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SUBSTITUTE
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4035
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Passed
Legislature - 1998 Regular Session
State of Washington 55th
Legislature 1998 Regular Session
By
Read first time 02/05/98.
Referred to Committee on .
Urging
legislation facilitating forest land exchange.
TO
THE HONORABLE WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO
THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS
ASSEMBLED:
We,
your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of
Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and
petition as follows:
WHEREAS,
The citizens of Washington State place great value upon their natural heritage
and desire to protect and enhance it; and
WHEREAS,
The growing population of Washington State is placing growing demands on the
state's natural resources available for recreation; and
WHEREAS,
Because of this growing demand and its attendant impacts on the environment,
the federal government is considering restrictions on public access to popular
recreation sites in Washington's central Cascade Mountains; and
WHEREAS,
Plum Creek Timber Company, L.P. presently owns numerous sites near the Alpine
Lakes Wilderness Area which are of surpassing recreational and environmental
value; and
WHEREAS,
Such lands are located in a "checkerboard" pattern of alternating
sections, a configuration that presents both private and public land managers
with difficulties in meeting their respective objectives; and
WHEREAS,
Both sectors have stated a willingness to exchange lands to accommodate mutual
interests; and
WHEREAS,
The federal government and Plum Creek Timber Company are completing an
environmental impact statement for an exchange of private and public lands in
the Cascade Mountains; and
WHEREAS,
This process has involved extensive public participation; and
WHEREAS,
This exchange complements the President's Forest Plan; and
WHEREAS,
This exchange, if completed as currently proposed, would transfer into public
ownership up to 60,000 acres of private land while transferring into private
ownership up to 40,000 acres of public land; and
WHEREAS,
The United States Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Company L.P., have
worked toward this land exchange for over a decade, expending more than two
million dollars in environmental studies and land analysis; and
WHEREAS,
Time is of the essence because the longer it takes to complete the exchange,
the less private land will be precluded from harvest activities;
NOW,
THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the United States
Government promptly complete the proposed Interstate 90 land exchange, thus
securing the greatest possible environmental, recreational, and land-management
benefits at the earliest possible time.
BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately
transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of the United States,
the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, the United States Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, and
each member of Congress from the State of Washington.
