[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1641 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1641

 To amend the National Trails System Act to provide for a study of the 
                         Cascadia Marine Trail.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 19, 2009

   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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Cascadia Marine 
Trail Study Act''.
    (b) 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 ``theme 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 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 fresh 
        water areas in a vital estuarine environment.
            (9) The marine mammals protected by the Marine Mammal 
        Protection Act, including seals, otters, porpoise, 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.

SEC. 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. In conducting the 
study, the Secretary shall coordinate with State and local governments 
and private entities, and may study connections to nearby sites of 
recreational, scenic, or historic significance that are not connected 
by the Cascadia Marine Trail.''.
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