Archives West Finding Aid

M. Lynne Corn (Mary Lynne Corn) was born in 1946 and earned a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University in 1976. She served as an AAA (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Congressional Science Fellow in 1979-1980 in the office of Congressman Mike Lowry, and then as a legislative assistant in the same office until 1985. Corn specialized in environmental matters, and following her position in Lowry’s office, prepared reports on natural resources topics for the Congressional Research Service in the Library of Congress.

Historical Background: The Washington State Wilderness Act, Public Law 98-339, was among 19 similar measures passed in the election year of 1984. These acts gave statutory protection to over eight million acres of unroaded and otherwise unexploited federal land, mostly in the national forests, in 20 states. Their passage ended years of controversy involved in the roadless area review and inventory process. During the process, accelerated in the Carter administration’s RARE II review, these lands were managed to preserve their wilderness values, exempting them from development.

The compromise which led to passage of the wilderness acts was over "release language," the terms by which lands reviewed under RARE II but not designated as formal wilderness were to be "released" for logging and other development. Representative John Seiberling of Ohio, the champion of wilderness protection and the chair of the Interior and Insular Affairs Subcommittee on Public Lands and National Parks, had advocated a "soft" release that allowed the released lands to be reconsidered for wilderness in a short time period. James McClure of Idaho, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Seiberling’s counterpart, called for "hard release," which precluded reconsideration for decades and which encouraged development in the interim. The compromise reached on May 2, 1984, by these two leaders required wilderness reviews in connection with the revision of national forest plans at least every fifteen years.

In Washington State, Mike Lowry, who had been elected to Congress in 1978, teamed with his Republican counterpart, Joel Pritchard, in 1979 to urge the reconsideration by the Forest Service of roadless areas which had not been "allocated to wilderness" in the RARE II process. This strategy was counter to a quicker one advocated by Congressman Tom Foley of Spokane. Foley's bill, H.R. 6070, would designate wilderness areas across the nation en masse. The following year Lowry and Pritchard introduced a Cougar Lakes wilderness bill, H.R. 2354. The legislation would have honored the late Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas by protecting as wilderness the pristine area west of Yakima much loved by Douglas. Their colleague Al Swift introduced H.R. 2477, to create a Boulder River wilderness in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. None of these bills emerged from committee.

In March of 1983 Senator Henry M. Jackson and Senator Slade Gorton introduced a Washington Wilderness bill, S. 837, to protect 375,000 acres. This bill proved to be the vehicle for the successful legislation, although environmentalists proposed far larger and additional areas for wilderness in the state. M. Lynne Corn, Mike Lowry’s aide for environmental matters, worked with environmental advocates, analyzed proposals from them and others, wrote statements for Lowry, and was a key player in negotiations among aides to members of the state delegation. These included Gretchen White (Sid Morrison), Nick Ashmore (Tom Foley), Jim Van Nostrand (Don Bonker), and Creigh Agnew (Slade Gorton). The five Republicans and five Democrats in the delegation held two marathon sessions in early 1984 and reached a compromise in early April. The key provision was the release/sufficiency matter. In the markup session on S. 837 on April 11, the compromise was introduced as an amendment by Senator Dan Evans. This compromise apparently served as precedent for the Seiberling-McClure compromise of May 2. Washington then became one of many states where new wilderness areas were designated by Congress.

The resulting legislation established over one million acres of wilderness in Washington State, primarily in national forests but also in one area managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Over a dozen new wildernesses were created and boundaries were expanded for three existing ones. The largest areas established were the Mt. Baker Wilderness, the Glacier Peak Wilderness Additions, the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness, and the William O. Douglas Wilderness. The latter areas honored the memory of two distinguished public officials who had advocated the preservation of wild land. P.L. 98-339 also created a National Recreation Area on Mt. Baker and established a Scenic Highway Corridor for the North Cascades Highway. Losses from the wilderness advocates' perspective were the exclusion of the Kettle Range, due to Congressman Foley's opposition, reduced boundaries for the Clearwater Wilderness, and deletion of 800 acres from the existing Goat Rocks Wilderness to allow for a ski development.