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Alpine Lakes Wilderness
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Alpine Lakes Wilderness
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is a large wilderness area spanning the Central Cascades of Washington state in the United States. The wilderness is located in parts of Wenatchee National Forest and Snoqualmie National Forest, and is approximately bounded by Interstate 90 and Snoqualmie Pass to the south and U.S. Route 2 and Stevens Pass to the north. The Alpine Lakes is the largest wilderness area near the population centers of Puget Sound, counted at 414,161 acres (167,605 ha) following the 2014 expansion.
The wilderness was originally designated the Alpine Lakes Limited Area in 1946, but this designation did not offer protection from resource extractions and was exclusively regulated by the United States Forest Service. The region and adjacent areas were being extensively used for mining, timber extraction, and fur trapping leading to roads, clear cuts and ecological degradation. Efforts to further protect the lower valley forests of Alpine Lakes began in the 1950s by the North Cascades Conservation Council formed in 1957 and in October 1968 the Alpine Lakes Protection Society was formed. However, it was the plans of the Snoqualmie National Forest to expand timber sales and build a road up the Miller River valley to Lake Dorothy and then onto the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the city of North Bend that started a grassroots campaign to remove the unilateral decision-making authority away from the Forest Service. In addition, there was much criticism by conservationists that recreational usage should not be exclusive to the upper alpine terrain as the regional forestry leadership advocated saving the lower forests for possible timber sales. A powerful and key amendment to the Wilderness Act by Wayne Aspinall, a Colorado congressman, gave Congress and not federal land agencies the ability to propose, debate, and vote on new wilderness designations.
After exhausting debates, public meetings and with even a request by the Forest Service to veto, President Ford signed the Alpine Lakes Area Management Act into law on the afternoon of July 12, 1976, reportedly saying "anywhere so beautiful should be preserved." Following this designation four properties in the Alpine Lakes Area were listed in the National Register of Historic Places: Stevens Pass Historic District, Salmon La Sac Guard Station, the Blewett Arrastra and the townsite of Liberty.
On December 12, 2014, Congress passed legislation expanding the Alpine Lakes Wilderness by 22,000 acres in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley and granting National Wild and Scenic River status to sections of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Pratt Rivers. The legislation was included as part of a package of 100 public lands bills attached to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. President Obama signed the legislation into law on December 19, 2014, marking the first major wilderness area designation in Washington State since the addition of Wild Sky Wilderness in 2008.
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness features some of the most rugged topography in the Cascade Range with craggy peaks and ridges, deep glacial valleys, and granite walls spotted with over 700 mountain lakes. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences. These climate differences lead to vegetation variety defining the ecoregions in this area. The elevation range of this area is between about 1,000 feet (300 m) in the lower elevations to over 9,000 feet (2,700 m) on Mount Stuart.
The history of the formation of the Cascade Mountains dates back millions of years ago to the late Eocene Epoch. With the North American Plate overriding the Pacific Plate, episodes of volcanic igneous activity persisted. In addition, small fragments of the oceanic and continental lithosphere called terranes created the North Cascades about 50 million years ago.
During the Pleistocene period dating back over two million years ago, glaciation advancing and retreating repeatedly scoured the landscape leaving deposits of rock debris. The last glacial retreat in the Alpine Lakes area began about 14,000 years ago and was north of the Canada–US border by 10,000 years ago. The U-shaped cross section of the river valleys is a result of that recent glaciation. Uplift and faulting in combination with glaciation have been the dominant processes which have created the tall peaks and deep valleys of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area.
The most common rock type in this area is intrusive igneous, which are highly fragmented granitics; this includes most of the Foss Lakes and Enchantment Lakes area. The other major rock types are sedimentary, metamorphics, ultrabasic rock complex and the extrusive igneous group that include basalt, andesite, and rhyolite. The metamorphic rocks are primarily in the northern part and the southern area is made up of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The Wenatchee Mountains are mostly composed of peridotite.
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Alpine Lakes Wilderness
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is a large wilderness area spanning the Central Cascades of Washington state in the United States. The wilderness is located in parts of Wenatchee National Forest and Snoqualmie National Forest, and is approximately bounded by Interstate 90 and Snoqualmie Pass to the south and U.S. Route 2 and Stevens Pass to the north. The Alpine Lakes is the largest wilderness area near the population centers of Puget Sound, counted at 414,161 acres (167,605 ha) following the 2014 expansion.
The wilderness was originally designated the Alpine Lakes Limited Area in 1946, but this designation did not offer protection from resource extractions and was exclusively regulated by the United States Forest Service. The region and adjacent areas were being extensively used for mining, timber extraction, and fur trapping leading to roads, clear cuts and ecological degradation. Efforts to further protect the lower valley forests of Alpine Lakes began in the 1950s by the North Cascades Conservation Council formed in 1957 and in October 1968 the Alpine Lakes Protection Society was formed. However, it was the plans of the Snoqualmie National Forest to expand timber sales and build a road up the Miller River valley to Lake Dorothy and then onto the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the city of North Bend that started a grassroots campaign to remove the unilateral decision-making authority away from the Forest Service. In addition, there was much criticism by conservationists that recreational usage should not be exclusive to the upper alpine terrain as the regional forestry leadership advocated saving the lower forests for possible timber sales. A powerful and key amendment to the Wilderness Act by Wayne Aspinall, a Colorado congressman, gave Congress and not federal land agencies the ability to propose, debate, and vote on new wilderness designations.
After exhausting debates, public meetings and with even a request by the Forest Service to veto, President Ford signed the Alpine Lakes Area Management Act into law on the afternoon of July 12, 1976, reportedly saying "anywhere so beautiful should be preserved." Following this designation four properties in the Alpine Lakes Area were listed in the National Register of Historic Places: Stevens Pass Historic District, Salmon La Sac Guard Station, the Blewett Arrastra and the townsite of Liberty.
On December 12, 2014, Congress passed legislation expanding the Alpine Lakes Wilderness by 22,000 acres in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley and granting National Wild and Scenic River status to sections of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Pratt Rivers. The legislation was included as part of a package of 100 public lands bills attached to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. President Obama signed the legislation into law on December 19, 2014, marking the first major wilderness area designation in Washington State since the addition of Wild Sky Wilderness in 2008.
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness features some of the most rugged topography in the Cascade Range with craggy peaks and ridges, deep glacial valleys, and granite walls spotted with over 700 mountain lakes. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences. These climate differences lead to vegetation variety defining the ecoregions in this area. The elevation range of this area is between about 1,000 feet (300 m) in the lower elevations to over 9,000 feet (2,700 m) on Mount Stuart.
The history of the formation of the Cascade Mountains dates back millions of years ago to the late Eocene Epoch. With the North American Plate overriding the Pacific Plate, episodes of volcanic igneous activity persisted. In addition, small fragments of the oceanic and continental lithosphere called terranes created the North Cascades about 50 million years ago.
During the Pleistocene period dating back over two million years ago, glaciation advancing and retreating repeatedly scoured the landscape leaving deposits of rock debris. The last glacial retreat in the Alpine Lakes area began about 14,000 years ago and was north of the Canada–US border by 10,000 years ago. The U-shaped cross section of the river valleys is a result of that recent glaciation. Uplift and faulting in combination with glaciation have been the dominant processes which have created the tall peaks and deep valleys of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area.
The most common rock type in this area is intrusive igneous, which are highly fragmented granitics; this includes most of the Foss Lakes and Enchantment Lakes area. The other major rock types are sedimentary, metamorphics, ultrabasic rock complex and the extrusive igneous group that include basalt, andesite, and rhyolite. The metamorphic rocks are primarily in the northern part and the southern area is made up of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The Wenatchee Mountains are mostly composed of peridotite.
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