The History of Wild Sky Wilderness

In May of 2002, Representative Rick Larsen (D.-Washington) and Senator Patty Murray (D.-Washington) introduced a bill to designate 106,000 acres in Washington State as the Wild Sky Wilderness area. This legislation has passed the Senate twice, has the support of a wide group of interests in Washington State, and is viewed by environmental groups as the best way to protect this area for future generations. It is cosponsored by much of the Washington delegation, including Reps Jennifer Dunn (R-WA) and Jay Inslee (D_WA).

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives failed to pass the legislation, holding it for almost two and a half years The Chairman of the House Resources Committee, Richard Pombo (R-CA) proved to be the roadblock this year, refusing to allow a vote in his committee.

After over two years of showing no interest in the issue, George Nethercutt claimed that he could reach an agreement on a bipartisan bill with local support that will garner support from Chairman Pombo. After reaching a compromise with the locals, Larsen, Murray, and Rep. Inslee,on an agreement that would protect 103,000 acres, Nethercutt was incapable of convincing Chairman Pombo, his fellow Republican, to support the measure.

Earlier this month, in an effort to live up to his claim, Rep. Nethercutt drafted his own watered-down version of the Wild Sky bill with the hope that he could get Chairman Pombo to support it. In order to get the Chairman's support, Nethercutt cut out one of the most important pieces of the proposal - the protection of lowland areas that are at high risk of commercial use. Because of the proximity of these lowland areas to population centers, and their unique biological attributes, they are considered the "heart and soul" of the Wild Sky wilderness proposal.

The original bipartisan Wild Sky bill would have protected 106,000 acres, which includes 13,00 acres of precious lowland areas, from logging, mining, drilling, and motorized vehicle use. Nethercutt's bill on the other hand, cuts out the "heart and soul" lowland areas, and designates them "backcountry management area," a completely new, untested designation offer much less protection than Wilderness areas.

All of these issues were in play when the House Resources Committee, of which Inslee is a member, met on Wednesday. Chairman Pombo received word that Nethercutt was unable to achieve consensus on his watered-down proposal. The problem was that the Nethercutt/Pombo bill did not provide the protection that the community wanted, and politics became more of a consideration than passing a bill suitable for these important areas.

During the meeting, Rep. Inslee and Rep. Larsen said they would offer an amendment to the Nethercutt/Pombo bill to ensure that it actually protected the Wild Sky area. After learning of the disagreement, Chairman Pombo removed the proposal from the committee's schedule and tried to blame Larsen and Inslee. Pombo's excuse for pulling the bills does not reflect the truth, however. Inslee and Larsen wanted a vote on both proposals. It was Nethercutt and Pombo who, in fact, did not want a vote unless it was unanimous, and only Pombo, as the Chairman of the Committee had the power to pull the bill from consideration.

What Rep. Nethercutt did to the Wild Sky proposal is characteristic of the environmental policies of the Republican Party. He gutted a good wilderness bill, provided pseudo protection, then said his bill was the best hope for protection. Nethercutt simply mirrored the administration and the Republican-controlled Congress' tactics in regards to environmental legislation. For example, they drafted a bill to allow greatly increased air pollution and named it the "Clear Skies Protection Act," they drafted a bill to cope with the threat of catastrophic wild-fires by allowing massive amounts of logging and called it the "Healthy Forests Initiative."

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To learn more about the Wild Sky area, please visit the Washington Wilderness Coalition.