A few years ago, representatives from several local
environmental groups got together to think about what might be done to permanently
protect the remaining wild Olympic Peninsula watersheds and forests from further
degradation. The result of that brainstorming
coupled with about three years of extensive outreach to and feedback from stakeholders,
policy makers, and politicians is the Wild Olympics Campaign, a broad proposal
to give permanent wilderness designation to 134,000 acres of Forest Service
lands, designate 23 new watersheds as Wild and Scenic Rivers, and to make
thousands of acres of privately- or state- held lands eligible to be purchased
by the government for preservation if the sellers are willing and public
funding is available. I went out with my recorder one day to talk with some of the stakeholders in the proposal--for and against:
(25 minutes)
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