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New! Click on Activities link above to read Washington chapter's May 2009 newsletter.
Click
on Issues above for details about omnibus public lands legislation that
was signed into law March 30, 2009. The legislation gives statutory
permanence to the National Landscape Conservation System, which
includes a wilderness area and national trails in Washington.
Click
on Issues above for link to Washington Chapter's March 27, 2009, letter
to the Department of Energy about transfers of wastes from leaking
storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
The Washington chapter's Executive Committee members are:
- President Bob Batty, Cheney
- Vice President Jan Brucker, Seattle
- Secretary Lloyd Flem, Olympia
- Treasurer Ed Bustamante, Vancouver
- Harvey Brown, Greenacres
- Lunell Haught, Spokane
- Former State Rep. Toby Nixon, Kirkland
State Profile
Washington has
some of America's most breathtaking scenery. In a day's drive, from
west to east, you can see wild ocean waves, a temperate rain forest, an
inland sea speckled with forested islands, an active volcano, cathedral
groves of cedar, Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, snow-capped mountains,
harsh desert beauty, ancient coulees, and the Columbia River, the Great
River of the West. Washingtonians are proud of our national parks --
Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades. Nearly 10 percent of our
state is designated wilderness. Our newest gem is the Hanford Reach
National Monument, which protects the last free-flowing stretch of the
Columbia River in the United States.
Washington has a
long tradition of Republican conservation leadership. Dan Evans, an
outstanding Republican governor who served three terms in Olympia, says
his proudest accomplishment was getting legislation passed to protect
the Evergreen State's air and water, and winning approval of a bond
measure to expand the state's parks system. As a U.S. senator, Evans
and fellow Senator Slade Gorton helped win passage of the Washington
Wilderness Act of 1984. John Spellman, another great Republican
governor, stopped construction of an oil pipeline beneath the waters of
Puget Sound and of an oil drilling rig in the sensitive shorelines of
north Puget Sound. Congressman John Miller was a strong
conservationist. The late Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn won passage of
legislation expanding Mount Rainier National Park. Her successor,
Congressman Dave Reichert, is compiling a strong record on energy,
public lands, and other conservation issues.
At the state
level, five-term Secretary of State Ralph Munro (a REP member) fought
to protect Puget Sound's native wildlife. His successor, Sam Reed, also
a REP member, cares strongly about keeping the environment as a
mainstream Republican issue. Former state Senator Don Carlson and
former state Representative Toby Nixon are great friends of the
environment and of REP. Current Republican legislators such as Glenn
Anderson, Skip Priest, and others are showing that protecting
Washington's quality of life is a bipartisan concern.
As it should be.
Washington's environment is under growing pressure. Rapid urban growth
is spreading over timberlands, wetlands and prairies. Increasing
traffic is polluting the air and making our cities less livable. Puget
Sound is stressed by polluted stormwater, toxic contaminants, and
shoreline "hardening." More than 600 streams, lakes, and other bodies
of water in the state are on the federal impaired waters list. The last
remaining roadless areas in our national forests are still unprotected.
The spread of noxious cheatgrass is shrinking native shrub steppe
habitat east of the Cascades. And what used to be the world's largest
salmon runs are disappearing as a result of habitat degradation, dams,
overfishing and ill-conceived fish hatcheries. Click the Current Issues
button (above) to learn more about these issues.
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