Wild Sky Wilderness grows 345 acres, as transfer chips at private land
INDEX — The Wild Sky Wilderness just got a little bigger.
Last week, 345 acres of land in the wilderness were transferred from private to public ownership through the Wilderness Land Trust, a conservation group. The Wild Sky is a 106,577-acre protected area within Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, east of Index and north of Skykomish. It was designated in 2008.
The purchase near Silvertip Peak is in an area only accessible to hikers via Monte Cristo, an old mining boom town off the Mountain Loop Highway. Other nearby tracts bought by the land trust include several lodes: West Seattle, Jumbo, Idaho, Hazel and Greater New York. Those are still pending transfer.
The term “wilderness” designates areas with the highest protections possible under federal law. Approximately 111.7 million acres of wilderness land exist in the United States. However, within those areas still exist pockets of private land that date back over 100 years.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/wild-sky-wilderness-grows-345-acres-as-transfer-chips-at-private-land/