In a major concession to the forest industry, the Wild Olympics Campaign is accepting the elimination of a “willing-buyer, willing-seller” provision of a land and scenic preservation plan — originally generated by the group — that would have allowed privately owned land to be absorbed into Olympic National Park, group organizer Connie Gallant of Quilcene said.
Under the willing-seller, willing-buyer arrangement, the 922,000-acre park — 1,440 square miles — could have purchased up to 20,000 acres, or 30 square miles, of privately owned land outside the park only if a land owner was willing to sell it. It would have allowed the nation’s 13th largest national park to skirt the current legal requirement that the park can now expand its borders only by an act of Congress.
http://peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120506/news/305069984/concession-made-in-wild-olympics-wilderness-plan
Also: Danny Westneat in the Seattle Times: Olympic National Park expansion felled by politics of misinformation http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2018149922_danny06.html