Pratt River Valley Now in Alpine Lakes Wilderness

The Newsletter of the Alpine Lakes Protection Society (ALPS) 2015 Issue No. 1 Rick McGuire Pratt River valley now in Alpine Lakes Wilderness By Rick McGuire and Donald Parks Also in this issue: After over forty years of work because of difficult politics in the by the Alpine Lakes Protection US Senate. Low power hydro project threatens North Fork Snoqualmie ................... 4 Society (ALPS), the Sierra Club Background and Early History Helicopter operations threaten and several other conservation thru 1976 Alpine Lake Wilderness ................... 5 organizations, the Pratt River Yakima Plan update ............................. 6 valley and nearby areas are now The road to permanent protection for the low elevation State could expand motorized use protected within the Alpine in the Teanaway ................................. 7 Pratt valley, the center-piece of Lakes Wilderness. Parts of the Greenway National Heritage Area Middle Fork Snoqualmie and this legislation, has been long and Bill re-introduced ............................... 8 Pratt were also designated as twisting. The Pratt valley suffered Hansen Creek Vegetation Project Wild and Scenic Rivers. Our bill from a checkerboard pattern of Snoqualmie Ranger Districat .......... 9 was included in the catch-all alternating federal and private ALPS and other groups file lawsuit “National Defense Authorization ownership resulting from the 1864 to stop ATV routes on Okanogan- Act (NDAA),” and signed into Northern Pacific Land Grant. The Wenatchee National Forest .............10 law on December 19, 2014. This railroad subsequently sold its North Fork Skykomish road costs keep soaring .......................................11 unusual vehicle was used to lands in the Pratt and many other ALPS obtains tax-exempt status ......11 package our bill and a number parts of the Cascades New diversions & dams in Alpine of other lands and waters bills Continued on page 2 ALPINE Lakes Wilderness? ........................... 12 1 Pratt River valley now in developed a larger single- protect a number of unroaded unit Wilderness proposal that areas, including many that were Alpine Lakes Wilderness encompassed 374,342 acres. But contiguous to the designated Continued from page 1 many important places were Wilderness, many other areas were to Weyerhaeuser. Its subsidiary left out, so conservationists not protected, including the Pratt North Bend Timber Company worked out their own proposal. which was left vulnerable. logged lands in the lower and By 1974 ALPS and a coalition of The 1976 Legislation did middle Pratt, both private and conservation groups had proposed however set in motion a major National Forest sections, from the a 565,000 acre Wilderness effort to adjust the ownership 1920s through 1941. including more checkerboard pattern in the region, resulting in land and more forests than the an Alpine Lakes Land Exchange Early railroad-based logging Forest Service had proposed. was not very thorough, and much that was formalized in 1979 and This proposal by conservationists took several years to carry out. old growth survived. Low wood included the entire Pratt River prices during the Depression years Weyerhaeuser took advantage of and much of the Middle Fork the situation and exchanged out meant that only the best trees Snoqualmie area. were worth the effort to cut and of a number of significant areas haul out. Thus many areas were But when Congress finished including all of its holdings in the simply bypassed. Logged areas drawing final boundaries for the Pratt River Valley. were never artificially replanted, Wilderness in 1976, encompassing With the Pratt now entirely and have now grown back nicely 393,400 acres, the Pratt valley in federal ownership and Alpine into diverse, naturally regenerated, was not included. This was Lakes Area planning completed, mature second growth forest, because this forest was considered the Forest Service unveiled plans with many trees now more than 3 “high quality timberland”; it in 1987 for several massive timber feet in diameter and 150 feet tall. was in checkerboard ownership sales in the erstwhile North Bend The Pratt valley and much of the requiring additional funding for Ranger District that included Middle Fork are well on their way the legislation; and it had been the Pratt Valley. A major USFS to becoming old growth, “ancient cut only 30-40 years previously. sponsored field trip was held in forest” again. Although perhaps ALPS and its allies tried to include the Pratt in the late summer of not literally true, local legend has as much forest in the Wilderness 1987. ALPS swung into action, it that scrap iron from rails torn up as possible, but the politics of the forming a Pratt River-Middle after the Pratt logging went toward day were heavily influenced by the Fork Steering Committee, and building Admiral Yamamoto’s Kido timber industry, thus much low mobilizing widespread opposition Butai (mobile striking force) that elevation forest was excluded. to the new cutting plans. Then- attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Defending the Pratt 1977–2006 Congressman John Miller bringing America into World War introduced a bill to designate the Conservationists viewed II. Pratt as a Wild & Scenic river. the 1976 bill as a start toward Although it did not pass, broad Conservationist interest in this protecting the region, not the area started at least 50 years ago public opposition to roading and end. The recent legislation takes logging the Pratt eventually caused when a 334,000-acre Wilderness a big step toward finishing the proposal was developed to the Forest Service to back away job started in the 1970s. ALPS has from the plan. The Forest Service replace the Alpine Lakes Limited worked steadily to protect the Area that was established by the ended up with much more than forests surrounding the Wilderness it bargained for from its Pratt Forest Service in 1946. The North ever since it was established, Cascades Study of 1965, a joint sale proposal. After the sale was advocating for administrative stopped, Pratt defenders came to National Park Service and Forest protections, and supporting Service effort, resulted in an early the realization that the real prize purchases and exchanges to was not just the Pratt, but the Forest Service proposal to protect acquire critical private lands, such the Alpine Lakes area with a two- entire Middle Fork Snoqualmie as the checker-boarded sections valley itself. unit Wilderness of 195,000 acres in the Pratt valley, which are now that was mostly rock and ice. entirely in public ownership. During the development of the The Forest Service initiated Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie Forest Plan, The Forest Service prepared completed in 1990, protection of a study of the Alpine Lakes a management plan for the Region in 1971 and developed the Pratt was a high priority for the Alpine Lakes Area as directed environmental community. In fact management alternatives for the by Congress in 1981. While area. The study team eventually the Pratt generated more specific this plan did administratively calls for protection than any other 2 ALPINE area on the national forest. But the Final Push for the Pratt, Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Mt. Forest Service ignored these inputs 2007-2014 Si Natural Resource Conservation and continued to allocate the Pratt Areas just downstream on Ultimately, these outreach for road construction and timber state DNR managed lands. The efforts did bear fruit when cutting. combination of Pratt Wilderness Congressman Dave Reichert and Middle Fork NRCAs now But in April 1990 everything introduced an excellent bill to add includes what many believe to changed when the Jack Ward the Pratt and parts of the Middle be the largest extent of protected Thomas report on the northern Fork and South Fork Snoqualmie lowland forest in the Cascades. All spotted owl proposed major valleys to the Wilderness in 2007. of this is located less than an hour areas of national forest land After the passage of Wild Sky east of Seattle. in Washington, Oregon, and in 2008, Senator Patty Murray California to be withdrawn took up the cause, introducing a ALPS wishes to thank those who from timber production. This revised bill in the Senate, adding took the lead to protect the Pratt, proposal included the Pratt the Middle Fork Snoqualmie especially Senator Patty Murray, Valley, and it was listed in every River as a Wild and Scenic River. Congressman Dave Reichert, and major subsequent owl study. Reichert and Murray were later Congresswoman Suzan DelBene. The pressure to log the Pratt was joined by Suzan DelBene after Many others played important greatly reduced. the 2010 redistricting placed the roles also, including King County The Middle Fork is the closest Pratt-Middle Fork area into the Councilman Reagan Dunn, and mountain valley to Seattle, but by new First Congressional District Neil Strege, in his capacity as a the late 1980s it had degenerated which she now represents. The staffer first with Congresswoman into a sort of mountain slum. three worked as a strong and Jennifer Dunn and later with Shooting, dumping and vandalism effective team to gain passage of Councilman Reagan Dunn. Strege gave it a well-deserved reputation this legislation. took an interest in the Middle Fork and was the right person in the as a place to avoid. But ALPS The bill passed the House, right place to take the initiative members and others formed the and passed the Senate, but never in catalyzing the whole process. Middle Fork Outdoor Recreation in the same Congress

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