Вашингтон штатының Альпілік Көлдері қорығы

Wilderness area in Washington (state)

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is a large wilderness area spanning the Central Cascades of Washington state in the United States. The wilderness is located in parts of Wenatchee National Forest and Snoqualmie National Forest, and is approximately bounded by Interstate 90 and Snoqualmie Pass to the south and U. S. Route 2 and Stevens Pass to the north. The Alpine Lakes is the largest wilderness area near the population centers of Puget Sound, counted at following the 2014 expansion. The region and adjacent areas were being extensively used for mining, timber extraction, and fur trapping leading to roads, clear cuts and ecological degradation. Efforts to further protect the lower valley forests of Alpine Lakes began in the 1950s by the North Cascades Conservation Council formed in 1957 and in October 1968 the Alpine Lakes Protection Society was formed.

On December 12, 2014, Congress passed legislation expanding the Alpine Lakes Wilderness by 22,000 acres in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley and granting National Wild and Scenic River status to sections of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Pratt Rivers. The legislation was included as part of a package of 100 public lands bills attached to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences. These climate differences lead to vegetation variety defining the ecoregions in this area. The elevation range of this area is between about 1000 feet (305 m) in the lower elevations to over 9000 feet (2743 m) on Mount Stuart. With the North American Plate overriding the Pacific Plate, episodes of volcanic igneous activity persisted. The Alpine Lakes Wilderness offers many ecological benefits. The wilderness offers exceptional water quality and holds portions, or all of, the headwaters for the Skykomish, Snoqualmie, Wenatchee, and Yakima Rivers. Expansion of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness into the Pratt River area would allow for further protection of the lower elevation forests of this region and the lower water shed. In addition, those forests serve to reduce flooding.

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is managed by the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest in the west and the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest in the east. There are four Ranger Districts—Cle Elum, Leavenworth, Snoqualmie, and Skykomish—that administer this land.