PORT ANGELES — Familiar battle lines are being drawn over previously failed Wild Olympics legislation that was presented last week for the first time ever by a U.S. Senate committee.
Co-sponsored in 2015 by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Whidbey Island, and 6th District U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 2015 was presented last Thursday to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Wild Olympics legislation, first introduced in 2012 jointly by Kilmer’s predecessor Norm Dicks and Murray — and introduced for the fourth time in June last year — had never made it to committee until this year.
The legislation would designate, as wilderness, 126,554 acres of Olympic National Forest around Olympic National Park that would become off-limits to logging and includes acreage in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
The legislation also would designate, as wild and scenic rivers, 464 river miles across 19 rivers and tributaries on the Olympic Peninsula whose banks would receive greater environmental protection within an average quarter-mile of banks on each side of the waterways.
“Today’s hearing is a step forward and a product of all the conversations we’ve had with small business owners, tribes and environmental advocates to create a compromise that works for local communities,” said Kilmer, whose district includes the North Olympic Peninsula, in a prepared statement issued Thursday by Murray’s office.
“This legislation is part of a practical, balanced strategy to protect our natural beauty while attracting businesses to stay, grow and invest in our future,” the statement said.
The Quilcene-based Wild Olympic Coalition last week issued a list of 550 businesses and elected officials who support the legislation that included more than 100 new names, including Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias, a Sequim Democrat who took office in January.
“Wild Olympics is an effort to balance multiple positions,” Ozias said Friday.
“The Wild Olympics campaign has worked hard to develop a plan that will hopefully protect and preserve some of our most valuable remaining resources while not unduly limiting usage of other resources.”
Clallam County Commissioner Bill Peach, a Forks Republican, was not on the list.
“I don’t support it because of taking timberlands out of production,” said Peach, a former regional land manager for Rayonier Timberlands.
“If they take stuff out of production, they should put stuff into production.”
Port of Port Angeles commissioners Colleen McAleer, Connie Beauvais and Steve Burke discussed the legislation at their meeting last Monday in anticipation of its re-entry into the Senate.
But they delayed taking a stand until they learned more details.
The legislation provoked a reaction during the public comment portion of the meeting.
“Once wilderness is created, it’s forever,” Carol Johnson, executive director of the North Olympic Timber Action Committee, told port commissioners.
In June, the timber action committee had said that it would trade its support for the legislation for the ability to log, in perpetuity, 150,000 acres of well-roaded second-growth forest areas that have in the past been routinely harvested but are not now under the federal Northwest Forest Plan.
On Friday, Johnson said that the Northwest Forest Plan has never fulfilled its promise, hampering the economic growth in rural communities.
Supporters of the legislation have said most of the protected area is too inaccessible to log.
Wild Olympics proponent John Owen said the original bill was modified because of critics such as Johnson.
“A great deal of changes have been made to accommodate those concerns,” Owen told port commissioners.
Other North Olympic Peninsula endorsements have come from Clallam County Commissioner Mike Chapman; Jefferson County Commissioners Phil Johnson, David Sullivan and Kathleen Kler; Port Angeles City Councilwoman Sissi Bruch; Port Townsend City Council members Deborah Stinson, Catharine Robinson, Michelle Sandoval and Pamela Davis; and Sequim City Council members Candace Pratt, Genaveve Starr, Bob Lake and Ted Miller.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
