Wild Sky attains wilderness designation

WASHINGTON – Nearly six years after it was first introduced, a bill to create a Wild Sky Wilderness northeast of Seattle has become law.

President Bush signed a bill Thursday making Wild Sky the first new wilderness area in Washington state in nearly a quarter-century.

The House gave final approval to the bill last month. It designates 167 square miles in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest north of Sultan, Wash., as federal wilderness, the government’s highest level of protection.

Wild Sky, sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, both D-Wash., is the first new federally designated wilderness in Washington since 1984.

Murray said Wild Sky “has always brought diverse people together to do what’s right for our environment and our future. I can’t wait to lace up my tennis shoes and take those first steps into Washington’s first new wilderness area in 24 years.”

The bill signed Thursday also designates a site on Bainbridge Island, Wash., where hundreds of Japanese-Americans were forced from their homes on the way to internment camps during World War II as a national historic site.

It also designates a recreation trail in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest in honor of former Rep. Jim Weaver, D-Ore.

Wild Sky, first introduced in 2002, covers approximately 106,000 acres of low-elevation forest on the west slope of the Cascades. The wilderness designation will block development. Wild Sky, named for Skykomish River, is 90 minutes from Seattle.