King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn Commends the Passage of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Bill

December 15, 2014

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Metropolitan King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn today applauded members of Washington’s Congressional delegation for their work on the adoption of legislation that will designate wilderness less than an hour from Seattle.

“After seven years of hard work and countless efforts by a variety of stake holders the Congress has passed the Alpine Lakes Wilderness expansion bill,” said Dunn. “My sincerest congratulations to Congressman Dave Reichert and Senator Patty Murray for their years of hard work and to Chairman Doc Hastings for moving this bill out of the House Resources Committee.”

The Alpine Lakes bill includes the designation of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie and Pratt rivers as Wild and Scenic rivers along with 22,000 acres of land around the Alpine Lakes area now protected as wilderness. The area is less than an hour from Seattle giving visitors and local families easy access to a wilderness experience. This designation is unique since it includes both high and low elevation areas and is so close to population centers.

Dunn has been working with Congressman Reichert to craft this legislation since 2007. This bill originally passed in the House of Representatives in 2010 and Senator Murray got the legislation through the Senate in 2013 but the bill has never cleared the House and Senate in the same Congress until this year.

“I had the privilege of testifying before Congress in support of this legislation last year” said Dunn. I have hunted and fished in the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie and Pratt River basin for years with my family and my son and daughter will be able to do this same now that it is protected.”