Wild Olympics bill approved by Key Senate Committee
QUILCENE, Wash. (Dec 14th, 2023) – Today the Wild Olympics Coalition cheered a major milestone for the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act sponsored by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA-06) as it was voted out of the full Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for the first time in the bill’s history. With a strong foundation of broad local support and the steadfast efforts of the two Congressional leaders, the bill has made steady progress each successive Congress. Last year the bill passed the House with bipartisan support and advanced farther than ever before in the Senate. Today’s Committee vote completes a key step in the Congressional process towards it becoming law. The Wild Olympics legislation would permanently protect more than 126,500 acres of Olympic National Forest as wilderness and 19 rivers and their major tributaries – a total of 464 river miles – as Wild and Scenic Rivers. Designed through extensive community input to protect ancient forests and salmon streams and enhance outdoor recreation, the legislation would designate the first new wilderness in the Olympic National Forest in nearly four decades and the first-ever protected wild and scenic rivers on the Olympic Peninsula.
“The Olympic Peninsula is home to some of the most breathtaking landscapes anddiverse ecosystems in the entire country, and we have to fight to do everything we can to protect them,” said Senator Murray. “Our bill would preserve the beauty and the rich natural resources that make the Wild Olympics so precious to people from all walks of life, and ensure that future generations have the opportunity to experience the Wild Olympics as we do today. It took years of effort and collaboration among advocates, sportsmen,Tribes, local leaders, and so many others to get to where we are today—passing Wild Olympics through Committee is a big win,and our job now is to keep up the momentum and get this bill to President Biden’s desk.”
“As someone who grew up on the Olympic Peninsula, I learned firsthand that economic growth and environmental protection go hand in hand,” said Rep. Kilmer. “I’m heartened to see the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee consider this practical, balanced strategy that will protect the wildest and most pristine places on the Olympic Peninsula while ensuring we can keep and grow jobs in our natural resource industries and other sectors. And I’m grateful for the years-long collaboration to create a proposal that works for folks across the community – including Tribes, sportsmen, conservation groups, timber communities, business leaders, shellfish growers, and everyone in between.”
Senator Murray and Representative Kilmer spent years gathering extensive community input on the Olympic Peninsula to craft the carefully balanced legislation. It would permanently preserve ancient and mature forests, critical salmon habitat, and sources of clean drinking water for local communities, while also protecting and expanding world-class outdoor recreation opportunities like hiking, camping, boating, hunting, and fishing. No roads would be closed, and trailhead access would not be affected.
Senator Murray and Representative Kilmer worked extensively with local and regional timber interests to remove any currently viable timber base from the proposal to ensure the legislation would have no impact on existing timber jobs, as confirmed in a 2012 Timber Impact Study by the respected independent Forester Derek Churchill.