This year was supposed to be different.
Three times before, a proposal to create the Wild Sky Wilderness fell flat. Each time, the U.S. Senate approved the bill, and then a Republican congressman from California killed it in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Then, last year Democrats took over Congress and the House approved the wilderness bill in May.
At the time, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., talked about celebrating the eight-year journey to create Wild Sky with a summer hike through the newly established Index-area wilderness.
Summer has since turned into fall, and Wild Sky has turned into another drawn-out battle. This time a Republican senator from Oklahoma has kept the Senate from voting on the bill.
“I know that everyone in our state who cherishes this land is looking forward to getting this done, and so am I,” Murray said.
“While there have been barriers and bumps in the road to passing this bill, we have overcome them before and I’m confident we will again,” she said. “I know this bill has the support necessary to make its way out of the Senate and into law.”
She said the key obstacle is getting the bill on the floor of the Senate, which has a “jam-packed schedule.”
Matt McAlvanah, a Murray spokesman, said the Senate needs 60 votes to break a hold Sen. Tom Coburn has on the measure. He said she is working with key Senate democratic leaders to break the bill loose by the end of the year.
“We are hopeful that this will be done pretty soon,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., is the bill’s co-author in the House.
“We feel good about Sen. Murray getting Wild Sky through the Senate this year,” said Amanda Mahnke, Larsen’s spokeswoman.
President Bush has said he will sign it into law if the bill gets through the Senate.
“I have full confidence that Sen. Murray and Congressman Larsen will get the bill passed as soon as possible,” said Mike Town, an environmental education teacher from Duvall who has championed the wilderness proposal for eight years.
“Most people probably think it’s already done,” Town said. “The truth is, it will probably pass very unceremoniously, then we’ll wake up the next morning, and then it’ll be like ‘Gee, we’ve got the newest wilderness.’”
The proposed 106,000 acre wilderness is on U.S. Forest Service land between the towns of Index and Skykomish, along the Beckler River and the North Fork Skykomish River. It would be just west of the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness, which was established in 1984 and named after the late Everett senator.
Wilderness designation would give lowland old-growth trees, scenic rivers, rolling meadows and craggy Cascade peaks the strongest protection afforded by federal land.
The House’s vote on the wilderness bill is good until the current session of congress ends, which likely will be the end of 2008.
Town hopes that the bill gets adopted much sooner.
“After eight years of waiting for this to happen, and with such a good likelihood it’s going to happen shortly, I really don’t have any worries,” he said. “Every indication we have is that this is going to pass, that these issues are going to be resolved shortly. I’ll get anxious if it’s July and things haven’t happened.”
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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