Coalition of local sportsmen releases map calling on Congress to pass the Wild Olympics Act to protect hunting, angling, and salmon streams for our future—instead of selling public lands and stripping forest protections from key trophy fishing headwaters in Washington State

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 27th, 2025

QUILCENE, WA—June 27, 2025: Today, Sportsmen for Wild Olympics released a new map illustrating the devastating impacts that privatizing and developing public lands could have on critical headwaters of prime trophy fishing rivers and public access on Olympic National Forest. The group is calling on Congress to pass the Wild Olympics Act as a proactive solution to permanently protect these lands.

“This map tells Congress and the Administration: protect the Olympic Peninsula’s public lands—don’t privatize or develop them,” said Ashley Nichole Lewis, a Quinault Indian Nation fishing guide and spokesperson for Sportsmen for Wild Olympics. “It gives our fellow sportsmen and women something to fight for, not just against—a lasting solution to threats we are confronting right now.”

The urgency comes as the Trump Administration announced plans to rescind the Roadless Rule, a key federal safeguard for undeveloped backcountry areas across national forests, including Olympic National Forest.

What is the Roadless Rule?

The Roadless Rule, established in 2001, protects undeveloped areas of national forests from new road construction and logging. These “roadless” areas are often rugged backcountry landscapes that provide crucial habitat for fish and wildlife, protect water quality, and offer remote hunting and angling opportunities. Removing these protections opens the door to industrial development in some of the last intact forest lands in the country.

“Rescinding the Roadless Rule is yet another attempt to hand over our essential public resources to special interests—at the expense of salmon, clean water, and future generations,” Lewis said.

The coalition—comprising thousands of local and regional hunters and anglers, and over 30 leading sportsmen organizations—has spent the past several months contacting members of Congress to oppose the unprecedented threats to public lands coming from both Congress and the Administration. Lewis says these threats highlight exactly why the group supports the Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, recently reintroduced by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Emily Randall.

“The different public land sale bills and this week’s announcement to strip protections from 59 million acres of core forest headwaters nationwide—including lands on the Peninsula—show that they will use any tactic to privatize or exploit our public lands,” Lewis said. “This map shows what that would actually look like. Congress must reverse course and pass Wild Olympics to permanently protect these critical salmon streams instead.”

The Wild Olympics Act, developed with years of local input, would enhance hunting and fishing access while permanently protecting some of the last, best intact salmon-spawning habitat left in the Lower 48. Importantly, it would not close existing roads.

The new map shows how the Wild Olympics proposal would protect key areas such as South Quinault Ridge, Moonlight Dome, and other core ancient forest habitats—areas the Administration now plans to open for logging by rescinding the Roadless Rule.

The map also reveals that 300,000 acres of Olympic National Forest have been identified as eligible for sale under various drafts of a federal budget bill currently being negotiated in the Senate. The boundaries and scope of these provisions continue to shift, but proponents continue to push this idea forward.

“Our map shows that even relatively small land sales could have outsized impacts,” Lewis added. “Privatizing just a few parcels could cut off access to entire watersheds, or degrade water quality for salmon far downstream. It all depends on where they are.”

Lewis hopes the map inspires more hunters and anglers to join the thousands who have already signed on at www.SportsmenForWildOlympics.org.

“The outdoor community is powerful. Our fishing and hunting guides are pillars of this community. The same places we work the hardest are the ones we return to after the day is done—because we love them. Let’s use that collective power to ensure a single pen stroke can never take our public lands away. Let’s pass the Wild Olympics Act.”

For more information, including a rolling list of articles from sportsmen outlets covering the threats to public lands, visit: www.SportsmenForWildOlympics.org/threats

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