Washington: Wild Sky wilderness gets bigger

Wildlife will have more room to roam with the acquisition of the Upper
Wallace and Pacific Crest Trail parcels by the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie
and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests. The Forest Service just
completed two purchases that will increase wildlife and recreational
opportunities on the forest, according to Scott Lynn, Forest Service
realty specialist. The combined acquisition is more than 1,200 acres,
with 149 acres in the newly established Wild Sky Wilderness Area and
the rest along the Pacific Crest Trail. The wilderness was created by
Congress last year. The Pacific Crest Trail is a nationally
significant long-distance trail extending from Canada to Mexico along
the rugged and remote crests of the Cascades, Sierra Nevada and
southern California mountain ranges.

The U.S. Forest Service bought
the land from the Cascade Land Conservancy and the Trust for Public
Lands. According to Lynn, acquiring privately owned parcels within
national forest boundaries allows the Forest Service to better manage
the land in a contiguous ownership block. Right now, the Snoqualmie
and Cle Elum Ranger Districts face the largest concentration of
checkerboard-pattern ownership on these forests. These districts
straddle Interstate 90 east of North Bend, Wash. Each parcel creates
more trespass issues, boundary maintenance costs and potential
right-of-way access situations that the forest is trying to reduce.
The Forest Service has been working with Cascade Land Conservancy and
the Trust for Public Land more than six years to obtain funding for
these projects. Lynn finalized the purchases in December. The Forest
Service has strict guidance to follow when purchasing land. The
process requires local forests to submit a request to their regional
office and from there to Washington D.C. for funding approval.
Anything we can do to simplify land management while protecting key
wildlife areas is something we work toward,” Lynn said.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2009/01/wild_sky_wilderness_grows_in_w.html

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