110 HR 6740 IH: To amend the National Trails System Act to provide for a U.S. House of Representatives 2008-07-31 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6740 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 31, 2008 Mr. Inslee (for himself, Mr. Dicks, Mr. Larsen of Washington, Mr. McDermott, and Mr. Smith of Washington) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources A BILL To amend the National Trails System Act to provide for a study of the Cascadia Marine Trail.

1.

Findings

Congress finds as follows: (1)The Cascadia Marine Trail stretches from near the State capitol of Olympia north to the Canadian border. (2)The Cascadia Marine Trail was designated a National Recreation Trail in 1994. (3)The Cascadia Marine Trail’s them is to honor and preserve 5,000 years of marine travel. (4)The Cascadia Marine Trail was granted National Millennium Trail status by the White House in 1999. (5)The Cascadia Marine Trail was designated by American Canoe Association as a ACA-Recommended Water Trail in 2005. (6)The Cascadia Marine Trail is specifically designed for use by nonmotorized, beachable boats and no reservations are required at 90 percent of sites. (7)The goal of Cascadia Marine Trail is to have a site every 5 to 8 miles along Puget Sound for the comfort and safety of recreational kayakers, rowers, canoeists, and small-boat sailors. (8)The Cascadia Marine Trail hosts an entirely public network of waterways and shorelines including salt and freshwater areas in a vital estuarine environment. (9)The marine mammals protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, including seals, otters, porpoises, and whales (including 3 pods of resident Orca whales) are residents throughout the range of the Cascadia Marine Trail. (10)The area of Puget Sound estuary, where water that falls on the Cascade and Olympic Mountains flows to meet the marine waters of the Sound land and water, is 2,458 square miles, and has approximately 2,500 miles of marine shorelines. (11)Approximately 10,000 rivers and streams flow into Puget Sound. (12)Puget Sound is home to a diverse population of fish and wildlife including 200 species of marine fish, 26 species of marine mammals, 625 species of marine seaweeds and sea grasses, 200 species of marine birds, and at least 3,000 species of invertebrates. (13)The Puget Sound area is home to approximately 3,500,000 people. (14)Fifteen Indian tribes in the region have historically relied upon marine travel in nonmotorized vessels and continue to engage in culturally relevant canoe travel through the Puget Sound. (15)Puget Sound is home to important commercial and economic activity and the annual number of cargo vessels in the Sound in 2006 was 2,451 and the number of boats registered to residents living on or near Puget Sound was 168,374 in 2003. (16)There are many recreational activities on Puget Sound and 35 State parks are located on Puget Sound.

2.

Designation of trail for study

Section 5(c) of the National Trails System Act (16 U.S.C. 1244(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following: (__)Cascadia Marine Trail, a series of water trail routes encompassing approximately 2,300 miles of shoreline in the State of Washington, extending from Point Roberts near the Canadian border to the southern reach of Puget Sound near Olympia. .