ABSTRACT
The Olympic Peninsula is a marvel of the original America. Its steep-faced mountains, shaggy green with a million Douglas fir and other trees, bespeak the wild glory of the Northwest. Citizen conservationists had cause for concern over unceasing threats to the national parks and inadequacy of the organic act to protect undesignated wilderness zones. Although citizen groups had long supported the Forest Service as an agency concerned with scenic resources and wilderness, they lost their place as a key part of its constituency. From the Northwest the clear-cutting method spread through the national forests, closely paralleling the rising demand of the industry for timber. In 1961, the region was split in two through administrative action; the northern portion was established as the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and the southern portion as the Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area. Between June 1957 and May 1964 eighteen hearings were held on the wilderness proposal, both in Washington and the West.
