Tinkering around the edges of the Wild Sky Wilderness

A snowball fight Sunday along the Barclay Creek Trail was a moment to treasure, and a window on the low-elevation delights of the Wild Sky Wilderness right next door.

The state's first new wilderness in 24 years is wedged between Gold Bar and Stevens Pass, north of Highway 2 in Snohomish County. President Bush's signature is barely dry on the law, and already there are expectations about what comes next.

Lobbing snowballs in late June is wonderfully strange. The popular 2.2-mile trail to Barclay Lake was not buried in snow, but there were plenty of snowy stretches stubbornly persisting into summer.

Enough white stuff was around the lake at 2,500 feet to disguise the trail, and encourage plopping down to stare straight up at the snow-covered north face of Baring Mountain.

All the views are in the wilderness area, but the trail was delicately carved out of the boundaries for the 106,000-acre treasure. This tiny, knowing adjustment is an example of the attention to detail that helped Wild Sky to prevail in Congress after a nine-year, community-based campaign.

Passage of the bill creating the wilderness area, signed into law in May, was a glorious triumph for Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Rep. Rick Larsen, and legions of community, outdoor and environmental activists.

A marvel of the Wild Sky process was the knowledge and role of figures such as Mike Town, who headed Friends of Wild Sky. Town and his wife Meg, educators in the Redmond School District, have hiked and cross-country skied hundreds of miles of Wild Sky.

This success is all about snowmobilers, floatplane pilots, equestrian groups, key congressional staff and others working out the details.

Barclay Creek Trail is an example of literally tinkering around the edges. The trail gets heavy use. Scouts and youth groups put dozens of hikers over the cedar boardwalks that dot the path.

The U.S. Forest Service reminded negotiators that wilderness regulations allow groups of only 12 or less, on foot or horseback. So, in the term of art, Barclay Creek Trail was cherry-stemmed out of the final boundaries.

A heftier example of politic drafting skills, which left environmentalists gasping at the time, was redrawing the lines around Index-Galena Road, which was washed out in November 2006 by the North Fork of the Skykomish River. A section of the county road and river are now one in the same.

Rebuilding the road, a primary access to the wilderness, could take a half dozen years. Wild Sky boundaries were adjusted to maximize the smartest placement of the road. County Public Works Director Steve Thomsen estimates the ambitious project could cost $10 million.

For now, the next main option is a longer drive over Jack Pass, to Beckler River Road, east of Skykomish.

Get ready for the next phase: making Wild Sky a reality.

For the Forest Service, a first task is a full boundary survey with legal descriptions. The who-is-in and who-is-out questions get very persnickety. Those maps must be produced as soon as practicable.

The law gives the Forest Service two years to complete a trail plan and report to the secretary of agriculture how it will be implemented. That process is likely to establish more trails outside the wilderness — like Barclay Creek Trail — that create more access points, and close some roads.

Shutting down roads — a big, expensive job — can mean completely erasing them and pulling culverts or converting roads to trails.

Another sticky task is identifying land for future acquisition. The Forest Service insists on getting the mineral rights to inholdings — land surrounded by wilderness — along with a purchase or donation. That can complicate matters.

The cost of a long to-do list is $19 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. A big number. Alan Gibbs, regional Forest Service spokesman, said the figure might include estimates of forgone timber sales.

Nine environmental and community organizations met Wednesday night to form a working group to monitor progress. Tom Uniack, of the Washington Wilderness Coalition, said everyone is mindful, as the celebrating continues, the job is not over, and it is not time to let down and go home.

A vision of the prize is available from Barclay Creek Trail. Go see for yourself.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to www.seattletimes.com/edcetera