic National Forest, permanently safeguarding our ancient forests, wildlife habitat and sources of clean drinking water.
Nineteen Peninsula rivers and their major tributaries would be designated “wild and scenic,” forever protecting them from dams and safeguarding critical salmon habitat and recreation for future generations.
When the Wild Olympics Campaign started in 2008, our goal was a plan to permanently protect the Peninsula’s rivers and streams that was also tailored to diverse needs of Peninsula communities.
Paramount to success was our commitment to extensive community input.
The community spoke, and Congressman Dicks and Sen. Murray listened.
They spent nearly three years gathering input from the people of the Olympic Peninsula to draft their proposal, meeting with conservationists, tribes, timber communities, hunters, anglers, local officials, businesses and other Peninsula residents, revising their plan repeatedly to address concerns.
In the end, not everyone got everything he or she wanted in the bill — the Wild Olympics Coalition included — but everyone, for and against, helped shape it.
This inclusive process resulted in a final plan significantly different than the draft proposal our coalition released in early 2010.
In their final revisions, Congressman Dicks and Sen. Murray:
■ Dropped all 37,000 acres of proposed park additions.
■ Removed 11,300 acres of timber base, including plantations, from the proposed wilderness.
■ Removed all roads from proposed wilderness, ensuring no roads will be closed or affected.
■ Added 7,400 acres of old growth and mature (80-plus) forests to proposed wilderness,
Our Congressional Champions added significantly to the old growth in the proposal, while removing all but a tiny fraction of 1 percent of available timber base from the plan — an amount so insignificant it ensures that no timber jobs will be impacted.
In essence, the final Wild Olympics legislation simply makes current Forest Service safeguards permanent, preventing future administrations from opening ancient forests and rivers to new logging, road building, mining, drilling or dams.
We are shifting into high gear to help get the bill passed this year because the clock is ticking to put these safeguards in place.
As we witness the Forest Service rolling back safeguards for old-growth forests in Central Washington and new hydro development projects advancing in the Cascades, we cannot afford to wait any longer to grant full, congressionally designated protection to the Peninsula’s ancient forests and free-flowing rivers.
And the majority of folks agree.
Last month, a bipartisan poll by two nationally renowned pollsters showed likely voters in our 6th Congressional District overwhelmingly favor Wild Olympics by more than 4 to 1: 64 percent supporting and only 15 percent opposed.
Nearly half supported it “strongly.”
Congressman Dicks’ and Sen. Murray’s legislation will provide durable, permanent safeguards for the Peninsula’s most priceless natural treasures.
Their hard work will ensure a vital natural legacy to all those who come after us.
The Wild Olympics Coalition and our thousands of supporters express our deepest thanks to Congressman Dicks and Sen. Murray for their visionary leadership.
Future generations will thank them, too.
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Connie Gallant is the volunteer chair of the Wild Olympics Campaign. She lives in Quilcene.
