WASHINGTON WILDERNESS BILL THAT STALLED UNDER POMBO PASSES CONSERVATION COMMITTEE
Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rahall Returns Committee to Core Purpose of Conserving & Protecting Americas Natural Heritage With Passage of Wilderness Bill

Washington, DC Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund president Rodger Schlickeisen hailed the House Committee on Natural Resources vote today creating a 106,000-acre wilderness area in one of Washington states national forests. The vote comes after a five-year delay in which former committee chair, Richard Pombo, refused to move the politically-popular bill. The bill, known as "Wild Sky," was approved during the committees very first legislative business meeting of the new Congress.

"What a difference one election can make," stated Schlickeisen. "Wild Sky has moved swiftly from being lost in the legislative wilderness under Chairman Pombo to genuine wilderness under Chairman Rahall."

The Wild Sky Wilderness Act of 2007, H.R. 886, protects low-elevation, old-growth forest and 25 miles of salmon streams in Washington's Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The same measure passed the full Senate in the last three congressional sessions only to stall under Pombo. With Rahall's leadership, Defenders expects the bill to be approved by the full House and then by the Senate during the 110th Congress.

"Chairman Rahall is to be commended for moving so quickly to return his committee to its true mission of conserving and investing in public lands such as national forests," stated Schlickeisen.

"Hats off to the Washington Wilderness Coalition and all the individual groups that have led this campaign for so many years," Schlickeisen said.

###

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund provides a powerful voice in Washington to Americans who value our conservation heritage. Through grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy and political campaigns, the Action Fund champions those laws and lawmakers that protect wildlife and wild places while working against those that do them harm.