Deal struck on I-90 land exchange

The Associated Press

11/02/99 10:15 PM Eastern

SEATTLE (AP) -- Plum Creek Timber Co. and environmentalists reached tentative agreement Tuesday on
a deal that should clear the way for an exchange of forest land with the federal government, federal
lawmakers said.

Under the deal, Plum Creek would give up about 46,000 acres along Interstate 90 in west-central
Washington in return for 14,800 acres of U.S. Forest Service land in the Wenatchee, Mount Baker-
Snoqualmie and Gifford Pinchot national forests.

But some environmental groups have opposed the inclusion of parcels on Watch Mountain near Randle,
Fossil Creek near Mount St. Helens, and land in the Green River Valley. Protesters have spent several
months camped high in the trees on Watch Mountain.

U.S. Sens. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the timber company and the
environmentalists reached a tentative agreement Tuesday. But they refused to release details before the
U.S. Forest Service signs off on the plan, which could come as early as Wednesday.

"I am pleased we may have a solid compromise that addresses the concerns of the people in Randle and
Lewis County while still protecting the integrity of the land exchange," Murray said in a news release.

The opposition has been led by the Seattle-based environmental group called the Western Land Exchange
Project.

Project spokesman David Orr confirmed a deal was in the works, but declined to release details.

Murray said the agreement would still need congressional approval. Congress passed a law last year
ordering the Forest Service to make the swap.

The swap is designed to erase the 1800s-era "checkerboard" pattern of public and private lands that makes
individual parcels difficult to manage along the I-90 corridor over the Cascade Range.

Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved.