WASHINGTON — Is this the year for Wild Sky? After a two-year battle, backers are pinning their hopes on retiring Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.) to create Wild Sky Wilderness, the first new wilderness area in Washington state since 1984.
Despite Dunn's strong Bush administration connections, the plan faces long odds. The proposed wilderness area, 106,000 acres in the Cascade Range northeast of Seattle, would permanently protect bears, bald eagles and other wildlife in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, plus promote clean water and such activities as fishing, hiking and rafting.
Republican leaders of the House Resources Committee, where the bill is stalled, are skeptical at best. The panel's cowboy-hat wearing chairman, Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), a cattle rancher and strong advocate of private property rights, calls wilderness designation an extreme measure that would halt virtually all logging or road building and severely limit economic activity.
Critics in Washington state, meanwhile, call the proposal unnecessary and even destructive. Much of the area targeted for protection is not even wilderness, they say, including 16,000 acres formerly used for logging and other commercial purposes.
The Senate, spurred by Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, passed the bill in 2002 and again last fall, but it has not come up for a vote in the full House.
Supporters now count on Dunn, the state's senior Republican, to help chief sponsor Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) get it through the GOP-controlled House. Dunn, who is going to retire after six terms, is close to House leaders and is a prodigious fundraiser for President Bush and other Republicans.
Environmentalists say Dunn, of suburban Bellevue, has a chance to build an environmental legacy through Wild Sky and an unrelated bill authorizing tax-exempt bonds to promote forest conservation. She also is backing a plan to expand the boundaries of Mt. Rainier National Park.
Dunn says the environmental bills are among her top priorities, but dismisses any interest in a legacy. "I'm not that legacy-oriented," she said. "I like to get things done. I'm a doer. I'd like to bring completion to some of these things we've worked so hard on."
Opposition from her own leadership is her biggest obstacle, Dunn said. "I am telling [GOP leaders] how important it is to a lot of us," she said. "I believe it is part of our values system here in Washington state."
