BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
It seems like the idea’s been around long enough to just about qualify for old-growth status, but a bill to designate select public woods and waters on the Olympic Peninsula as wilderness or wild and scenic again advanced after a US Senate subcommittee hearing this week.
Before it did, the Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act also drew a supportive letter from Washington Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, one of nearly 40 sportsmen’s organizations or businesses now in favor of the proposal long championed by Washington senior US Senator Patty Murray (D) and co-introduced in the House earlier this year by U.S. Representative Emily Randall (D-6th District)
The act would designate about 195 square miles, or 125,000 acres, of the Olympic National Forest as wilderness and 464 stream miles on 19 river systems in ONF, Olympic National Park and state Department of Natural Resources lands as wild and scenic. Most of the rivers are in the park, which is already protected.
“The movement behind our Wild Olympics legislation continues to grow year after year thanks to the tireless work of our coalition of sportsmen, conservationists, Tribes, businesses, local leaders, timber communities, shellfish growers, and so many others,” said Murray in a press release out on Tuesday. “Today’s Senate hearing is a significant step forward for our effort to permanently protect key areas of the Olympic National Forest – a crown jewel in Washington state – while preserving world-class recreation opportunities and supporting local economies. As long as I’m in the Senate, I won’t stop fighting to win the support we need to get our Wild Olympics bill across the finish line and protect these treasured areas on the Olympic Peninsula for generations to come.”
Per a newspaper article from last spring, the bill’s origins date back to 2008 and it was first officially introduced in Congress in 2012. Revised afterwards to make it more widely palatable, it has been passed by the US House twice, including in 2021, and in 2024 it advanced in the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee but didn’t make the cut at the end of year.
Washington BHA also endorsed that 2021 version, and in their latest supportive letter, they and 11 other sportsmen’s organizations termed the act a “win-win for sportsmen.”
“It will permanently protect our most sensitive public lands and rivers while also maintaining and enhancing sportsmen’s access – without closing any roads or restricting trailhead access. And by protecting remote sensitive areas upstream it will also help protect water quality and fishing downstream,” they stated.
BHA et al also added that, “equally important” to members of their coalition with friends in the logging world, the act “was carefully designed not to impact any current timber jobs.”
That is key for supporter Casey Wiegel of Waters West Guide Service.
“The Wild Olympics proposal would simply make the current safeguards protecting our rivers on the Olympic National Forest permanent,” he stated in Murray’s release. “That’s all it does. It doesn’t change access or cost timber jobs. And if it did, I wouldn’t support it, because my family works in the timber industry. There are many challenges facing our rivers and salmon, with lots of debate and millions of dollars spent trying to help restore clean water and habitat downstream. But one basic, simple piece of the foundation we can put in place now that won’t cost any of us anything, is to permanently protect the healthy habitat on the federal lands upstream against any misguided attempts to develop them in the future.”
One point that often comes up around the act is that creating new wilderness could increase rifle hunting opportunities for blacktail deer in September on the Olympic Peninsula. ONF’s Buckhorn, Colonel Bob, Mount Skokomish The Brothers and Wonder Mountain Wildernesses are all part of WDFW’s long-standing High Buck Hunt, but folding any new acreage into that season would require a positive vote by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission, per an agency analysis. That seems to have a higher likelihood now than in the not too distant past.
Others sportsmen’s organizations or businesses supporting the proposal include Northwest Guides & Anglers Association, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Association of Northwest Steelheaders, Ashley Nichole Lewis of Bad Ash Outdoors guide service, Mike Z’s Guide Service, Sportsmen for Wild Olympics and Wild Steelhead Coalition, among others.
It’s also supported by the Elwha, Jamestown S’Klallam and Quileute Tribes and the Quinault Indian Nation.
Next steps appear to be to pass the act out of committee, then the full Senate, concurrence by the House, and signature of the president.
