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Path: HOME
» NEWS

Murray, Dicks present version of Olympic National Forest
wilderness additions

Map showing yellowed areas that would be added to
Olympic National Forest, in brown, are part of a larger map issued by the office
of Sen. Patty Murray on Tuesday. Visit the link at left or type in
http://tinyurl.com/pdnwild to view the larger map and its legend.

By Paul Gottlieb
Peninsula Daily News

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To view the large map of proposed Olympic
National Forest wilderness designations and other surrounding land uses, click
here: http://tinyurl.com/pdnwild .

A draft land and scenic river preservation proposal has been put
forward by U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks and Sen. Patty Murray as an alternative to a
similar plan by Quilcene-based Wild Olympics.

The Path Forward on
Olympic Watersheds Protection Proposal cuts nearly in half — to 20,000 acres —
the amount of private land that Wild Olympics is proposing that could be
purchased for additions to Olympic National Park.

Two of four public
workshops on the proposal will be on the North Olympic Peninsula.

A Port
Townsend meeting will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, at the chapel
building at Fort Worden State Park Conference Center, 200 Battery Way in Port
Townsend.

A Port Angeles meeting will be from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday,
Dec. 3, at the Museum at the Carnegie, 207 S. Lincoln St.

A Hoquiam
workshop is planned the following day, Dec. 4, and another is planned in Shelton
on Dec. 2.

Dicks' and Murray's plan, which was announced Tuesday, would:

■ Designate about 130,000 acres of new wilderness on U.S. Forest Service
land.

That's 4,000 acres less than the Wild Olympics plan.

■ Add
23 river systems within Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest to the
federal Wild and Scenic River System, increasing protections

According
to a map supplied by Murray's office, the rivers inside the park and national
forest appear to be the same as those proposed by Wild Olympics and include the
Bogachiel, Hoh, Sol Duc and Elwha rivers.

“Designation neither prohibits
development nor gives the federal government control over private property,”
according to http://www.rivers.gov/.

“Recreation, agricultural
practices, residential development, and other uses may continue,” the website
says.

“Protection of the river is provided through voluntary stewardship
by landowners and river users and through regulation and programs of federal,
state, local, or tribal governments.”

■ Allow Olympic National Park — on
its own — to buy up to 20,000 acres through willing-buyer, willing-seller
arrangements compared with the 37,000 acres proposed for additions to the park
by Wild Olympics in its 2-year-old proposal.

The park cannot now buy
land within its general management plan without congressional approval.

Three areas designated for possible sale on the map provided by Murray's
office are at Lake Crescent and on the park's western tip in Jefferson County
near Grays Harbor County in an area designated as the Queets Corridor.

■
Remove most of the state Department of Natural Resources land that was included
in the Wild Olympics proposal.

Murray spokeswoman Meghan Roh,
spokeswoman for Murray, D-Bothell, said Tuesday that details of the plan beyond
the joint statement and map she provided were unavailable.

No
legislation has been drafted on the plan, and Murray's office plans to release
more detailed information on it at a later date, she said.

George Behan,
a spokesman for Dicks — a Democrat from Belfair who represents the 6th
Congressional District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties — did not
return a call for comment Tuesday morning.

The Wild Olympics Campaign is
supporting the Dicks-Murray plan, Wild Olympics Chairwoman Connie Gallant of
Quilcene said Tuesday.

The differences between the Dicks-Murray plan and
the Wild Olympics proposal didn't bother longtime wilderness advocate and author
Tim McNulty, who sits on Wild Olympics' board as vice president of Olympic Park
Associates.

He said the Wild Olympics plan provided the framework for
the new proposal.

“This is a phenomenal announcement,” McNulty said
Tuesday.

“They are proposing something that to me sounds like it's going
to be a fantastic opportunity to protect watersheds, fish and wildlife habitat,
wilderness and park lands on the Peninsula. This is really wonderful news.”

Carol Johnson, director of the North Olympic Timber Action Committee,
said jobs would still be lost under the Dicks-Murray plan.

“It really
doesn't do anything. It's like throwing a starving man a bone when he really
needs a steak,” Johnson said, adding that the plan “will further curtail timber
harvest.”

Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes did not return
calls for comment.

________

Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb
can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at [email-masked].

Last modified: November 16. 2011 9:34AM

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