[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11450]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WILD PRATT RIVER ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JAY INSLEE

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 4, 2008

  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, at an early age, my dad and mom taught me 
to walk on the rocks, not the alpine meadows they helped restore in 
Mount Rainier National Park. It is in that tradition that I have worked 
in Congress and the Natural Resources Committee to preserve the natural 
beauty of the Northwest for my children, grandchildren and generations 
to come.
  After 6 years of hard work and community input, wilderness supporters 
last Friday celebrated the newly designated Wild Sky Wilderness Area 
near my district in Washington state. It contains over 106,000 acres of 
national forest in east Snohomish County. Senator Murray and 
Congressman Larsen exercised great leadership to build such a wide 
consensus for this effort and have set the gold standard for how to 
write wilderness legislation in this country.
  In this same spirit of preserving our State's pristine old growth and 
mature forests, rivers, and mountain peaks, today I added my name as a 
cosponsor to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Additions and Wild Pratt River 
Act of 2007 (H.R. 4113). I did so because it is my hope that at some 
point we are successful in crafting a final bill that is as full and 
complete as this wilderness deserves. In its present form, the bill 
would add 22,000 acres of wilderness area to the Alpine Lakes 
Wilderness Area that first was established in 1976.
  As we learned with Wild Sky, getting a wilderness bill to the 
president's desk and signed into law takes a significant amount of 
effort from stakeholders, consensus from community members and 
widespread support from lawmakers. Therefore, we must get wilderness 
area designation right the first time, doing as much as possible to 
avoid piecemeal efforts to slowly add to wilderness time and again. I 
do have some concerns that this bill may not yet have reached the 
maturity and completeness necessary to bring the wilderness area to 
fruition, in two ways.
  First, the boundaries of the wilderness need full consideration. For 
example, we need to look at whether the absence of the inclusion of the 
north portion of the Pratt River Valley reduces the ecosystem benefits 
that this wilderness could accomplish. Areas southeast of the present 
boundaries deserve similar consideration for comparable reasons.
  Second, the success of the Wild Sky Wilderness Act of 2007 
demonstrated the importance of being as open and inclusive early in the 
process in developing the boundaries of the area, as well defining all 
other aspects of the proposal. I would like to see an even greater 
effort to engage the full participation of the public.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to add to Washington's 
prized wilderness areas in the tradition of the Wild Sky.

                          ____________________