“I am pleased with the House’s efforts to move forward with Wild Sky.  I see this quick action as a sign of recognition of all the hard work that went into crafting this bill,” Larsen said.  

The U.S. Senate has already had a hearing on Wild Sky.  It was originally expected that Wild Sky would move forward in the Senate first, and the House would follow suit.   Today’s actions imply that the House is just as committed to passing this wilderness legislation as the Senate.

“Senator Murray and I have been working on Wild Sky for over one year,” Larsen explained.  “We brought many diverse groups to the table when we crafted this bill and we went to great lengths to build a consensus among those different groups.  The end result is a wilderness area that everyone will be able to enjoy.  The hard work is paying off.”

Wild Sky will designate over 106,000 acres of roadless national forest as Wilderness.  Traditionally, Wilderness has consisted solely of old growth forest at higher elevations.  Wild Sky is innovative in that it will protect approximately 14,000 acres of low-elevation old growth, which will protect salmon streams while still making the land available for recreational use.