Rachel Lake is in Washington's Alpine Lakes Wilderness. A Senate panel approved expanding the wilderness area's boundaries.
Tony Woody/Flickr
The Devil's Staircase, a series of cataracts on Wassen Creek in southwest Oregon.
Chandra LeGue/Oregon Wild
A Senate panel Thursday approved the creation of a new wilderness area in Oregon and the expansion of one of Washington's most popular wild places.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee action moves forward the proposal for a Devil's Staircase Wilderness, a nearly 30,000-acre wilderness in the south-central Oregon Coast Range.
It also extends wild-lands protection to 22,000 acres, altogether, for the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and land along the Pratt and Middle Fork Snoqualmie Rivers. The Alpine Lakes area in the Washington Cascades was established by Congress as wilderness in 1976.