July—August 2021
An Opportunity for the Wild Olympics Campaign
by Bob Phreaner, Conservation Co-chair
The OPAS Conservation Committee would like to use this column to review the history of the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and inform you of the bill’s current status.
In 2008, a coalition of conservation and recreation groups formed The Wild Olympics Campaign to protect the Olympic Peninsula watershed. The Wild Olympics Campaign developed an initial draft vision in 2009 which included 160,000 acres of wilderness additions and more than 550 miles of Wild and Scenic rivers on the Olympic Peninsula.
OPAS presented a resolution in October 2011 to the Washington State Audubon Conservation Committee to obtain statewide support for Wild Olympics. The Audubon Council of Washington passed this resolution.
More recently, Wild Olympics legislation was introduced In the US House of Representatives in 2019 by Congressman Derek Kilmer and passed in February 2021. The Bill was introduced by Senator Patty Murray on February 25, 2021 as SB455 and was heard by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining on June 16, 2021.
In the last decade OPAS support of Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has not waned and with the reality of climate change, the urgency of passing this Act by a narrowly progressive Congress couldn’t be greater. The OPAS Board recently appropriated $200 to help fund a yard sign publicity program for passage of the Wild Olympics Act and supported the Wild Olympics Coalition testimonial letter to the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining.
To learn more of the background of the Wild Olympics Campaign please go to olybird.org. Next you may select Conservation Stewardship and scroll down for the detailed OPAS chapter history of this issue. To offer your support for the Wild Olympics Campaign go to wildolympics.org, where you will see many endorsements from diverse interest groups. Please add your name to the over 12,000 who have signed this important petition to our legislators.