Editorial
George Nethercutt in the wilderness

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Rep. George Nethercutt needs to join the Washington congressional delegation and support the carefully crafted Wild Sky Wilderness Act.

Instead, he is offering substitute legislation that, remarkably, is worse than nothing. For years, the Spokane Republican avoided having an opinion on protecting 106,000 acres in distant Snohomish County. Now he is running for the U.S. Senate and he acts as though he has all the answers.

Nethercutt wants to pare 13,000 acres of lowland forest from the plan, and seeks to have the remainder designated back-country wilderness, a nice-sounding but meaningless description.

The Wild Sky proposal, which protects mountain and forestland near Index, Gold Bar and Skykomish, is the product of three years of patient work by two Democrats, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, with the critical input and support of Republican Rep. Jennifer Dunn.

This bill is a triumph of consultation and support by local communities, businesses and public officials.

The proposed wilderness area, virtually all in Larsen's 2nd District, would be carved out of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

In past sessions, the bill has passed the Senate and has been unanimously approved by the House Resources Committee.

The Bush administration long ago signaled the president would sign the bill.

The legislation hit a roadblock under a new committee chairman, but Nethercutt may be the real impediment. Instead of supporting his delegation with a forceful endorsement, he embraced a deeply flawed alternative.

Nethercutt's approach is not a compromise, it is wholesale surrender. All of the compromise is already built into Murray's and Larsen's plan, which used public hearings and legislative horse-trading to accommodate a variety of concerns

Nethercutt summarily eliminates 13,000 accessible, lowland acres and leaves the rest in limbo for as long as three years while the Forest Service decides what to do.

First Nethercutt had no opinion, now he offers no constructive help.