Alpine Lakes Wilderness Additions and Wild Pratt River Act of 2007

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.