[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 173 (Thursday, November 8, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2363-E2364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       ALPINE LAKES WILDERNESS ADDITIONS AND WILD PRATT RIVER ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DAVID G. REICHERT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 8, 2007

  Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, today I am introducing the Alpine Lakes 
Wilderness Additions and Wild Pratt River Act. This legislation builds 
upon a proud Washington tradition of protecting our public lands and 
improves the quality of life for many of my constituents and other 
outdoor recreation enthusiasts from across the state of Washington.
  One of the popular glories of my district in Washington State is the 
Alpine Lakes Wilderness, a 362,000 acre wilderness that straddles the 
crest of the Cascade Mountains just west of the Seattle/Tacoma 
metropolitan area. My legislation will expand the boundary of the 
existing wilderness area to embrace important lower-elevation lands and 
complete watersheds. In doing this, we are--with a single exception--
addressing only federal lands already under the administration of the 
U.S. Forest Service.


 FITTING THIS ALPINE LAKES WILDERNESS EXPANSION INTO A LARGER FRAMEWORK

  Preserving our natural heritage of the wildest, most natural Federal 
lands as wilderness is an ongoing effort by Congress. Set in motion 43 
years ago with enactment of the historic Wilderness Act on September 3, 
1964, Congress, to this day, has consistently pursued this work in a 
bipartisan, or perhaps I should say, nonpartisan way.
  The people of the State of Washington understand how this 
bipartisanship works for their lasting benefit. We live today with the 
benefits of three great national parks. In many ways, Mt. Rainier, 
Olympic, and the North Cascades National Parks are the anchors of the 
popular outdoor recreational resources that are treasured by our 
residents and visitors alike. To these treasures add a wide spectrum of 
other recreational areas on our public lands, including wilderness 
areas that have received this highest form of federal protection from 
Congress. It is fair to say that every one of these conservation 
achievements--as proud a record as any State can boast of--has been the 
product of bipartisan work by generations of our State's elected 
leaders.
  The honor roll for this proud tradition of bipartisan conservation 
leadership is too long to recount here. However, two names would be 
found at the top of anyone's listing--former Senator Henry M. ``Scoop'' 
Jackson, a Democrat, and former Governor and Senator Daniel J. Evans, a 
Republican. It is noteworthy that each was a key architect in the 
protection of the original Alpine Lakes Wilderness through legislation 
Congress enacted in 1976. I am proud to follow their significant 
accomplishment with my own legislation.


    THE ALPINE LAKES WILDERNESS ADDITIONS AND WILD PRATT RIVER ACT 
                               EXPLAINED

  Madam Speaker, my new legislation could not be more straight-forward. 
It does not propose to resolve every matter that some might raise 
concerning these lands. But it does complete the fundamental protection 
that Congress alone can provide for these lands under the proven 
provisions of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Wilderness Act.
  First, I want to stress that this legislation is limited solely to 
lands within the Eighth Congressional District. It only concerns that 
portion of the existing Alpine Lakes Wilderness boundary which is 
within my district.
  Second, as with the Wild Sky Wilderness Act passed by this House 
earlier this year, a key objective of this proposal is to provide the 
protection of the Wilderness Act for lower elevation lands. This serves 
several goals. It will bring into an expanded Alpine Lakes Wilderness a 
richer diversity of ecosystems, including deeply forested valleys, 
increasing the biodiversity of the overall wilderness area. And 
addition of these lower elevation lands has the direct effect of 
protecting a broader array of outdoor recreational opportunities easily 
accessible for our people.
  Third, a key element of this legislation is the designation of the 
entirety of the Pratt River, from its headwaters within the existing 
1976 boundary of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness to its confluence with the 
Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River, as a ``wild river'' pursuant to 
the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Obviously, there are huge benefits 
from assuring strongest protection and consistent management embracing 
entire watersheds where we have the chance. This legislation will 
complete that job for the Pratt River, with ``wild river'' protection 
for its full length, and inclusion of its entire watershed within the 
expanded Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

  Finally, this legislation includes a specific provision addressing 
the best future management of two small tracts of lands that are 
presently owned by the State of Washington through its Department of 
Natural Resources. I believe that the State agrees with local outdoor 
and conservation organizations that there are good reasons that the 
boundary of the additions to the federal Alpine Lakes Wilderness should 
include these two tracts, as has often been done before, and as was 
contemplated under the provisions of section 5 of the 1964 Wilderness 
Act. Though these tracts are within the boundary of the proposed 
federal wilderness area, these State lands would not become subject to 
Forest Service administration or the provisions of the Wilderness Act 
unless and until they are acquired by the Forest Service.
  And, Madam Speaker, that is all that this new legislation proposes. 
It represents a straight-forward approach to complete the work of 
Congress for the protection of these key lands and waters in ways that 
only we in Congress can confer.
  As I noted earlier, this legislation specifically does not seek to 
address or resolve every issue about details of the management of these 
lands that are, within the framework of the wilderness and wild river 
designations, properly left to the professional discretion of the 
Forest Service. A good example is the question of completing of a trail 
segment within the proposed wilderness that is referred to as ``the 
Pratt Connector.'' User groups, conservation leaders, and others 
interested in this area have varying views about the merits of this 
proposed trail segment. Under the Forest Service's existing authority 
this decision is best left to the consultative processes the Forest 
Service routinely follows in such cases. Thus, there is no need for 
this matter to come to Congress as part of this legislation.


                          BACKYARD WILDERNESS

  Madam Speaker, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness is one of the treasures of 
Washington State. It reaches from icy and isolated mountain peaks down 
to deep valleys covered by silent forests where visitors are reminded 
of the original landscape of so much of our state. It is a recreational 
treasure, too, with the existing wilderness area anchoring a spectrum 
of recreational opportunities, not only within its boundaries but in 
the surrounding area. And all of this is, on its western side, situated 
so near to the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area that this special place 
is affectionately known as our ``backyard wilderness.''

  The statutory protection proposed in this legislation for the 
additional wilderness lands and for the Pratt River will enhance the 
overall fabric of protection and public use opportunities of the Alpine 
Lakes area. Like other wilderness areas Congress has established 
literally at the city limits of major urban area--Salt Lake City, 
Albuquerque, Tucson, and greater Los Angeles, for example--we should 
act now to assure we have used the strongest policy tools in our 
nature-protection toolkit to conserve and protect the wild jewel that 
is the centerpiece of a beloved, much-used landscape for our people.
  These wilderness additions, and the protection of the Pratt River 
``fit'' into the larger pattern we have been putting in place to 
protect our wild heritage. And this wilderness will serve vast, untold 
numbers of Americans.
  First, it serves those who choose to adventure into its quiet valleys 
and up to its sentinel peaks. Some of those are hardy mountain 
climbers; for others the adventure is an afternoon walk, grandparents 
introducing their grandchildren to nature and its most wild and 
inviting along a quiet, easy wilderness trail.
  Second, this expanded wilderness serves those who choose other forms 
of recreation in the adjacent lands. Mountain bikers find challenges 
along trails that bring them along the wilderness boundary.
  A perfect example, where I walked with avid mountain bikers and other 
conservationists, is the trail along the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie 
River. This trail is not within the wilderness, but closely follows its 
boundary. By an historic agreement worked out between user groups, 
bicycles are allowed on this trail adjacent to the proposed wilderness 
addition on alternate days, so that those hikers who seek a trail 
experience without encountering bicyclists know they can do so on 
specific days. Here is an innovative resolution to what might otherwise 
have been a festering controversy. That collaboration is a perfect 
example of the broad coalition of supporters for my proposal.
  Similarly, we should respect the larger group of wilderness users--
and I emphasize that these are wilderness users--who take pleasure from 
the wilderness that they view from the Mountain-to-Sound Greenway, an 
extraordinary corridor of protected federal, state, and private lands 
offering all kinds of recreational opportunities to those who travel 
across our state on Interstate 90, which crosses the Cascades at 
Snoqualmie Pass, just south of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Those who 
savor the wild scenery from more developed sites and roadways, are no 
less users of wilderness than the adventurers who trek to the highest, 
farther peaks.
  Finally, Madam Speaker, there is the largest ``interest group'' of 
all--the future generations for whom we act today. As a grandfather, I 
understand that we have a stake today, in a future we ourselves will 
not live. That is the

[[Page E2364]]

world in which our grandchildren's children will live their lives, amid 
whatever kind of landscape we have left them. Count mine as one solid 
voice and vote on behalf of taking care that the landscape we bequeath 
to future generations is one with an abundant, generous, diverse system 
of wilderness areas, not only in the remotest stretches of the Arctic, 
but right here close to home--in a ``backyard wilderness'' such as the 
Alpine Lakes.

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