For the past several years, Senator Murray introduced legislation that would preserve 106,000 acres of wilderness in the Snoqualmie National Forest. The area is north of Index, and is only 90 minutes from 2.5 million Washington residents.
Senator Murray has been working to protect the Wild Sky area since 2002, and her legislation passed the Senate several times over multiple Congresses and in the House twice.
In May 2008, after 6 years of working Wild Sky Wilderness through the legislative process, Senator Patty Murray and Representative Rick Larsen celebrated the final step in the process – Presidential signing. President Bush signed Wild Sky Wilderness into law on May 8, 2008, creating the first new wilderness area in Washington state in twenty years.