Sen. Murray pushes Wild Olympics bill — again

Congresswoman objects to exclusion of Wild Olympics bill from public lands package

By The Daily World • July 31, 2025 1:30 am
Wild Olympics campaign Backpackers on the Upper Dungeness Trail, featuring the Dungeness proposed Wild & Scenic River and Wilderness additions.
Wild Olympics campaign Backpackers on the Upper Dungeness Trail, featuring the Dungeness proposed Wild & Scenic River and Wilderness additions.

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, blocked an attempt on the Senate floor by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to pass a package of public lands bills that excluded Sen. Murray’s Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Sen. Murray said her legislation has widespread grassroots support in Washington state from a broad coalition that includes Republican and Democratic elected officials, local businesses and economic leaders, Tribes, hunters, fisherman, conservationists, outdoor industry groups, farms, loggers and countless others. Sen. Murray made clear she would be glad to consider a revised package that included her Wild Olympics legislation.

The Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act would permanently protect more than 126,500 acres of Olympic National Forest as wilderness and 19 rivers and their major tributaries — a total of 464 river miles — as Wild and Scenic Rivers.

Designed through extensive community input to conserve ancient forests and pristine rivers, protect clean water and salmon habitat, and enhance outdoor recreation, the legislation would set aside the first new wilderness on Olympic National Forest in over four decades and the first-ever protected wild and scenic rivers on the Olympic Peninsula.

Sen. Murray in May reintroduced the legislation alongside Rep. Emily Randall (D, WA-06). The legislation has passed the House with bipartisan support several times before and passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last Congress for the first time in the bill’s history.

“… I appreciate the senator from Utah being here tonight to offer this package,” Sen. Murray said in remarks delivered on the Senate Floor. “But I believe there needs to be a more bipartisan and thoughtful way to consider how we protect the future of our public lands.

“For example, the legislation that the senior senator from Utah wants to pass tonight does not include my Wild Olympics bill. Now, this is a bill that will help to preserve the wild and scenic rivers of the Olympic Peninsula, that has very strong support from Democrats and Republicans in my state.”

Sen. Murray said her bill would boost the Peninsula economy and continue providing access to “World-class outdoor recreation on the Olympic Peninsula, and it conserves critical habitat for salmon and water resources for our very rural communities.

Sen. Murray has been attempting to pass the bill for more than a decade and it has passed the House only to fail in the Senate.

Wild Olympics campaign The Moonlight Dome proposed wilderness in the Olympic National Forest in Grays Harbor County. Moonlight Dome’s steep slopes and ancient forests filter clean, cold water into the headwaters of both the East and West Forks of the Humptulips River, providing critical salmon habitat.

Wild Olympics campaign The Moonlight Dome proposed wilderness in the Olympic National Forest in Grays Harbor County. Moonlight Dome’s steep slopes and ancient forests filter clean, cold water into the headwaters of both the East and West Forks of the Humptulips River, providing critical salmon habitat.

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