Groups Provide Input on Recreation Impacts of Planned Timber Sale near Snoqualmie Pass

The popular Ira Spring Trail was proposed to be converted to a temporary haul road for logging. Photo courtesy of Karen Sykes.

Washington Wild and eight other conservation and recreation organizations commented on the draft Environmental Assessment for the Hansen Creek Vegetation Project located north of I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass. The Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest releases a draft environmental assessment for a timber sale that could include as much as 1,500 acres over the next six years adjacent to the recently designated Alpine Lakes Wilderness additions. The organizations’ comments called on the agency to delete one controversial thinning unit with older trees that is not in need of restoration and rethink potential precedent setting regeneration harvest in certain areas. The letter, coordinated by Washington Wild, also called for sufficient harvest buffers from important trails and recreational infrastructure including the John Wayne Trail, McClellan Butte Trail, Ira Springs Trail, Pratt Lake Trail, Talapus Trail, and associated trailheads. Read the Hansen Creek Timber Sale Joint EA Comments.