Environment

Less than an hour’s hop by car from Seattle lies a glacier-cut terrain dotted with 700 lakes, Sitka spruce forests and bull-trout runs.It’s taken much longer — six years and counting — for Congress to approve an expansion of Alpine Lakes Wilderness, the closest federally designated wild lands to the Puget Sound metropolis.It appears the legislation may finally pass… Read more »

A long-requested U.S. House hearing on Tuesday saw unusual bipartisan agreement that the closest Cascade mountain valley to Seattle deserves protection, and that 22,100 acres in the mountains of eastern King County should be added to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area.The testimony should boost prospects that the legislation can be sprung from the House Natural Resources Committee. … Read more »

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources today in support of her legislation to save the Green Mountain Lookout and another to expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. DelBene introduced HR 908 and is an original cosponsor of HR 361.HR 908 would protect the historic Green Mountain Lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. HR 361 would expand the… Read more »

A House Natural Resources subcommittee will at long last hear testimony on legislation to expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and protect the Middle Fork-Snoqualmie River in eastern King County, after more than two years in which a Republican-run House has ignored legislation sponsored by a Republican congressman.The Public Lands Subcommittee will, on Tuesday, take up the Alpine Lakes bill… Read more »

Rep. Suzan DelBene, WA-01, and Rep. Rick Larsen, WA-02, today announced the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to their request for full funding of the Skagit River General Investigation (G.I.) study for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Army Corps will spend $299,400 on the study, which will shape flood protection for communities throughout the Skagit Valley.“We need the Army… Read more »

The Green Mountain Lookout should be let stand in its present perch, atop a popular Snohomish County hiking trail, and not be moved or removed, according to a tough-worded letter sent to the U.S. Forest Service by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and U.S. Reps. Rick Larsen and Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.“We strongly oppose the removal of the Green Mountain Lookout from its… Read more »

Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and U.S. Representatives Suzan DelBene (WA-01) and Rick Larsen (WA-02) introduced legislation that would protect the Green Mountain Lookout in Glacier Peak Wilderness.  The legislation comes after a group based out of Montana filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for using a helicopter and machinery… Read more »