Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forest
215 Melody Lane
Wenatchee, WA 98801

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NEWS RELEASE

Date: May 21, 2003
Subject: National Scenic Trail Lands Acquired
Contact: Paul Hart, Everett White

Nearly 4,700 acres of forest land, including about 6 miles of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, have been purchased by the Forest Service from Plum Creek Timber Company for addition to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Wenatchee National Forests.

The purchase is a cooperative effort that included important support from the Pacific Crest Trail Association, The Cascades Conservation Partnership, and the Washington Congressional delegation, said Darrel Kenops, Acting Supervisor of the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests.

The acquisition is the latest in a series of exchanges and purchases designed to consolidate federal ownership of forest lands on either side of the Interstate 90 Highway corridor in the heart of the Washington Cascades. The next large purchase will be of 4,400 acres of Plum Creek Timber Company lands near Salmon la Sac along the Cle Elum and Cooper Rivers in Kittitas County. It is expected to be completed in June.

The $7.9 million being used to accomplish the two purchases has been appropriated by Congress from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.

"These forest lands offer an extraordinary mix of values for public ownership," Kenops said. "They are especially important to wildlife species as a link between the north and south Cascades ecosystems. They also have great value for recreation, scenery, and watershed."

The eight Crest Trail parcels are located west of Lake Keechelus at Yakima Pass and Meadow Mountain, south of Stampede Pass near Snowshoe Butte, and near Blowout Mountain and Green Pass. The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail winds 500 miles all the way from the Canadian Border to Mexico. Most of the trail crosses federal land, but some key segments pass through privately owned lands.

About two thirds of the Crest Trail lands, or 3,035 acres, lie west of the Cascade Crest in King County, and about one third, or 1,662 acres, lie east of the crest in Kittitas County.

The seven parcels to be acquired in June are located near Salmon la Sac, just south of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Those lands include more than three miles of the Cle Elum and Cooper Rivers and about two miles of recreational trail.

Plum Creek Timber Company had granted purchase options to the government for the lands when they could not be acquired in the original I-90 Land Exchange in 1999.

With the current crest trail acquisitions, almost 46,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Company lands have been added to the Wenatchee National Forest, and another 7,700 acres to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest through exchange, purchase, and donation since 1999.

Kenops praised The Cascades Conservation Partnership for its successful campaign to raise private funds and increase citizen recognition of the value of central Cascades forest lands for public ownership. Support of the Pacific Crest Trail Association was key in the completion of the latest purchase, he said.

This whole lands acquisition process has been a wonderful example of cooperation by government, private industry, elected officials, conservation and recreation groups in the public interest," Kenops said. "The result is a sweeping landscape of forest land that will be owned and enjoyed by future generations of Americans. "