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THE WILD CASCADES
THE JOURNAL OF THE NORTH CASCADES CONSERVATION COUNCIL SUMMER 2004
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 1
THE WILD CASCADES ! Summer 2004
T he North Cascades Conservation
Council was formed in 1957 “To protect
and preserve the North Cascades’ scenic, sci-
entific, recreational, educational, and wilder-
In This Issue ness values.” Continuing this mission, NCCC
keeps government officials, environmental or-
ganizations, and the general public informed
3 The President’s report — MARC BARDSLEY about issues affecting the Greater North Cas-
GEEKS NEEDED cades Ecosystem. Action is pursued through
4 The NCCC needs YOUR support in publishing the North Cascades book legislative, legal, and public participation chan-
nels to protect the lands, waters, plants and
5 Why the Pickets are part of the North Cascades National Park—Staking claims
wildlife.
to not-mines — HARVEY MANNING
Over the past third of a century the NCCC
Goering’s Law
has led or participated in campaigns to create
6 The Stehekin Landing Proposal — CAROLYN MCCONNELL the North Cascades National Park Complex,
Stehekin Road repair process — KEVIN GERAGHTY Glacier Peak Wilderness, and other units of the
7 North Cascades Institute Update — THOMAS BRUCKER National Wilderness System from the W Dou-.O.
Mount Rainier: Long journeys with tiny steps begin glas Wilderness north to the Alpine Lakes Wil-
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow derness, the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness, the
Pay to Play with American Enterprise Institute Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness and others.
8 Only weirdos look out the window — RICK MCGUIRE Among its most dramatic victories has been
working with British Columbia allies to block
9 Yo yo Mount Adams?
the raising of Ross Dam, which would have
10 FEE DEMO: Riding the Recreation Access Tax (The RAT) drowned Big Beaver Valley.
Taking the commons away — THE HIGHTOWER LOWDOWN
11 Our national parks really in peril — SCOTT SILVER
12 The recent very commercial Adventure Quest — KEVIN GERAGHTY MEMBERSHIP
14 Tales from the Walla Walla Toll Road
#1 — Bandera Mountain The NCCC is supported by member dues
and private donations. These support publica-
#2 — Mount Defiance
tion of The Wild Cascades and lobbying activi-
15 #3 — Mount Washington ties. (NCCC is a non-tax-deductible 501(c)4 or-
#4 — Mailbox Peak ganization.) Membership dues for one year are:
16 #5 — Dirty Harry $10 - low income/student; $20 - regular; $25 -
ORVs: Lullaby of the wheels — H.M. family; $50.00 - Contributing; $100 - patron;
17 Ring-a-ding-ding $1000 - Sustaining. A one-time life membership
Running — N + I dues payment is $500.
Fair exchanges and ripoffs
!
18 Mountain goat research in the North Cascades — POLLY DYER
19 Boise-Cascade bails out The North Cascades Foundation sup-
PERC gives Bush a C+ on environmental policy ports the NCCC’s nonpolitical efforts. Dona-
“The largest forest-conservation deal in the country” — RON SIMS, KING tions are tax-deductible as a 501(c)3 organiza-
COUNTY EXECUTIVE tion. Please make your check(s) out to the or-
21 National Forest rulemaking on off-road vehicles (ORVs) — KARL FORSGAARD ganization of your choice. The Foundation can
be reached through NCCC mailing address:
22 Impacts of mountain biking on wildlife and people — MICHAEL J. VANDEMAN
Park Service under attack by adviser
23 “Monumental” — the David Brower film — HARVEY MANNING North Cascades Conservation Council
24 Edward Abbey .O.
P Box 95980
University Station
Cover: Mixup Ridge — TOM MILLER Seattle, WA 98145-2980
NCCC Website
The Wild Cascades www.northcascades.org
Journal of the North Cascades Conservation Council
EDITOR: Betty Manning
Printing by EcoGraphics
The Wild Cascades is published three times a year (Spring, Summer/Fall, Winter).
NCCC members receive this journal. Address letters, comments, send articles to:
The Wild Cascades Editor
North Cascades Conservation Council
University Station, Seattle, WA 98145-2980
The Wild Cascades is printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.
2 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
NCCC Board
President
Marc Bardsley
Board Chairman Founded in 1957
Patrick Goldsworthy SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Vice President
Charles Ehlert
Treasurer
Tom Brucker
Secretary
The President’s Report Summer 2004
Phil Zalesky
Unfortunately, I have to use a tragedy as a lead-in to this article. A man was killed
recently in an “Adventure Race” on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Accord-
ing to media reports, he was hit by a boulder kicked loose by a fellow contestant on a
Bruce Barnbaum
little known mountain in an unprotected part of the Forest. I have climbed the moun-
Polly Dyer tain myself and can see how it could happen. We all know that people who continually
challenge nature in this way are going to come out second-best from time to time. That
John Edwards seems acceptable to me.
The point is not whether this was an unsafe situation that should have been banned,
Dave Fluharty but rather, was this activity an appropriate venue for conducting a clearly commercial
venture? It should be pointed out that while much of the race occurred on logging
Karl Forsgaard roads, some roadless areas and Mount Baker itself were also part of the course. I con-
tend that our public lands are being used more and more by corporations and promot-
Kevin Geraghty
ers for private gain. While this media-heavy adventure-racing or whatever it is called
doesn’t do much actual damage to the environment in itself, the precedent is very
Kevin Herrick
disturbing. It doesn’t take much imagination to expect the next round of television
Conway Leovy content to be filmed from helicopters hovering over our wilderness areas.
The USFS and the environmental community need to be vigilant. We must discourage
Harvey Manning use of public lands as free real estate to conduct ever more outrageous stunts. Call me
Chicken Little but I see this type of media-spawned exhibitionism as one more compo-
Betty Manning nent of the insidious privatization of our public lands.
Carolyn McConnell
Rick McGuire
Thom Peters
Ken Wilcox
Calling Database Geeks
Laura Zalesky
NCCC needs a donation of database software and
database expertise to help us manage our membership
list. If you can help, please contact
Marc Bardsley at 206-689-4999
or email bardsleym@soundtransit.org
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 3
CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED
FOR PUBLICATION
OF NORTH CASCADES HISTORY
NCCC Book Nears Completion
We still need donations, so we can claim a $5,000 matching grant from the
North Cascades Foundation to publish this wonderful book on the North
Cascades by Harvey Manning.
Fully edited, updated, and richly illustrated with historic maps and photos,
this new book tells the epic story of wilderness preservation in one of the
largest wildland areas of the Lower Forty-Eight.
To those who have already contributed, thank you! The book should be
heading for the printer soon—watch for ordering details in the next Wild
Cascades.
Donations may be made to either the Foundation (tax-deductible) or the
NCCC (not tax-deductible), and in either case should be clearly marked, ‘FOR
PUBLICATION OF NORTH CASCADES BOOK” and sent to either
North Cascades Conservation Council
c/o Thomas H.S. Brucker, Treasurer
9111 SE 44th Street
Mercer Island, WA 98040
or
North Cascades Foundation
c/o T. William Booth, Treasurer
5521 - 17th Avenue NE
Seattle, WA 98105
4 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
North Cascades History:
STAKING CLAIMS TO NOT-MINES
T om Pelly dropped our bill
for a North Cascades National
Park in the hopper. We knew it had
pit mine visible from the Moon,”
no chance against the bill drawn
and said, “If I found an exposure
up by Dick Buscher of the Forest
here of pure copper three feet
Service and introduced in Con-
wide, I wouldn’t tell THEM about
gress by Senator Jackson — a bill
it.”
we reluctantly accepted as better
than nothing. The Pelly-NCCC bill The chopper pilot blabbed to
omitted the Pickets because this Lardy. Lardy knew he would also
most alpinely dramatic sector of be blabbing to others. That is why
the North Cascades was certain of if you check the 1967 filings in the
getting its due from the Wilderness Bellingham courthouse you will
Act, better wilderness protection find claims for the low-grade moly
than the National Park Act. The ore in the Northern Pickets. Climb
Jackson-USFS bill threw in the Fury by a route which had not then
non-controversial Pickets to “make been climbed, and perhaps has not
weight,” a public relations gesture been yet, and you may stumble
to theoretically compensate for the across a claim monument placed
omission of Glacier Peak. there apparently by the grace of
God. The claimant was not Lardy,
The Jackson-USFS park was a
nor the chopper pilot, but another
sure thing, backed by both houses
of my climbing friends who could
of Congress. Except for Wayne
not be connected to the USGS or
Aspinall, Congressman from the
Lardy.
19th century, whose motto on new
national parks was “NEVER.” As The summer of 1968 was dou-
Unloading pack Sun Bell 63 on border slash, Chilliwuck River. bly nervous because the claims
chair of the House committee with
jurisdiction over the flow of legis- were staked in 1967 and under
lation on such matters, he had the terms of the 1872 Act had to be
muscle to go mano-a-mano with Jackson, chair One of these was my climbing buddy, “Lardy,” proved up by on-the-ground labor before La-
of the corresponding Senate committee. Their who had become the most notable minerals bor Day of 1968. There weren’t all that many
wrestling match the summer of 1968 was geologist in the region. He was a defender of climbers around in those days who would (or
nerve-wracking. Prior to that, though, Aspinall the 1872 policy, though recognizing it needed could) climb to the ridge-top location of the
pulled an around-the-end stunt that won him major amendment. He once visited, by chop- monument. Watch was kept with baited breath
a year’s breathing-blustering space. He forced per, a pair of us at White Rock Lakes, and as he on the Bellingham courthouse all summer. The
the U.S. Geological Survey team then mapping lay at ease in the heather, gazing over the West deadline passed, the Lardy claims lapsed, no
geologic structures of the North Cascades to Fork Agnes to Dome Peak, he jerked a thumb for-real claims were filed, and the White House
defer scientific research and spend a year on a in the direction of Miners Ridge, headquarters ceremony went off without a hitch.
survey of mineral resources in the proposed of Bear Creek Mining, his employer at the
park — “prospecting.” moment, then engaged in plotting an “open — HARVEY MANNING
We weren’t worried. The 19th century “dirty
miners in search of shining gold” had staked
out and privatized every showing of rust-col-
ored rock in the range. Uniform gray was the
Pickets color, as interesting as the Moon to the
privateers operating under their 1872 letters
of marque.
Then, in the summer of 1967, I was jolted
GOERING’S LAW
by a postcard saying simply and solely: “It’s People don’t want to go to war. . . But after all, it’s the leaders who
not such a bad idea to have the Pickets in the determine the policy and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people
park.” No signature. Some person with access along whether it’s a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parlia-
to USGS results. Alarming results. Not a per-
ment or a communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought
son in the USGS. I had friends there, but they
were too honorable to leak information not to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell
yet released to public consideration. them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of
Telling the tale at this late date can do no- patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the
body harm. The USGS contracted with a same in any country.
helicopterer to taxi them around the wilder- — HERMANN GOERING, WHILE BEING TRIED AT
ness. He also served the swarms of 1872 pri-
vateers then a-swarming over the public lands.
NUREMBERG: “GOERING’S LAW”
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 5
STEHEKIN LANDING STUDY
July 21, 2004 here in need of expensive fixing. Stehekin and people have raincoats — or they
The Transportation Study and Landing and can go inside the Lodge, which I’ll admit could
Dan Moses Design Options therefore seems an odd docu- be more inviting, but that is another matter al-
ment. What problems does it address? A prior together). Since people need vehicles for car-
National Park Service
question is what brings people to Stehekin; that rying freight and themselves up the road, it
428 West Woodin Avenue seems necessary that vehicles be at the land-
is, what needs was the Park created to serve?
Chelan, WA 98816 The NRA was created to protect the scenic and ing. It makes far more sense to let those who
wilderness qualities of Stehekin and provide are looking for a non-motorized experience to
RE: Stehekin Transportation Study and Concep- for the public’s enjoyment of them. So the land- get away from the road.
tual Landing and Design Options ing in Stehekin should be designed to allow I also believe the Park interpreters who meet
people to enjoy the wildness around them. The and greet the boat are doing their jobs just fine.
primary problem I see is lack of easy, immedi- Those who need more service can make the
Dear Mr. Moses:
ate access to the wild scenery of the valley and short walk to the visitor center.
When the Park Service arrived in Stehekin, the wilderness around it. Every time I travel the Also sort of nice in an optional way would
they did a service to visitors by buying out the Stehekin road in summer I encounter strollers be these luggage carts, but please, no motor-
competing and scruffy businesses at the land- and hikers forced, by lack of alternative, to walk ized ones. This would add to the chaos and
ing (one of which was pink), ending the ab- along the road. To walk a road, passed by cars, motorization, not reduce it.
surd dueling loudspeakers, and eventually is not what these people came to Stehekin for.
putting in a deck and painting it all an unob- I do not see that this study has addressed
Rather than spending money for the expensive the real problems faced by visitors on arrival in
trusive gray-green. The arrangements were building projects outlined in your study, funds
good and, except for maintaining them, the Stehekin.
for building such a trail should be sought. The
Park Service’s job here was basically done. Sincerely,
route for such a trail has already been surveyed.
There are sufficient bathrooms (I have never Carolyn McConnell
Sure, a covered area out of the rain would
seen a lineup) and while there is occasionally a
be nice. It would be nice to get the tour buses
bit of crowding and confusion on days when a
out of the way. But none of these is an egre-
full boat of tourists coincides with a large
gious problem that requires a major investment
amount of freight, there is no serious problem
(it hardly rains in the summer months in
Stehekin road repair process
(KEVIN GERAGHTY CONVERSATION
WITH DAN ALLEN)
The National Park Service plan three sepa-
rate Environmental Assessments (EAs), sequen- Map – North Cascades
tially. First, up to the Courtney place, second, National Park
Courtney to High Bridge, third, above High Ccmplex, 2004
Bridge. Dan Allen argued for two, one for the
park segment above High Bridge, where there
are wilderness issues, one below. The further
segmenting is, according to Dan, not a nefari-
ous scheme to disguise things, but due to a
desire to get things actually moving (i.e., move reason that it cannot be rebuilt in place on the
some dirt) on the least controversial part. current alignment (aquatics and wild and sce-
The first EA, the one dealing with the lower nic issues) but the wilderness boundary is 50
8 miles up to the Courtney place, is coming feet from the road. To rebuild the road, the park
out in a month or two. In this stretch, the road service would have to go to Congress to ask
has already received “emergency” repairs on for a boundary adjustment of the wilderness
account of the Courtney ranch (arguably ille- area, and you can imagine how that would play
gal), and I assume we are not going to oppose out.
reopening, although we should certainly scru- So realistically, then, the discussion, tussle,
tinize the EA when it is issued. what have you, is going to be about roughly 4
It is pretty much a foregone conclusion at miles of road, the slightly more than 2 from
this point that the road will not be reopened the Courtney place up to High Bridge, and the
above Car Wash Falls (M 12.2), for the simple slightly less than 2 between High Bridge and
Car Wash Falls.
6 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
Tomorrow and North Cascades Institute:
Tomorrow and Environmental Learning Center
Tomorrow
(1872 and 1872 and 1872) UPDATE
Excerpt from a piece by Robert McClure in
the May 11, 2004 Seattle Post Intelligencer:
or Seattle City Light Redons Its Black Hat
“Under a 132-year-old federal law, foreign
THOMAS BRUCKER
companies . . . together with U.S. citizens and POOR SEATTLE CITY LIGHT; it just is not “too expensive.” This decision by SCL was made
companies . . . have been able to convert comfortable wearing the white hat. The winter unilaterally and in violation of the Memoran-
9,200,000 acres of public land to private use, 2003-4 issue of The Wild Cascades reported on dum of Understanding. Without these two
according to a report released yesterday by the a pleasant — and unexpected — benefit of the buildings and the essential services they were
non-profit Environmental Working Group. . .” High Ross Dam struggle: a 3-way agreement be- to provide, the ELC would not be economically
The globalized mining industry always has tween Seattle City Light (SCL), the North Cas- or programmatically viable. The dream of an
been fond of the Third World, which includes cades Institute and the National Park Service ELC appeared dead.
1872 America. One is reminded of Mae West, providing for the construction of an Environ- What to do? The building of the ELC was al-
reclining at voluptuous ease in her boudoir, mental Learning Center on the shores of Diablo ready 6 years behind schedule; litigation would
requesting of her lady’s maid, “Peel me another Lake. Under the 1991 basic contract between result in further delay and add additional cost.
grape, Beulah.” the parties, the Memorandum of Agreement, The decision was to try to negotiate and see if
City Light was responsible for construction of anything could be salvaged. These discussions
the buildings. Work was proceeding; all looked were painful and lasted over a month. NPS Su-
good. perintendent Bill Paleck was a strong supporter
Mount Rainier National Park: From 1997, when the architects were se- of NCI and was instrumental in insuring a posi-
lected, to 2001 when construction began, to tive outcome.
LONG JOURNEYS 2004, SCL had never expressed any reservations In the end agreement was reached. The two
MAY WITH TINY about the cost of the ELC during the numer- buildings will be completed essentially as de-
ous reviews of costs, bid reviews, contractors’
STEPS BEGIN estimates, contractual awards, environmental
signed, but NCI has agreed to pay SCL $870,000
in order to get the project completed and the
Achievement of the Mount Rainier National reviews, contractual oversight, or at meetings Park Service will contribute $400,000. The
Park-that-should-be might require a major vol- with NCI and the Park Service, North Cascades Institute is currently engaged
canic eruption. At present most environmen- Alas, on April 16th of this year, without no- in a monumental effort to raise these funds.
tal energies are too busy elsewhere to pray up tice to any party, SCL reverted to its old self Had Seattle City Light been able to meet any
another St. Helens stunt. All hail, therefore, to and instructed the contractor to stop work on of their previous schedules for completing the
the citizens of Fairfax. Thanks to them, and their two of the key buildings — the main service Center on time, the Institute would have been
arousing of (1) Pierce County and then (2) building and the terrestrial lab/classroom and teaching children for years, a tremendous
Washington, D.C., and (3) the willingness of a informed the other parties that these buildings amount of money would have been saved, and
timber company to sell back stolen goods for a would not be completed because they were this controversy would not have arisen.
quick profit, the Carbon River corridor to the
park will gain 800 acres. In company of Pierce
County’s creation of a Fairfax Forest as a his-
torical monument, this may be the start of some-
thing big. The 800 acres is the largest expan-
sion of Mount Rainier Park in 70 years. PAY to PLAY WITH AMERICAN
ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
Funding agencies, 50 in number, nominally the American Enterprise Institute deployed
philanthropic but zealous in their common $25,000,000. It uses clever screens to hide its
hated of the “liberal enemy” have disbursed central goal of privatizing the commons — the
roughly $3,000,000,000 over the past 30 years broadcast spectrum as well as the timber, the
for what has been described as the fabrication water, the air, the mineral deposits — and the
of “irritable mental gestures which seek to re- law. The AEI battle strategy features “PAY to
semble ideas.” These “think tanks” of the Re- PLAY.” Aside from the poor starvelings of the
publican Party seek such objectives as “shrink- U.S. Forest Service, who see their once potent
ing the federal government to a size small agency as sharing the danger of the National
enough to drown.” The four largest of the “na- Park Service, who among us is a docile dupe?
tional tanks” based in Washington, D.C. had a
total budget in 2001 of $100,000,000. Of these,
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 7
Only Weirdos
Look Out the Window
RICK MCGUIRE
The U.S.-Canada landscape, and each other,
boundary cutting across at every kind of angle,
the Cascades along the jumping across rivers,
49th parallel has long seeming to extend to infin-
been a dividing line in ity, as if they were drawn by
more ways than one, with some demented, ruler-
preserved landscapes to wielding giant. Is it really
the south, and to the necessary to survey so de-
north, moonscapes with structively, or just more con-
appeal only to dedicated venient? Mercifully, the
connoisseurs of ugliness. clouds close in and draw a
In recent years the con- veil over it all.
trast has become, and The Canadian Rockies
continues to grow and the Interior Ranges of
greater. One can’t help British Columbia still have
but wonder where it will substantial wild areas,
all lead if, as seems likely, though outside of the lim-
present trends continue. ited protected areas roads
Recently I had a chance have been pushed up most
to see it first hand from valleys. The clouds part as
the window of an airliner. we emerge over a complex,
Flying back to the North- fiord-like lake. For a minute
west from the European I try to puzzle out where we
continent in daylight, one are, then realize it’s
sees, weather permitting, Shuswap Lake, where the
a series of interesting cedars of the Selkirks meet
landscapes. First Scot- the pines and grasslands of
land, brown and bleak, the Okanagan, as they spell
then, a few hours later, it in Canada.
the white immensity of Shuswap Lake is where
Greenland and its fast- western redcedar usually
melting glaciers, followed thought of as a giant
by the Pangnirtung fiords rainforest tree, reaches the
of Baffin Island, one of dry end of its range, with
the least known and most some individuals even
spectacular wonders of growing alongside ponde-
North America. Then, rosa pines where they meet
more water and ice, and the grasslands. Cedar for-
the endless “Barrens,” ests stand out from the air,
the tundra lands of north- their foliage a lighter shade
ern Canada. They seem of green than other ever-
to stretch to infinity, and greens. But it’s not the
even a dedicated land- green that’s striking here,
scape junkie such as my- it’s the brown of recent
self has trouble taking it clearcuts, and the network
all in. Boldly defying the of roads snaking every-
orders of the steward to where. They reach even be-
pull the shade all the way down so that the fuzzy yond the recent clearcuts into the still-stand-
lakes everywhere, so many that it looks as
B movie on the screen can be better viewed ing cedar forest, signifying that this is an ongo-
though one could paddle anywhere with only
(what can they do, throw me overboard? Ban- ing destruction, growing worse by the day.
minor portages. It’s a delight to see a forest that
ish me to first class? ) I look and look at the
stretches off in all directions without a scratch British Columbia is bigger than Washington,
blazing whiteness, my attention drifting till I
in it. But all too soon, it’s over. Northwestern Oregon and California combined, with fewer
suddenly see. .
Saskatchewan looks beautiful, but once we’re people than Washington state. It still has lots
Trees! Hard to tell just what kind, though above Alberta the inevitable roads and clearcuts of places where you can get so far from crowds
obviously part of the great boreal forest span- begin, along with perfectly straight oil and gas and civilization that you’re glad to see some-
ning northern Canada and Eurasia. Forests, and seismic exploration lines. They crisscross the one when you do. But the timber industry is
8 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
devouring its forests, a subsidized frenzy that broken forests blanketing the slopes from the history. The Issaquah Alps were largely taken
is intensifying every year. The scars are really river to the mountaintops. back, and today Tiger Mountain presents a
starting to show, especially from the air. From The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National For- pleasing vista of continuous forest, all of it re-
Shuswap Lake we continue south and west, est is looking a lot better than it did 20 years wilding second growth, perhaps the most
and the clearcuts just get bigger. Places that ago. Most of the rest of the world, British Co- popular hiking destination in the state.
recently seemed quiet and forgotten, Pennask lumbia especially, may be in decline, but na- While the Issaquah Alps model may not fit
Lake, Douglas Lake, the Nicola and Tulameen ture is reasserting herself here. The North Cas- all other parts of the Cascades, certainly parts
valleys, the Similkameen country, are having cades are on the comeback. Whether this can of it can be exported, and modified as needed
roads being punched all through them. And be sustained, or falls victim to ill-conceived “for- for local conditions. The Middle Fork
it’s not just the southern part of the province est restoration” logging, will be up to NCCC Snoqualmie valley near North Bend, formerly
that’s getting the treatment. Logging is push- and other groups. much abused, is now the object of a long stand-
ing everywhere, even the far north. Every day, ing drive to “take it back.” Large parts of the
Not much truly pristine country remains to
long trains of lumber cars can be seen moving North Fork Skykomish valley, railroad logged
be protected in the Cascades. The challenge is
south through Everett and Seattle, laden with 80 years ago, are proposed for inclusion in
to “take back” places, and expand the defini-
load after endless load of wood, in plastic the Wild Sky Wilderness. There are numerous
tion of wild country to include re-wilding
wrappers bearing names that not long ago other places in the process of re-wilding in the
places. Just about all of the rest of the world
evoked images of wild remoteness, names like Sauk, Suiattle, Skagit and Nooksack areas,
has made this transition. Wild places in Eu-
Omineca, Skeena, Cassiar, Peace River. . . . places where future protected areas, whether
rope always have traces of past human activi-
One could say that British Columbia, indeed ties, as do places in eastern North America. Wilderness or some other designation, could
most of Canada, is, in comparison to the There’s not much untouched country left any- and should take in productive low valleys
United States, a mix of the good old days and where. The drive to re-wild places around here which once saw some logging.
the bad old days. The good old days, because began with Harvey Manning and the campaign Plenty of scenic high country has been pro-
life is sometimes a bit slower, the social safety to protect what he dubbed the “Issaquah Alps.” tected in the Cascades. Everyone loves old-
nets haven’t been so thoroughly shredded, and When thus named, these were little more than growth forests, but just about all of them
people seem relaxed and friendly in a way typical Cascade foothills, roaded, logged, dis- around here which haven’t been protected are
that’s getting rare here. The absence of gun tinguished only by their proximity to Seattle. on poor sites, or at high elevations, places the
culture and militarism helps, too. But the bad The name seemed more than a little over the timber industry didn’t want. What is largely
old days are here too, and one can only cringe top - “alps,” for these rounded hills? And why missing from our Wilderness and park areas
at the ongoing destruction so apparent from would anyone want to protect a bunch of sec- are the biologically richer lower elevations,
above, and its blythe acceptance by most of ond growth? Tiger Mountain was a place for where salmon can spawn and big trees can
the natives. There seems to be little prospect high school kids to drive up on Friday nights grow. Nature is already doing her part. It will
of slowing it down anytime soon. to drink, hang out, and look at the view. But take time - these things always do - but it’s time
But it’s left behind at the 49th parallel, at no one laughed for long. Harvey’s idea of “Wil- to start thinking about how to protect those
least in the North Cascades. The faint trace of derness on the Metro” took off, perhaps even low valleys which are starting to once again
the cleared boundary swath is visible, south more than he thought it would, and the rest is look so delightful from above.
of which are wonderfully natural landscapes.
On this particular trip I was treated to the sight
of pristine valleys on both sides of Ross reser-
voir, with Lightning Creek and Devils Creek
to the east, Little Beaver and Big Beaver val-
leys to the west, Big Beaver showing the light
green of low meadows and giant cedars. Apart
YO YO MOUNT ADAMS?
from the reservoir itself there is little to sug- In the September 13, 2004 Yakima Herald- tion of the Yakama Reservation would be a ter-
gest the hand of man, and looking at the Big Republic, Philip Ferolito wrote an article en- rible violation. Tribal leaders were sworn to
Beaver valley is a particular pleasure for an titled “Destination or Desecration?” Following an oath to protect the things that re sacred to
NCCC’er, those meadows and cedars still there are (condensed) excerpts: our people.’
because of the efforts of NCCC and Canadian “Mount Hood Meadows Development Cor- “The closed area consists of more than
allies (notably the unforgettably named poration has proposed a four-season ‘eco-re- 600,000 acres from Ahtanum Ridge to below
R.O.S.S., for “Run Out Skagit Spoilers,”) which sort’ on Mount Adams: 11 ski lifts reaching the Satus Pass. Only enrolled Yakama tribal mem-
prevented the raising of Ross Dam. 11,100-foot level on the south side, three 18- bers are allowed to practice sacred food gath-
The spiraling destruction north of the bor- hole golf courses, a mid-slope restaurant, ca- erings, such as berry picking, root digging, and
der multiplies the appeal of all the preserved sino, night club, and 2500 lodging units. Also hunting and fishing. Outsiders need tribal per-
country in the North Cascades. Even more a summer camp for tribal youth with year- mission to enter and must be accompanied
pleasing than the pristine country in the North round education courses on Yakama culture. by a tribal member.
Cascades National Park and Wilderness areas “Said Yakama Nation tribal secretary Davis “The tribe closed this portion of the reser-
is the sight of low valleys in the Mt. Baker- Washines (traditional name, Yallowash), ‘De- vation to protect wildlife and the natural habi-
Snoqualmie National Forest, recovering now velopers pitch such projects to the Nation ev- tat. A 49-year boundary dispute with the fed-
for a number of years from the earlier logging ery few years.’ The full tribal council has yet to eral government ended in 1972 in return of
they suffered. Fortunately, trees grow quickly hear the proposal, and it would have to be the eastern half of Mount Adams to the Yakama
on the west side of the Cascades, and places approved at General Council, where voting Nation.”
like the Illabot Creek and Cascade River val- tribal members decide on major decisions and (Until then, this part of the Mount Adams
leys, and many others, horribly pockmarked elect the 14-member tribal council. Wilderness and adjoining National Forest lands
in decades past, are starting to look nice again.
“Said Regina Jerry of the White Swan Shaker were protected by the Wilderness Act.)
South of Darrington, the Sauk valley is a mostly
church, ‘The idea of putting any kind of devel-
continuous carpet of green, and the North
opment on the mountain in the closed sec-
Fork Skykomish valley presents a vista of un-
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 9
Ridding the Recreation Access Tax (The RAT)
In the 10 days since Representative Regula’s Cartoon – Gavel
Recreation Access Tax was sneaked onto the McNeil, Idaho
Omnibus Appropriations bill, dozens of articles Mountain
and editorials have been published. All but one Express,
have been critical of the new tax and the un- December 1,
2004
derhanded way in which such unpopular leg-
islation was rammed through. Links to these
articles are provided at www.wildwilderness.
org/docs/feedemo.htm
Even more interesting is what elected offi- “America the Beautiful National Parks and
cials are saying. Senators and House members Federal Recreation Lands Pass,” or a day
are livid at the arrogance of Mr. Regula. Many strolling the public lands surrounding the
are speaking of revising the RAT when Congress Methow Valley could cost you $5,000 and six
reconvenes. months in jail.
The RAT was slipped onto the Omnibus bill Buried in the 3,000-page appropriations bill
by people who knew that the program lacked currently being considered by Congress is a
adequate support to be passed into law by nor- new version of the National Recreation Fee
mal legislative procedures. — Scott Silver, Demonstration Program, which established the
<wildwilderness.org> fee commonly called “the Forest Pass” in 1996.
While the new fee program has not yet become
law, passage of the measure appears likely. The
reau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and
Rider on House bill could make bill is attached to the $388 billion appropria-
Wildlife Service.
recreation fees permanent tions measure that provides funding for much
Passage of the appropriations bill—which in-
New 10-year public lands access fee program of the U.S.government.
cludes the new fee program—was delayed af-
includes high fines and possible The new bill, which would replace Fee Dem-
ter the discovery of a controversial clause that
jail time for violators onstration Program, is called the Federal Lands
would have allowed members of Congress to
Recreation Enhancement Act. It would dramati-
peruse individual tax returns. The Senate has
Methow Valley News cally increase the penalties for non-compliance,
already approved a new version of the spend-
Patrick Hannigran extend the fee program for 10 years, and ex-
ing bill, which drops the unpopular tax clause,
December 2, 2004 pand the program to include federal lands man-
but retains the language establishing the new
aged by the Bureau of Reclamation as well as
Feel like taking the kids out for a hike? Start- federal lands fee program.
the Forest Service, National Park Service, Bu-
ing in 2005, you’d better have your new
From The Hightower Lowdown, July 2004
. . . The Bushites are laissez-faire purists striv- mons runs the gamut from our national trea-
ing for their ideal of a corporate-run state. Not sury to schools, water systems, wildlife pre-
only does this mean removing public restric- serves, elections, postal service and parks.
tions on corporate power, but also removing
anything and everything that has the word
“public” attached to it — from education to
TAKING THE
Social Security, housing to health care, national COMMONS, AGAIN The Hightower Lowdown
forests to our local water supplies. Their ex- 12 issues— $15
tremist anti-government agenda, culled from a Bush and company are not merely trying to
sprawling clutter of right-wing corporate- take us back to the Gilded Age of pre-New Deal, seniors and students — $12
funded think tanks, is so sweeping and is be- robber baron corporatism, but also all the way
ing pursued so energetically that one can imag- back to the “enclosure movement” of 18th–cen-
ine them holding pre-dawn pep rallies each day tury England. Back then, with the blessing of Mail to The Hightower Lowdown
in the White House . . . . parliament, the dukes and barons of the aris-
tocracy suddenly laid claim to the forests, mead- PO Box 20596
It’s our “commons” that they’re out to elimi-
nate. The commons are both the common
ows, wild game, and other resources that, up New York, NY 10011
to then, all had shared (and the peasantry had
wealth that all of us own together, and the pub-
literally relied on for sustenance), enclosing
lic institutions that we’ve established for our
these commons as the private property of the
common good. The commonwealth includes
elite.
such physical assets as our air, airwaves, pure
water, the ozone layer, and all of nature, as well Three centuries later, here we go again, for
as such intangible assets as human rights and Bush has blessed a gold rush by today’s corpo-
liberties. The public institutions of the com- rate elites to privatize our commons. . . .
10 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
WILD SKY BILL LIKELY DEAD Gold in Them
THIS CONGRESS
RICK MCGUIRE
Thar Hills
which now support mature 70 to 80 year old, The October 9, 2004 Post-Intelligencer re-
Supporters of the Wild Sky Wilderness have
naturally regenerated second growth forest. ports that members of The Lands Council, part
resigned themselves to the likely failure of Con-
Pombo seized upon this to stop the bill, claim- of Westerners for Responsible Mining, went out
gress to pass the bill this session. As this issue
ing that only totally pristine places could be October 7 to 20 acres of public land next to the
of TWC goes to press, the House Resources
designated under the “letter” of the Wilderness “posh subdivision” of Canfield Mountain, near
Committee, chaired by Richard Pombo, R-Ca-
Act. This is patently absurd - Congress has des- Hayden Lake, Idaho, drove a stake in the
lif, failed to consider the bill, which means the
ignated many places as Wilderness which have ground, and thereby, under the Mining Law of
full House is unlikely to take it up. The bill has
contained old roads or mines, or previously 1872, privatized all the gold, copper, and pre-
twice passed the Senate.
logged areas, including a number of examples cious jewels.
Pombo has made it clear that he is no fan of
Wilderness or even of public lands. He made a in Washington state within the Pasayten, Gla- A spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Man-
great show earlier this year of declaring that cier Peak, The Brothers, Goat Rocks, and other agement comments that staking such claims is
the wishes of members in whose districts pro- areas. Some Wilderness areas in eastern states perfectly legal. There is no major effort in Con-
posed Wilderness areas were located would be were 100% logged in the past. gress to amend the ancient law, which the Na-
given great weight, as well as that of the del- Murray and Larsen have indicated their in- tional Mining Association insists is essential to
egations of affected states. The proposed Wild tentions to re-introduce the bills next year. Both the nation’s economic health.
Sky Wilderness lies entirely within the 2nd Con- won high praise from Wilderness supporters
and editorial boards for sticking to their origi- Mike Peterson of The Lands Council says
gressional district of Washington, represented
nal proposal and not accepting Nethercutt’s other groups in “California, Montana, Seattle,
by Rick Larsen, a sponsor and strong propo-
version with the “good stuff ” removed. Good Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico . . . will be
nent of the bill. Apparently, Pombo’s deference
things take time, and it looks like the Wild Sky staking claims next to neighborhoods, ski ar-
to local Members extends only to opponents
will take some time. eas, and hiking trails.”
of Wilderness. The Wild Sky bill contains some
areas which were previously logged, most of Let the festivities begin. Bring on the danc-
ing girls.
NATIONAL PARKS REALLY IN PERIL
SCOTT SILVER, WILD WILDERNESS
A ssuming the Bush administration does
NOT significantly increase funding for
the parks, then the only remaining solu-
parks. And so when user-fees prove to be
an inadequate and ineffective solution, and
when Congress and free-market ideo-
serve much of the blame.
Wild Wilderness does not oppose NPS
entrance fees. We recently supported leg-
tion will be to further increase the reli- logues convince editorial boards that there islation to make them permanent, though
ance upon USER-FEES. That, of course, is simply isn’t any more money available to we adamantly oppose similar fees for the
where the recreation user-fee issue began give to the parks (what with the war on USFS, BLM, FWS and other agencies. We
when in 1982 Ronald Reagan proposed terrorism, etc.), then editorial boards all understand that the national parks are in
CUTTING park budgets by 25 percent and across the nation will tell their readers that peril and we understand that they have
replacing that money with user-fees. commercialization and privatization are been intentionally PLACED in peril. We
The narrowly focused messaging of Na- the only avenues remaining with which to understand that Fee-Demo was created not
tional Parks and Conservation Association “Save” the parks. to save the parks, but to advance a politi-
(NPCA) and other organizations who have When that happens the public nature of cal / ideological / commercial agenda. And
repeatedly pointed to inadequate fund- public parks will be destroyed and, to be unlike NPCA, we recognize, and are pre-
ing of the parks while saying nothing blunt, the failure of NPCA and others to pared to publicly state, that the “solution”
about the larger and directly related is- focus their message correctly will be par- that has long been planned for the national
sues of fees, commercialization and tially to blame. The failure of conservation parks is to commercialize and privatize
privatization are backfiring. Those efforts groups to become actively, and coura- them. Who else will stand up and fight for
are increasing support for user-fees while geously, engaged in this issue will also de- the parks????
doing little to increase funding for the
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 11
THE RECENT VERY COMMERCIAL
ADVENTURE QUEST
KEVIN GERAGHTY
”By the late 1980s, initially found nonsensical. What was adven-
the world was picked turous about roller-blading or wheeling kay-
over; the highest peaks aks across the Skagit delta on dollies? What
climbed, the largest was the point of jumaring up and rappelling
deserts crossed, the down fixed ropes? Climbers would regard such
oceans sailed and the an activity as mere tedious exercise, potentially
skies crisscrossed by hazardous, of course, but not demanding any
space exploration. Into actual climbing skills.
this void stepped the And in what sense were these groups of four
Raid Gauloises, a race “teams”? Certainly no activity they were engag-
that sought to recon- ing in really demanded more than a single per-
nect man with nature, son. The natural unit for climbing (as opposed
to reclaim the spirit of to going up and down fixed ropes) is two, but
discovery and adven- no real climbing was done during this race.
ture...” Kayaks commonly come in singles and pairs.
But what, specifically, Why not, then, have pairs and singles in the
were the latter-day race? And why the requirement of three men
Columbuses, and a woman? Would it not make more sense
Magellans, and Cooks to have men’s and women’s divisions, as is the
called upon to do? near-universal custom in other forms of rac-
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER “Subaru Primal Quest ing?
AUGUST 23, 2004 2004”, billed as “earth’s No, none of this seemingly gratuitous ba-
richest adventure” (a roque complexity made the least sense until
reference perhaps to the $250,000 purse), was one recognized that the design of the event
to cover roughly 400 miles and last 5-10 days.
W hen I first heard that western Washing- was shaped by marketeers and driven largely
It was supposed to consist of 17 separate legs by commercial considerations. The event was
ton and the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie
involving paddling sea kayaks on Puget Sound the raw material for a TV show, to be
would this fall experience the “Subaru Primal
and on the Skagit River, “trekking” (trail and viewed by ignorant and jaded sofa-nauts, so it
Quest,”currently North America’s most publi-
cross-country travel), mountain biking, really didn’t matter that going up and down
cized “adventure race,” I tried to make some
orienteering, “ropes” (jumaring up fixed lines fixed ropes demanded no skill at all. What
sense of it.
and rappelling down), pulling the sea kayaks mattered was that it provide spectacle and look
Invented by a Frenchman who had an on wheeled dollies along an 11-mile road adventurous on TV .
epiphany while viewing Patagonia from a he- course, roller-blading and push-scootering on
licopter (or perhaps while suffering boredom And as for roller-blading, scootering, and
pavement, and walking about on the Easton kayak-carting, it offered variety to the viewer
during a transatlantic sailing passage, accounts Glacier on Mount Baker. In terms of distance,
differ) the activity was brought to the United and an opportunity to model yet another kind
kayaking (Puget Sound and the lower Skagit) of outdoor gear, and hence attract another
States in 1995 by Californian Mark Burnett who and mountain-biking segments (largely on
“understood that there was marketing poten- group of corporate sponsors.
roads) accounted for roughly three-quarters
tial in America for a race that blended extreme The mandatory inclusion of a woman in
of the projected length. Everything else added
sports with human interest stories.” each synthetic team would of course open up
together comprised the remaining quarter.
One claim made by advocates of this activ- a number of human-interest angles and specu-
The contestants were teams of four, each lations to the viewers, and perhaps serve to
ity, the “new sport for the new millennium”, composed of three men and a woman, and
as they say, is that it represents a “return to the attract more female sofa-nauts. Anyone with
were required generally to stay in close con- the stamina to watch network Olympic cover-
great outdoors” by fitness enthusiasts who, tact with each other, on pain of disqualifica-
weary of marathons and triathlons, “venture age is familiar with the corporate strategy of
tion. The course started and ended on Orcas sweetening sports broadcasts with extraneous
beyond the clubs and embrace more natural Island. There were staffed checkpoints, 40 in
surroundings.” human interest treacle. As regards the basic
all, which team members had to pass through. requirement of a “team”, allowing individuals
Another unsubtle claim is that it is, well, ad- There were “transition points” where partici- or pairs to race would, perhaps, let the cat out
venturous. The “Primal Quest” web site had pants changed one kind of gear for another. of the bag that this course, admitedly arduous,
this gem of lush publicist prose: Each four-person participant team had a two- was in fact not some death-defying route only
”Adventure racing traces its roots to the great person “support team” to marshal and move to be attempted by a “team of experts.”
maritime trade expeditions of explorers such their gear about, feed them, and so forth. There
The decision to make this a continuous, as
as Columbus, Magellan and Cook... were also large numbers of volunteers, paid
opposed to a stage race, was a striking one.
Starting in the 19th century, legendary ex- helpers, handlers, minders, media people,
“Grueling” is not a bad description of a five- to
plorers such as Lewis & Clark, Amundsen and photographers, and clattering helicopters. The
seven-day continuous race, of any sort, even,
Byrd mounted extremely challenging expedi- entry fee was a stiff $7500 for each of the 56
say, an egg-and-spoon race. Were one inter-
tions to the far reaches of the globe, searching teams.
ested in athleticism, in appreciating and re-
for mythologized destinations and riches.” There was much about this event which I
12 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
warding physical and mental skill, a stage race ting John Jacoby in the leg and
would arguably be a better format. Participants pinballing down past the rest of us in
punch-drunk, gibbering, and hallucinating the gully. Nigel was furthest down, and
from sleep deprivation do not demonstrate the rock ended up hitting him in the
much style nor think or perform at their best. head.”
But they do offer some compelling viewing, at
least in small doses, and they certainly add to Other accounts make clear that the rock was
the story line that this is an “extreme” event. set moving by one of the party, perhaps by one
of the two at the top who had not yet started to
Clearly the format rewarded physical fitness,
descend. Party-induced rockfall is, of course, a
endurance, and the willingness to tolerate sleep
classic gotcha of alpine climbing. It is one rea-
deprivation. Skill in route-finding, mountain
son why small parties of two are preferred, and
biking, and paddling were also requisites. None
why party members stay close together when
of the disciplinary skills required were of a very
descending loose gullies. Stringing a large
high order, however. Some browsing of race
group up and down a loose couloir is asking
accounts, on-line team biographies, blogs, and
for trouble.
publicity shots available on line revealed a few
patterns. Most of the participants (52 of 56 In hindsight, it’s pretty easy to see that Illabot
teams) were not from the Northwest. Most did should not have been included in the race. A
not appear to have any deep familiarity with pleasant outing, perhaps, for a small party, ex-
mountains, marine environments, or tradi- perienced with 3rd-class terrain and loose rock,
tional wilderness travel skills. Aside from one but an accident-in-waiting if traversed by sev-
Northwest team, there were no self-described eral hundred tired, underslept contestants,
Illabot Peak KEVIN GERAGHTY
climbers, wilderness enthusiasts, or sea many of whom lacked experience moving on
kayakers. The common thread was participa- steep subalpine ground. And unfortunately, the
tion in aerobic fitness events like triathlons, knack of moving through this kind of terrain to what one might call the “safe danger” or “pre-
ultramarathons, and mountain-bike races. efficiently and in relative safety isn’t something digested adventure” industry. That is, an aura
The race did not work out as planned. Sep- that can be learned in a book, or practiced at of risk, of hazard, of derring-do, is what draws
tember snows on Mount Baker led to the can- the local climbing gym if one lives in a moun- participants and sponsors. At the same time, it
cellation of the Easton Glacier loop. And on tain-free area. Imposing “certifications,” and is understood on some level by the
the third day of the race a member of one of equipment checklists, as this race did, is a participants that the organizers of this activity
the two leading teams, who were traveling to- flawed answer to skill and knowledge deficits. will keep them safe and that the substantive
gether at that point, was killed on Illabot Peak. It’s easy enough to require people to carry some risks and requirements of skill and experience
This led to a hiatus of over a day, and when the totemic item of safety equipment, or make sure are in fact low. This in turn, leads participants
race resumed it was effectively shortened sig- they know the mechanics of rappelling, but very to blindly trust the organizers, to abrogate their
nificantly by replacing two difficult off-trail seg- hard to test them on whether they know how own judgment, or never to develop any in the
ments (on one of which the fatality occurred) to move in the mountains and whether their first place. And it would appear that in pursuit
with road biking. mountain judgment is any good. It is sobering of zip, pizazz, extremeness, and good visuals,
Illabot Peak, is an obscure 3rd- or perhaps that this classic novice accident occurred to the the race organizers ignored or forgot how little
low 4th-class summit, overlooking the Sauk two lead teams, presumably among the stron- in terms of mountain or paddling savvy could
valley and just west of the Glacier Peak Wilder- gest and most competent in the race. be expected of their retread triathlete partici-
ness. The summit block is exposed and unfor- An account of the 2002 “Primal Quest” in the pants.
giving of clumsy errors, but a straightforward January 2003 issue of Outside Magazine re- If “Primal Quest” were nothing but a manu-
ascent in good conditions for someone who counts situations very similar to the Illabot mis- factured reality TV sportainment presented with
does North Cascades scrambles. In the dark, in hap, but with luckier outcomes: transparent disingenuousness as exploratory
the wet, or under conditions of sleep depriva- high adventure, it wouldn’t merit much more
”... we noticed boulders rolling past
tion and inexperience, it is hazardous. Third- than a laugh. But the PQ represents an unabash-
us and scampered to the sides of the
class climbing, because typically traveled edly commercial and arguable heavy-handed
chute, where we stopped and shouted
unroped, is in many respects riskier than tech- recreational use of public lands. If “adventure
at the teams above us to cut it the
nically more difficult, but belayed, 5th-class racing” is, as some claim, the coming thing, it
hell out. Too late. A boulder the size
climbing. One of the lead group of two teams, behooves us to take a close look at the effects
of a truck tire came rumbling out of
roughly four hours ahead of their nearest pur- of this first high-profile event on local wild pub-
the darkness. Illuminated by
suer, stated in an account of the accident that lic lands.
someone’s headlamp, the rock
on the ascent “The terrain was very loose, slip-
wobbled through the air like an Climbers familiar with the granite climbs of
pery and exposed. We’d all discussed how tech-
onside kick, picking up speed. Two the Clear Creek watershed near Darrington
nical the climb seemed and wondered why
teams froze in the middle of the chute. were one group who turned out to be vocally
there wasn’t a fixed rope.” The accident oc-
It plowed right through the trailing dissatisfied with the way “Primal Quest” was
curred on the descent, when the party of eight,
team, and a woman screamed, from conducted. Exfoliation Dome, the biggest hunk
spread out, were descending a gully:
either fright or pain.” of exposed granite in the Clear Creek valley,
”[It was] a steep, rocky gully with quite was described by Fred Beckey as “quite possi-
It may be that the California Sports Market-
a bit of loose rock, but we could at least bly the most difficult 4,000-foot peak in the state
ing, Inc. corporate creator of “Primal Quest”,
see that it ran all the way to the bot- of Washington. This same Exfoliation Dome,
will be chastened by this death. Maybe not,
tom. Nigel started down into the gully spotted from a helicopter by race organizers,
though. After all, what better indicator of the
first to check it out. We all followed in, was the site of the “ropes” segment of the “Pri-
coveted quality of “extremeness” than a
one by one. With six of us in the gully, mal Quest”.
contestant’s death? And there is, arguably, a
a large rock dislodged from the top hit-
structural problem here, a problem endemic Continued on page 20
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 13
Tales from the Walla Walla Toll Road
HARVEY MANNING
THE SEATTLE-WALLA WALLA TOLL ROAD 6.2 miles of 14-foot right-of-way up Grouse Ridge were signed over to
King County. Trees fell, creeks gullled, weeds grew. But in 1905 the first
In 1883 A.A. Denny and H.L. Yesler opened the Seattle-Walla Walla
cars crossed Snoqualmie Pass, helped here and there by ferry, teams of
Toll Road, the first dependable cross-Cascades wheelway. In 1892 the
horses, and shoulders to the wheel.
#1 BANDERA MOUNTAIN
Poking about in a pile of yellowing guide- marshmallows over the campfire and been lulla- the Sheep Dog with the Piebald Eyes, Natasha.
books, I came upon this manifesto in the 1978 bied to sleep by he river. But the Olmsteds, Buddy Pal asked” Where we going, daddy?” I
edition of Footsore 2: whether or not they ever hoofed it up the over- replied “Exploring.” Several destinations I’d
The South is the Fork of the grown Walla Walla Toll road of 1883, surely got been eyeing rebuffed us (other tales for other
Snoqualmie River that everybody the glimmer as they stuck steak knives in T- times). The hour had come to let Natasha into
knows. The valley is a straight shot bones that had walked over Snoqualmie Pass the snack sack she’d been sniffing and go home.
from Seattle-Tacoma. . . One would from the Okanogan. Wise to the ways of wildlands, Buddy Pal coun-
suppose the authorities long ago The North Bend Ranger District was notori- seled me, “Daddy, you don’t get no place
would have provided a wealth of rec- ously oblivious to humans being differentiated ‘sploring.”
reational opportunities. One would from other animals not by attached wheels but However. . .
suppose wrong. The recreational de- efficient bipedal propulsion. The rangers did In 1958, returning home from peddling
velopment is mostly up in the snow not — upon Tom Miller’s throwing the switch books in the Rocky Mountains, I’d passed a for-
country. Hikers smother the Alpine that zapped the lightning bolt into the wild- est fire on slopes of the ridge above the Bandera
Lakes Wilderness with affection . .To land — exclaim (as did the lab assistant in the Air Strip. Now I turned off the highway on a
divert boots from tender wilderness, Frankenstein movie) “IT’S ALIVE!” Our 100 logging road that switchbacked to the lower
to lengthen the hiking season, to give Hikes in Western Washington found, in 1968, margin of the burn. Cat tracks, then a clamber
North Bend something to do now it only one trail between Mount Si and the Pin over and under blackened logs brought us out
has lost the highway through town, Peaks of Snoqualmie Pass worth our focus: in subalpine fields — a charcoaled Buddy Pal
haste should be made to develop a Mac’s Butt. and sheep dog and an explorer guilty of gross
Cascade Gateway Recreation Area. In 1971 our first edition of 100 Hikes in the cruelty to children and animals. The final as-
However, not until the 1990 extravaganza by Alpine Lakes doubled the number. No thanks cent to the summit — which for guidebook pur-
the Issaquah Alps Trails Club, the five-day, 88- to Smokey Bear. His favored clientele was the poses I called (perhaps christened) “Bandera”
mile “Mountains-to-Sound March,” did those multiple-abusers who in the name of the “great- — had a splendid show of beargrass in bloom.
Authorities get the wax out of their ears. est good” bang motorcycles through the stumps On the descent, after the snack sack was plun-
The “gateway” was not my invention, my and blast pistols at rockchucks and anything dered, I found the firefighters’ scramble path
Newton’s apple or funny-papers light-bulb. Nor else that moves. Bandera Mountain was my at the burn edge, trail enough.
was it new to me in 1978. Half a century earlier idea. Supplied route directions, my then photog-
I’d flown high in the swings, bumped up and A springtime Sunday of the late 1960s I set rapher got as far as the beargrass. In 2004 a
down on the teeter-totters, and whirled around out by beetle to survey the South Fork, accom- shrine was built there in memory of his cam-
in the kid-gang, foot—powered whirligig at panied by five-year-old Buddy Pal, Claudia, and era.
Maloney’s Grove, then roasted weenies and
#2 MOUNT DEFIANCE
The Bandera road crossed Mason Creek, feeling muscular that morning I elected to stick Lakes Wilderness. Already, in 1975, it had been
tumbling from one of the Boy Scout Lakes, with my mistake. Sidehilling the creek canyon the final leg of Stan Unger’s solo walk from
holes in the ground filled with water and hatch- was a hip-dislocater, so I drifted westward onto Seattle’s Discovery Park to Snoqualmie Pass,
ery trout, ringed in summer by troops of boys the gentler grade of the Snoqualmie valley wall. waving the flag for a group wishing to stress
slapping mosquitoes and barfing raw bacon Scrub forest and brush opened out nicely to the spiritual connection of the Whulge to the
and uncooked hotcakes. I’d heard that the felsenmeer that is nigh-ubiquitous in the Cascade Crest. In 1981 it had been the open-
fishbaggers had booted out a path to Mason area, granite blocks the size of refrigerators, ing leg of the March to Gasworks Park led for
Lake. That was of minus interest to me but as a Volkswagens, and prospectors’ cabins. Hop- The Mountaineers by Jim Whittaker to protest
shortcut to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie-Denny skipping, grasshopper-like, from block to block the Reagan–Watts scheme to drill holes in the
Creek mainline trail enabled an easy day’s as- was deserving of choreography by Balanchine, Alpine Lakes Wilderness to get the magma on
cent of Mount Defiance. The highest geogra- a spice of peril added to the dance by looking the Northwest Power Grid.
phy in the neighborhood, this peak was re- down the gaps to darkness. There’s more history in that area than is
quired by the second edition of 100 Hikes in I intersected the mainline trail where it con- dreamt on in our guidebooks. In ‘sploring
the Alpine Lakes, due out in 1985, to join Mac’s toured the southwest slopes of Defiance in a Bandera, we’d come upon a small granite
Butt and Bandera Mountain as a third destina- flower field as gaudy as any I’ve seen in the felsenmeer traversed by a trail built long ago to
tion between Mount Si and the Pin Peaks. Snoqualmie area, and the closest of the sort to packhorse standards. I followed it east and west
I hadn’t climbed far from the road before re- the Cascade front. The trail obviously was fated to the edge of the rockery — to vanishings in
alizing the fishway must be across the creek but to become a famous favorite of the new Alpine subalpine greenery. Where did it come from?
14 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
Where did it go? Who built it? When? Why? A new hole. They’d never know where to look end, hardhats with no brains, and the saints
ghost trail in the sky . . . for my bones. On glaciers I’ve often stepped in come marchin’ in, ignorant volunteerism run
Buddy Pal, knowledgeable in mountain holes but usually was roped and always had amok.
felsenmeer, had informed me, “Marmots live companions to laugh at the comical look on I later learned the wilderness rangers were
here.” I expressed a doubt, heard the squeals my face. equally disgusted. In 55 Hikes Around
of a rock rabbit, and said, “Well, conies.” A The basin of Mason Lake was solid white, no Snoqualmie Pass, 2001, I opined that the ra-
whistle. Score one for the kid. That’s the far- clue in the forest to the fishbagger path. A short tional route to Mason Lake was over the
thest-west Cascades marmot I’ve ever heard. plug up snow to the shoulder of Bandera took Bandera shoulder. My opining carried no
The summit of Defiance was a quick amble. me back to the beetle. weight with the Smokeys and their free-park-
The mainline then took me easterly toward For guidebook purposes I returned another ing volunteers. However, in 2004 somebody
Mason Lake. Not immediately to it. The moun- day to check out the trail. Expletives deleted. suffered an attack of smartness and caused the
tain rounded to an easterly exposure. The trail Witless Dan’l Boones equipped with many-col- right thing to be done. A convocation of
entered felsenmeer and disappeared under ored ribbons had flagged many many treacher- hardhats carried bouquets and pebbles, tokens
snow. Between granite blocks holes were melt- ous routes in a Minotaur’s labyrinth of jumbled of devotion, to the Bandera shoulder to dedi-
ing out. At any step my boots might make a granite and bottomless pits. Ribbonry without cate the “Ira Spring Trail.”
#3 MOUNT WASHINGTON
When the state decided to pave the highway ochist could take sick satisfaction in the handi- and Olallie State Park was established. In 55
east of North Bend, Dad lucked into a job shov- work of Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox. Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass, 2001, I wrote
eling sand, gravel, and Portland cement into Truckways abandoned to become footroads how “off I went until my Shelties were shiver-
the concrete mixer that spewed slurry into a gave viewpoints for reflecting on civitas. So ing in belly-deep (theirs) snow.” The North
parade of wheelbarrows. A couple of Sundays Mount Washington called me. Bend Plain spread below from Rattlesnake and
that summer Mother and I drove up to visit him The obvious access from the Snoqualmie Pass the Issaquah Alps to Si. The half-road was a gas,
at his tent camp beneath Mac’s Butt. Neither Highway was a one-truck-wide half-road at the ingeniously threading over and under cliffs. I
that nor any other South Fork summit triggered terminal moraine of the Canadian glacier. The pictured Dirty Harry (another story, another
my conquistador instincts until 1947, when a turnoff, though, was so sharp that I had to slow place) in his beat-up old truck, the outer wheels
prankster inveigled Betty and me up the South nearly to a foot-pace, and every time I consid- hanging partly over space, him singing “Nearer
Face of The Tooth, whereupon I set to work ered doing so an over-the-hump behemoth at- My God to Thee.”
wiping out the Pin Peaks. tached to the rear bumper of my beetle. I never bothered with the summit. Low ad-
The portal peaks at the Cascade front lacked Above the moraine, the highway shoulder was venture, the jest of our chosen few, was becom-
whatever it was that got my blood racing on parkable and a short clamber gained the rail- ing what Pin Peaking used to be for clubbies.
the South Face. My blood boiled instead as I road tracks but a long trestle guaranteed that (My Footsores presumably had something to
watched log-haul roads climb, year by year, to when a train came (and they still did) the night’s do with this, though mine eyes were far from
the highest reach of forests. menu would be hamburger and no potatoes. being first to glory in the wildness within.) A
They stopped only because the Northern Pa- A trail from Herpicide Spire (another trip, an- subculture had beribboned the maze of cat
cific Land Grant failed to privatize the clouds. other place) was wanted. A group of Issaquah tracks on Washington and championed favor-
Conrad Kain, legendary guide of the Canadian Alpinists announced intentions. I haven’t ite routes in letters to the editor, wall posters,
Rockies and Selkirks, is said to have said, “Men checked recently to see how they are coming. and fist fights. Our private fun was spoiled.
can go where clouds can go, but they must be The Bulletin of The Mountaineers, to which I do not guarantee the details of the route in
sturdy men.” We local sturdies had to supple- I paid dues for a half-century until expelled as 55 Hikes. I concluded my translation from
ment the steadily dwindling close-to-home wil- a troublemaker, began announcing walks to the ribbonry-entangled prose with a note to the
derness with the steadily growing ex-forests. “Owl Hike Spot.” Lo, it started from where the reader: “There now, wasn’t that fun? Somebody
When the boiling slowed to a simmer, a mas- half-road had been before US 10 became I-90 owes you a pin.”
#4 MAILBOX PEAK
Chances are nobody ever spent as much time that this peak’s southwest slopes were melted of the Lutheran Layman League. Clearcutting
as me trying to figure how to get up the Portal to the felsenmeer while Snoqualmie Pass re- has obliterated the first mile. I found the exist-
Peaks at the mouth of the hanging trough of mained crotch-deep in winter. ing start off a logging road at a tiny sign, “4841”.
the South Fork Snoqualmie. The joke (on me) I hypothesized approaches from every side Sally and Warren and company initiated the
is that I never “summited” either one. Will and scouted a couple. Then, in 1991, a Sign- public march-march-march. My 1991 guide-
Rogers used to conclude his humorous reflec- post article render my pioneering obsolete. book, Hiking the Mountains-to-Sound
tions on the political scene in Washington City, Sally Pfeiffer described a trail to the summit, Greenway, doubtless set more feet in motion.
such as wondering whether Silent Cal, when for which she suggested the name “Mailbox” Not mine. Dan’l Boone’s work had been
the photographers made him wear an Indian because the register book was in an old, heavy, done by others. I followed the example of Mark
war bonnet, ever felt the urge to give a war green mailbox (a “collectible” that some Col- Twain, who for his book Innocents Abroad did
whisper, by saying, “All I know is what I read in lector now has in his secret trophy room for the mandatory tourist walk to the Riffelalp,
the papers.” private gloating). Notes in the box dated to the where he dutifully boiled the thermometer
The top of the ridge extending west from 1950s. Sally estimated the trail was built no later (and also the barometer, not sure which instru-
Mount Defiance was tantalizing. The views cer- than 1940. ment tourists were supposed to boil) but des-
tainly had to equal or surpass those from Mount Warren Jones later informed me the trail patched his assistant to do the obligatory climb
Si. More significantly, whenever driving by on originally began at Vallley (sic) Camp, retreat of the Matterhorn.
the way to postholing in the Pin Peaks, I noted
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 15
#5 DIRTY HARRY
The first I heard of him, in 1977, was met one. The correct spelling derives from the the concrete of the I-90-that-was-becoming.
an unimproved road shown on a State Old Country, as in Gypo Nolan, the Irish Re- Harry’s road didn’t fool with switchbacks,
Highway engineers’ map, labeled, publican Army traitor in Flaherty’s novel, The went straight up the fall line, boulders and
“Dirty Harry’s Logging Road.” This Informer.) The Forestry Club at the University snowmelt torrents be damned. Where it finally
struck me as a gratuitous slur by a pub- once invited me to a friendly evening’s slanted off west, I sidetripped east to “Dirty
lic agency, but not so. “Dirty Harry” was shootout. They tried to get Harry to come for a Harry’s Balcony” and its cliff-brink view down
what he liked to be called by his North face-to-face but Seattle was too far off the edge to bugs scurrying east and west on the Main
Bend friends, who were legion, look- of his world. Street. At 3000 feet, where the road crossed a
ing on him as their local (sort of) Paul His road system and forest-mangling were creek, was an impressive assemblage of machin-
Bunyan. For many years his business familiar sights from US 10 for years but by the ery scavenged from junkyards and kicked and
and pleasure was purchasing cutting time I tried to get there his timber bridge over cussed up here for a final rest in “Dirty Harry’s
rights to timber on private land that the Snoqualmie River was gone. My first entry, Museum.”
didn’t interest big operators and therefore, in 1977, was from the North Bend The road ended on the 4650-foot summit of
chainsawing scraggly, next-to-worth- Plain via the 1882 Seattle-Walla Walla Toll Road. “Dirty Harry’s Peak.” I tried to count rings in
less forests to desolation, practicing Atop Grouse Ridge, as the moraine of the Ca- the skinny little stumps but lacking a magnify-
logging methods subsequently out- nadian glacier is called at this point, I gazed ing glass had to give up. Most of the trees were
lawed, thanks in no small part to the over the plain to the smog of Seattle. In mind’s rotten at the core — Harry hauled perhaps one
horrors he committed in full view of ear I heard the putt-putt-bang of AYP road-rac- in five to the mill, left the rest of the tiny an-
travelers on the Main Street of the ers, the creaking of wagon wheels, the moo- cients to lay where he felled them. What sort of
Northwest. He was the despair of the ing of Okanogan cattle en route to the butcher mill would bother with his scrawny mountain
Forest Service and Weyerhaeuser, shop, the muttering of Original Inhabitants on hemlock? A peckerwood, sibling of the gypo.
which tried in vain to shunt him off to the way to attack the real estate speculators in
out-of-the-way places where he Curiosity had bested my good sense. The
their Seattle stockade, the glacier dropping summit was no proper place to be watching
wouldn’t give the timber industry such boulders.
a flagrant black eye. the sun set. The shades of night were falling
Turning to face east, I boggled at the hugest fast. Legs quailed at the miles of gravel mine
—from Hiking the Mountains-to- gravel mine in the Western Hemisphere if not and Grouse Ridge to Ken’s Truck Town. I
Sound Greenway, 1983, and 55 the Solar System, a vast silence of naked glacial stumbled across the river on not-yet-open lanes
Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass, drift (subsequently to become a state fire-fight- of new freeway. My thumb, Depression-trained,
2001. ing training center). At 6.2 miles from Ken’s was caught in the headlights of an over-the-
My great regret is missing out (several times Truck Town (the official distance, the bankrupt hump trucker, Depression-trained Samaritan.
by minutes) on meeting Harry Gault, Quintes- toll road having been deeded to King County), Betty would not have to call my buddies, who
sential Gypo. (A note in passing: the spelling was the site of Harry’s fallen bridge and the would save me from the mercies of Mountain
“gyppo” is the usage of journalists who never junction of the Walla Walla-road-that-was with Rescue but would laugh and laugh and laugh.
ORVs: Lullaby of the Wheels
In a recent issue of the Seattle Post- vironmentalist disputes as those on the Dark
Intelligencer, Robert McClure reported reac- Divide, Teanaway-Taneum, Mad River-Entiat,
tions to President Bush’s telling the U.S. Forest Manastash, and Foggy Dew.
Service to designate “trails available for ORV Edward Jensen, a Ballard ORVer, is quoted
use.” Some 5.2 million acres in Western Wash- by McClure: “What they (environmentalists)
ington, or nearly one-eighth of the state are af- think is appropriate is for dirt-bike riders to be
fected. “Nationally, ORV users increased seven- relegated to riding in a gravel pit in Federal
fold over the past three decades to more than Way.”
36,000,000. Much of the increase came in the Karl Forsgaard, responding to the statement
past decade. The number of ATVs, for example, that Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Wenatchee, and
grew 40 percent from 1997 to 2001. The num- Gifford Pinchot National Forests already have
ber of ATV drivers rose by over a third and the designated trails for ORVs, said “If they desig-
number of hours driven went up 50 percent.” nated (trails for ORV use) without even having
Chief Forester Dale Bosworth, who a year a look at what’s appropriate, we’d say they need
ago listed unmanaged ORV use as one of the to go back and take that look. Where do we
four top threats to the ecological health of the have sensitive wildlife? Where do we have sen-
National Forests, “waxed eloquent” about sitive soils? Where do we have an ecosystem
Bush’s order. However, the Washington Wilder- that’s more vulnerable to this kind of use?”
ness Coalition pointed out that no deadline was Forsgaard concluded, “In many cases they
set for re-examining trail-use policies and that didn’t go through that thought process. They
“neither the Forest Service nor ORV riders simply designated as open to ORVs what they
would have a strong inducement to get the job saw on the ground being used by ORVs.”
done.” In other words, same old same old. No
progress is promised in settling such ORV-en-
16 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
Ring-A-Ding-Ding FAIR EXCHANGES
A climbing party of three is the minimum. . .
Rope up on all exposed places. . . Never let
AND RIPOFFS
judgment be swayed by desire. . . la de da. . . When “unowned” lands were abundant and cade Land Conservancy, Nature Conservancy,
There were, in the climbing community, sur-
people few, the American citizenry was gener- Trust for Public Land. Confusing. But the more
reptitious smirks and subdued snickers about
ally complacent about the Great Giveaway — the merrier.
the Climbing Code as “the ABC for Sissies.”
However, 1960s orthodoxy approved the the transfer of “unused” lands (that is, unused One major front is setting limits to urbaniza-
Climbing Course for distancing its textbook, by humans, especially those of European de- tion of the between-mountains trough from
Freedom of the Hills, from Gnostic Deeps, ob- scent) to hands which could put them to British Columbia to the Columbia River, to pre-
serving the model of the Ten Commandments “good” uses (homesteads, railroads, mines). serve the quality of life in cities by protecting
and the Sermon on the Mount. Similarly, the Eventually critics spoke up, notably Theodore “the wildness within.”
Golden Age of Hollywood segregated married Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. Another is defending de facto “wildness with-
couples in twin beds, hovered over by wings There was, however, an opposing view. Ri- out” by preventing recreational subdivision of
of the stork, and made sure that unmarried lov-
chard Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior from commercial timberlands, as in the I-90 Moun-
ers watched their hands.
1909 to 1911, said, “The chaps who are in fa- tains-to-Sound Greenway.
The times they did some changing. Millen-
vor of this conservation program are all wrong. The laundry list is long. On the gigantic end
nium-end cable television unleashed in the
In my opinion, the proper course to take with of the scale, it includes a huge land-privatization
suburban subdivisions a jamboree of naughty
bits. Big-league climbing swung wide open the regard to this (public domain) is to divide it up bill promoted by the Nevada congressional del-
closet door on solo and ropeless. The Mount among the big corporations and the people egation that would lead to selling off public
Everest industry shaved the “margin of safety” who know how to make money out of it.” steppe throughout the West. On the small end
to accept into the glamorous Death Zone any- Ballingerism is alive and well. But the spirit of of the scale is the pending sweetheart deal in
body with a $65,000 ticket. “This is my land” also is thriving. See Cascade the Stehekin Valley between the National Park
Times have a way of changing back. The Sev- Checkerboard News, newsletter of the Sierra Service and the Courtney Empire.
enteenth-century Civil War in England ended Club’s Cascade Checkerboard Project, directed
John Maynard Keynes said in 1928, “The love
when the country decided it wasn’t ready for a by Charlie Raines. Indispensable reading. (Con-
Commonwealth and invited the Stuarts home of money is a somewhat disgusting morbidity,
tributions are welcome to the Sierra Club Foun-
from their wanders. The continent of Europe, one of the semi-criminal, semi-pathological pro-
dation, 180 Nickerson #200, Seattle, WA
in 1550 half Lutheran-Calvinist-Anabaptist, af- pensities which one hands over with a shud-
98109.) See too, Land Exchange Update from
ter the Thirty Years War had all but a fifth re- der to specialists in mental diseases.” Keynes
the Western Land Exchange Project, directed
turned to the Pope. The freedom of religion, was wrong. We don’t hand them over to doc-
by Janine Blaelock, covering the nine Western
of sex, of the hills — where might they lead, tors, but to public officials who consider the
forward or back, oh dear oh dear what is to states. (Tax-deductible donations, P.O. Box
plague to be no worse than a bad cold.
become of us? 95545, Seattle, WA 98145-2545.)
Take the cell phone . . . Other groups working our side of the street
Terry Wood in the September 2 Seattle Times include Cascade Conservation Partnership, Cas-
considered the pros and cons.
PRO: The search-and-rescue coordinator for
the North Cascades National Park said: “About
half our first notifications are by cell phone. If
an accident happens at noon, we’d rather get RUNNING
the call then than at 8 p.m.”
CON: A spokesperson for National Parks and A runner is quoted at length in the October When exercise does become truly shared, as in
Conservation said: “Convenience and safety are 21 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Day hiking the the aerobics that come close to dance, or the
two issues that get traction with the public, es- whole Enchantments — about 18 miles with a hard-core bodybuilding that is always erotic and
pecially safety. Wilderness isn’t supposed to be
gain of about 4000 feet — might be approach- fraternal, it nears sport or art. When done in a
convenient or safe. That’s not its purpose.”
ing the popularity of overnight visits. It’s a private home or in untenanted landscapes, or
Howard Zahniser, drafting what in 1964 be-
major grunt . . . but strong hikers can do it spontaneously, without formal method, appa-
came the Wilderness Act, was thinking Deep.
without problems. My longtime best hiking ratus, or counting, it recovers certain eccentric
The bureaucrats who now administer the law
dare not wade beyond the pension-friendly buddy, his 29-year-old son, and I made it in 13 freedoms and private techniques of the self.
Shallow end of the pool. The pedestrian pub- hours recently.” Exercise that is not concerned with the creative
lic meekly stuffs heads in hardhats, pins a North- Running is an invasion of public space. The process of reproduction or the pure discover-
west Forest Pass to shirts, seig-heils Smokey, and runner takes over shared places — the narrow ies of solitude, is a struggle to incarnate the
snuggles into bags murmuring, “Now I lay me riverside, sidewalk, and nature path — for him- shape and capabilities of others inthe material
down to sleep and pray the Asteroid my wil- of one’s own body, without invention and with-
self. With his speed and narcissistic intensity
derness to keep.” out exchange.
the runner corrupts the space of walking, think-
Cell phones, helicopters, wilderness outfit-
ing, talking and everyday contact. He jostles — MARK GREIF, in n+1
ters, freedom of the wheel, money money
the idler out of his reverie, races around pe-
money makes the world go round, the world
go round. destrians in conversation, opposes sociability
and solitude by publicly sweating on them.
H.M.
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 17
MOUNTAIN GOAT RESEARCH
IN THE NORTH CASCADES
POLLY DYER
J ohn and I were ploughing through a couple
feet of fresh snow on Mount Rainier when
we came upon puzzling “ski” tracks. Around a
causes have been verified in the decline of
mountain goat numbers. Although the Mount
Baker population appears to be increasing since
ing and an animal on White Chuck that died
sometime late this winter. There were no deaths
due to capture last year.
bend we surprised the “skier,” who instantly hunting ceased in 1996, other populations do “The only real results so far are from blood
rounded another bend and was gone. Two not appear to be recovering. analyses. Based on those analyses, there is no
years later, in 1953, I was waiting in a meadow “. . . Both trapping and stalking attempts to indication that disease, selenium, or parasites
while John, Tom Miller, and Harvey Manning capture goats on the MBS were unsuccessful are a factor in the regional population decline.
were making a third ascent of the couloir route in 2002, so the use of helicopters is proposed Although not learned from the research itself, I
on Forbidden Peak, when a nanny and kid to assist in the capture methods of darting (w/ did model the impacts of sport hunting on the
strolled past, oblivious to my presence. Never tranquilizers), and net gunning (shooting nets population of goats and Mount Baker. I used
again, in half a century of climbing and hiking over animals from a helicopter). . . . Based on detailed information on hunting reports from
in the Cascades, have I had the privilege of the unsuccessful attempts with drop nets and 1964 – 1995 and an estimated population size
meeting a mountain in 1961. The model re-
goat. Call me un- sults indicate that hunt-
lucky, I guess. Some ing was very likely a sig-
of my friends have nificant factor in the
hobnobbed with so population decline.
many, so often, they This may be true for
run out of anec- other mountain goat
dotes. Betty Man- populations, but none
ning tells of being have been assessed yet.
wakened in the “The research has also
night by a kid jump- revealed the location of
ing up and down on wintering areas that
her sleeping bag, the were previously un-
nanny standing by known.
watching with ma- “This summer WDFW
ternal pleasure. will begin collecting
The North Cas- data on how many goats
cades Conservation are seen when conduct-
Council was alerted ing population surveys.
to the Cascades Data will continue to be
Mountain Goat Re- collected on habitat use.
search Project by Other than some basic
Phil Leatherman. information on home
The June 16, 2003 range size, I would not
deadline for public expect any significant
response to the findings until next
scoping document spring at the earliest.”
prepared by Mt. Mountain goats in the Enchantments MARY LOU KRAUSE
I had also inquired
Baker-Snoqualmie about the “relation-
National Forest had passed, Thus we had no stalking, the use of helicopters to net-gun or ships/effects, if any, on the Cascades popula-
opportunity to comment. Following are ex- tranquilize goats is proposed as the minimal tions from the mountain goats non-native to
cerpts from the 2003 scoping: tool to capture and collar goats for the research the Olympic Peninsula that may have been
“The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest project. transported into the North Cascades some years
[MBS] proposes to allow the Washington De- I contacted Don Gay, Wildlife Biologist with ago.” [Note: Mountain goats did not occur natu-
partment of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW] the use the Mt. Baker Ranger District. Following are ex- rally in the Olympics. Twelve from Alaska and
of helicopters to capture and collar mountain cerpts from Mr. Gay’s e-mail response (June British Columbia were introduced into the
goats in the Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, and 2004): Olympics in the 1920s by hunters. These moun-
Boulder River Wilderness Areas, as well as non- “Since the research began less than 1 year tain goat numbers increased dramatically, with
wilderness areas, to accomplish a mountain ago (goats were collared in September of 2003), resultant impacts on rare and endangered
goat research study. The study proposes to cap- there are few detailed findings at this point. . . plants in Olympic National Park and adjacent
ture 20 goats in the North Cascades and outfit . Goat captures occurred last September and areas.]
the goats with global positioning system (GPS) were successful, except in the Glacier Peak area. Don Gay commented: “From what I know
tracking collars. The goats would be tracked These goats seem to move off of Glacier Peak of the earlier transplants from the Olympics,
over several years . . . .Mountain goats . . . have in the summer/early fall. An attempt will be goats were released on Pilchuck Mountain and
been declining for several decades. Multiple made to capture goats on Glacier Peak earlier in the Finney Block. Neither of these efforts
causes have been proposed to explain the de- this year. There will also be some additional established a population, so there should have
cline; however, to date, none of these possible captures to replace collars that are malfunction- no genetic impacts to the population, since it
18 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
appears that all of these animals eventually
died. I don’t believe that any of the Olympic
goats were released in areas that were occu-
“THE LARGEST
pied, or near, native mountain goat popula-
tions.”
FOREST-CONSERVATION DEAL
Clifford Rice of WDFW shared with me some
of the research concerns. From a 1983 study
IN THE COUNTRY”
by R. L. Johnson, it had been observed fairly
large numbers of mountain goats had been RON SIMS, KING COUNTY EXECUTIVE
diminishing for some fifty years, particularly
noticeable in several areas of the North Cas- Gene Duvernoy, president of Cascade Land No more. Thanks to Duvernoy’s efforts, King
cades, with lesser losses in other locations. Rice Conservancy, has been working on this deal County has paid Hancock $22,000,000 for de-
indicated there is very little “baseline informa- for years. In 2003, a spin-off group failed in an velopment rights on 90,000,000 acres, the pur-
tion” relative to mountain goats in the state is attempt to buy 104,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser’s chase funded by the county’s Conservation Fu-
to gain a comprehensive understanding of Snoqualmie Tree farm. Hancock Timber Re- tures tax, devoted solely to open space and
mountain goat habitat, how it is used, and what source Group, a Boston-based company, resource lands.
mountain goats appear to need. Further re- stepped in and paid $185,000,000, a neat little This is part of a regional program to con-
search access will be mostly on the ground; going-away gift for the chief thief of the North- serve 600,000 acres in King, Snohomish, and
however, it is anticipated helicopters may be ern Pacific Land Grab.
necessary at some times. A reference to re- Pierce counties — “the wildness within.”
search in other mountain goat areas (not the Hancock vows to continue the land as a
Cascades), mentioned the possible loss of “working forest,” including concomitant social
nearby forests affecting mountain goat winter responsibilities as assumed by DNR’s Tiger
habitat. Mountain State Forest. Good vow. However,
Douglas McMurtrie, EPA Project Coordina- vows are not necessarily forever. The Damocles
tor for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, com- sword still dangled over Puget Sound City.
mented it has “never really been clear as to
the cause of decline of the mountain goats.”
Mr. McMurtrie told me the reduced numbers
of mountain goats in the Cascades was first PERC Gives Bush a Boise-Cascade
noticed by Art Ryalls, a long-time Darrington
resident. It was in the 1960s when the Sauk-
C+ on Environmental Bails Out
Suiattle Tribe started to notice a rapid decline. Policy Long-time members of the North Cascades
It is possible research might reveal impacts
Conservation Council recall the Reverend Riley
from urban areas; such as, air pollution per- On October 21, 2004, the Political Economy explaining from pulpits in Chelan, then
haps changing vegetation patterns. He also Research Center (PERC), an anti-environmen- Yakima, the objections God had to a North
mentioned possible effects for mountain goat tal think-tank located in Bozeman, Montana Cascades National Park. In public debate our
population decline might be from trophy hunt-
(where Interior Secretary Gale Norton previ- board member Phil Zalesky reminded him that
ing and from increased snowmobile access in
ously served as a Senior Fellow), gave Presi- Jesus Christ was known to walk in the wilder-
the winter.
dent Bush an ‘End of Term Grade’ for his en- ness. The Rev shouted out, “The Devil chased
The Cascades mountain goat ecology re- him there!” Was it Christianity that the Boise-
vironmental performance. And while bona-fide
search is anticipated to continue for several Cascade executives in the Rev’s congregation
years, contingent, of course, on continued environmental organizations have been con-
heard in Sunday sermons, or Manicheanism?
funding. In addition to the U.S. Forest Service sistently giving Mr. Bush a grade of ‘F”, PERC
has rewarded him with a very generous C+. Whatever, not until my expose in Not Man
and Washington Department of Fish and Wild-
Apart was it widely known that overlapping
life, others participating in the research stud- Not surprisingly, in the “Public Lands Man- boards of directors made B-C in fact a unit of
ies are the National Park Service, Western Wash- agement” category, the president received his Weyco.
ington University, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian very highest mark — his only “A” — for the
Tribe, and the Stillaquamish Indian Tribe. Never mind, the 91-year-old Boise-Cascade
Recreation Fee Demonstration Program. is no more. It has conveyed 2,300,000 acres of
Funding assistance is also being provided from
Seattle City Light’s Wildlife Research Program. PERC has been a long time supporter of fee- timber plus its name to Madison-Dearborn
demo and clearly they are pleased with the Partners, a Chicago equity investment firm. The
As the mountain goat ecology studies con-
President’s efforts to make this loathsome pro- designated manager of the forests is an entity
tinue and reports are available, readers of The
gram the permanent law of the land. traded on the Big Board, Officemax. In Wash-
Wild Cascades will be kept informed. In the
ington the sale involves 475,000 acres, many
meantime, a quote from NCCC’s Phil
of them very dear to our hearts.
Leatherman is pertinent: “One question (prob-
ably unanswerable) is what are the combined B-C had been suffering the financial stag-
effects of low-level hunting pressure and large- gers and badly needed cash. The New York
scale hiking-climbing use? Climbers, for obvi- Times quotes Mark Wilde, a forest product
ous reasons, commonly seek out goat trails, analyst for Deutsche Bank, as expecting Madi-
which on popular climbs and scrambles can son-Dearborn to sell their land, as have Loui-
be mobbed most summer weekends. Might the siana Pacific, Georgia Pacific, and the rest of
MBS consider limiting total numbers and party- the good ol’ boys. Says Wilde, “The smartest
size in such areas, where it is abundantly clear guys in the industry are viewing their timber-
that, at least for limited periods, goats are be- lands as prime real estate.”
ing displaced from their chosen routes?” H.M.
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 19
The Recent Very Commercial Adventure Quest
Continued from page 13
The infrastructure needed to area over a 36-hour pe- segments. One was, officially, a minor ravine which drains east
get several hundred non-climbers riod. No honeybuckets, “mountain-bike” segment. Across from the Three Lakes plateau.
to near the summit and back was no nothing. the southern toe of the Sisters From that point, the groups, scat-
substantial. A climber comments: Range, the route followed the tering in multiple directions, did
”X-Dome is somewhat
decayed mining road up to the not create a single clear trail. The
“One leg of the race of a sacred place for Three Lakes basin. The check- passage of several hundred bike-
required the partici- many of us. Remote, ad-
point, just over 4000' at the lakes draggers thus created a highly
pants to follow a fixed venturous, pristine.
was about 400 yards from the erodable fall-line trail for some
line up the Granite Side- Kinda makes my skin southern boundary of the Mount distance downhill. The creation of
walk, then jumar 600' crawl to think of the
Baker Wilderness. a followable trail from Three
long static lines up the blast of commercial ex-
Lakes to the 1260 road system,
“headwall” of rock pos- ploitation it just experi- The contestants were then re- which the organizers seemed to
sibly between Jacobs enced.” quired to get down to the South
expect, would have been a worse
Ladder and Rain Man. Fork Nooksack road. A small num-
The issue of the excrement gen- outcome. But the participants’
At the top they were ber of savvy early contestants ap- route-finding mistakes forestalled
switched to a rappel erated by several hundred partici- parently traversed north for a half-
pants and several hundred this.
setup by hired guides mile toward the Heart Lake basin
minders, volunteers, and publi-
and retraced their steps to pick up the Forest Service’s The longest surviving cross-
back to the logging road. cists was probably more acute at 1260 road system fairly high, af- country travel section in the race
Exfoliation Dome than anywhere ter no more than a mile of mod- was the cross-country “trek” that
“Approximately 30 else, for the simple reason that
erate cross-country bike-dragging, led from the check-point at Inde-
bolts were placed for an- there was a lot of infrastructure but the mass of participants, close pendence Lake, drained by Coal
choring 12(!) 600' static there, a high concentration of to two hundred of them, plunged Creek in the South Fork
lines on the headwall minders and organizers, and
2000' down the fall line, dragging Stillaguamish watershed, over to
along with all the other there were bottlenecks which led their bikes through the thicken- the base of Exfoliation Dome in
lines used to access it. to a lot of participants spending ing brush, never reaching the the Clear Creek valley. As the ma-
About a dozen of these a lot of time there in a rather re-
1260 road system, and ending up jority of teams ended up doing
bolts were placed on the stricted area. But it was probably on a roadless section of the river this, it was perhaps four or five
Granite Sidwalk and be- an issue at other spots on the floodplain. Many wasted many miles of cross-country travel. The
low the headwall. All route where, for one reason or
hours blundering around on the logical route was to go to the
bolt hangers were [sub- another, people tended to gather hillside and the river flats with north side of the divide past Hel-
sequently] removed and and spend time. Contestants were
their bikes before extricating ena Lake, re-cross the divide just
about 1/3 of the bolts not allowed to kayak the Skagit at
themselves. south of Helena Peak, and follow
were pried out and night, for example, so the river the obvious shoulder down to the
expoxied. put-in “transition area” accumu- Race officials did not anticipate
end of the Clear Creek road, a
lated significant numbers of wait- this. Participants reported being
“In addition ¼” short distance below Deer Creek
ing contestants. The official told by the checkpoint official that Pass, just skirting the edge of the
buttonheads were used method of dealing with the issue a “trail [sic] down the east side of
to anchor edge padding Boulder River Wilderness. But
was a “blue bag” system, but it’s the mountain was flagged for a
on the headwall. Con- there were any number of vari-
pretty clear that it was not widely while and then we could just fol- ants, not to mention outright mis-
sidering the onionskin- observed. low the makeshift trail blazed by
like nature of X-Dome taken routes, and many teams
all of the other teams that pre-
there were probably nu- Other obvious concerns were took far longer.
ceded us.” But from the end of
merous edges to pad. raised by the trailless sections of the flagging, successive teams, This area of rocky subalpine
These were in theory all the route, particularly those pass- lemming-like, reinforced the peaks and tarns is part of the
removed. ing through or near wilderness-
route-finding mistakes of earlier 30,000-acre Helena Ridge
quality lands or more sensitive teams, who had been seduced by roadless area, proposed as part of
“While there are al-
areas such as subalpine zones, the fall line instead of angling or the Boulder River Wilderness, but
ready LOTS of bolts up areas which by definition had no
there, the placement of traversing north. lopped off during the political
hardened infrastructure to cush- scrum preceding the 1984 Wilder-
bolts for short-term use
ion the effects of all these people. One contestant describes this ness Bill’s passage. Conservation-
and their incomplete re- In these areas, the effects of a sud- racer-created trail:
moval seems like really ists did, however, manage to keep
den mass human inundation on a little thumb or panhandle
poor form. ”The trail started out as
vegetation and wildlife were po- within the Boulder River Wilder-
tentially significant. freshly stomped under-
“Of greater real brush. As the hill got ness proposal which effectively
enviromental impact, The twin chances of weather steeper, it quickly turned sealed off Deer Creek Pass to
evidently there was no roads, preventing the threatened
and fatal accident contrived to re- into a wide bare strip of
waste management. I duce off-trail cross-country sec- freshly mulched soil, with connection of the Clear Creek
was told ‘people were tions of the route, and their atten- just a hint of morning and Deer Creek road systems.
leaving their dookies This little panhandle guaranteed
dant impacts, by something like dew on it to create a nice
and TP everywhere’ With 80 percent, or, counting the slide...” the contiguity between the exist-
support staff, TV crews, Easton Glacier segment, some- ing wilderness and any future Hel-
guides etc., that’s prob- The trail-swath eventually came ena Ridge addition. It also sealed
thing like 87 percent. But there
ably 400 people in the remained at least two noteworthy to a bad end in the bottom of the off Deer Creek Pass to easy travel
20 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
by “Primal Quest” participants, terrain unroped with easy confi-
since the Wilderness was a “No dence, who could climb “X-dome”
Travel Zone” which could lead to without the assistance of fixed
disqualification if they entered it. lines, who could read terrain and
For those traveling cross-country travel forested hillsides in the dark
largely on the north side of the without losing orientation, who
divide, this was a lesser issue. But wouldn’t blunder into wilderness
the lure of easy travel on roads was areas, who wouldn’t have to be
strong, and roughly a quarter of told that log jams on rivers are best
the teams chose to use the Deer avoided — the human-phalanx
Creek road on the south side of format of “adventure races” makes
the divide, and grapple with the them damaging to wilderness-
wilderness panhandle at the head quality lands which receive little
of the pass. Some teams went so human traffic. “Party size” limits of
far as to “trek” the Coal Lake road twelve are imposed on many fed-
all the way back to the Mountain eral lands in recognition of the dis-
Loop highway, two- and a-half proportionate affects of large par-
miles of the highway, and the Deer ties. Why then should a “party” of
Creek road in its entirety, to effec- two or three hundred be accept-
tively eliminate cross-country able? The mountain goats of Twin
travel, at the cost of an extra nine Peaks probably go years between
miles and a 3000' climb. Most of
these Deer Creek road travelers
encounters with human beings.
The shortening of the race this year
National Forest
made some effort to avoid the wil-
derness panhandle, but, plain to
spared them the trauma of inva-
sion by hundreds of hominids
rulemaking on
see on the GPS tracks, most did not
succeed, since the panhandle had
within a 48-hour period. The pas-
sage of several hundred compe-
Off-Road Vehicles
been deliberately placed by con-
servationists to block the easy low-
tent, well-oriented bike-dragging
participants from Three Lakes to (ORVs)
angle routes across the pass. the South Fork Nooksack road
Roughly a quarter of the finishing would have probably led to the Unauthorized ORV routes on Taneum Ridge. KARL FORSGAARD PHOTO
teams should probably have been creation of a mile-long followable,
disqualified then and there for wil- continuous trail to the 1260 road KARL FORSGAARD
derness trespass. None were. It system instead of a swath to no-
would, after all, have been bad where. In the Cascades, where In September 2004, the US For- the draft rule, urging the Forest
publicity. genuinely wild, pristine-feeling est Service completed a public Service to include additional mea-
country is a much-treasured re- comment period on its draft rule sures in any final rule, including:
To those who know how to en- source, such impacts are unaccept- governing all-terrain vehicle (ATV), • Set a two-year deadline for the
gage natural landscapes on their able. motorcycle and other off-road ve- process of designating roads and
own terms, it’s obvious that big- hicle use on National Forests. Off- routes that are open for ORV
time adventure racing contains a A partial answer to these impacts road vehicles (ORVs, also known travel;
generous helping of humbug. The is to keep “adventure races” on as off-highway vehicles or OHVs) • Designate roads and routes
tension between, on the one hand, public lands on roads and trails. are a growing problem on public based on full and public analysis
the participants’ modest compe- The Wenatchee-Okanogan Na- lands, damaging wildlife habitat of site-specific environmental im-
tence in the mental and physical tional Forest, which hosts several and creating user conflict with hik- pacts and user-conflicts caused by
skills that make unassisted travel day-long smaller-scale “adventure ers who seek peace and quiet. For- ORVs;
in mountains, wild landscapes, races” every year, imposes pre- est Service Chief Bosworth said
wild rivers, and marine environ- cisely this requirement. The staff • Immediately prohibit use of all
that unmanaged ORV use is one
ments enjoyable and reasonably of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, how- unauthorized, renegade routes;
of the greatest threats to America’s
safe, and on the other, the need ever, appear to have put up little and
National Forests.
for spectacle and the appearance resistance to the well-oiled public • Authorize ORV use only to the
In its draft rule, the Forest Ser-
of “wilderness challenge”, lead to relations machinery of Primal extent that effective monitoring
vice proposed several policy
armies of nannies and aids such as Quest’s organizers. Next time, con- and enforcement are annually
changes that would be beneficial
route flagging and thousands of servationists and backcountry funded and implemented.
if effectively implemented on the
feet of bolt-affixed ropes. recreationists need to hold them ground. These include: The agency received about
to account. 83,000 comments, is now review-
But even if such events attracted • Prohibiting cross-country
ing them, and anticipates issuing
only participants capable of real travel by motor vehicles except
a final rule in early 2005. Then the
autonomous adventures—partici- under limited circumstances; and
real work begins, with site-specific
pants who could travel 4th-class • Authorizing ORV use only on battles over route designations
roads and ORV routes specifically that will require close participation
designated as open for such use. by conservationists, in virtually
North Cascades Conservation every District of every National
Council submitted comments on Forest.
THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 21
Every recreationist — whether hiker, biker, backpacker, horsepacker, or posey
sniffer — should not begin by asking, “What’s best for ME? But rather “What’s
best for the bears?”
— TOM BUTLER
THE IMPACTS OF MOUNTAIN BIKING ON
WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
MICHAEL J. VANDEMAN, PH.D.
July 3, 2004 simply people who like to bicycle — in the case The flim is followed by the flam. Having done
Click on: of mountain bikers, many of them just use na- proper obeisance, Sprung flaunts the canons
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande ture as a kind of playground or outdoor gym- of science with the sophistry of anti-science —
About 7,000 words nasium!” to support irrational, arbitrary, political deci-
IMBA likes to distinguish itself from the ORV sions.
In 1984 Dr. Vandeman, after devoting 8 years
to “fighting auto dependence and road con- thugs whose mantra is “If it feels good, do it!” Vandeman thanks IMBA-Sprung for saving
struction” “became interested in the problem Gentrified as the fat-tire frontmen are, they re- him days of research, by bundling all their flim-
of mountain biking.” His paper demolishes the alize they must for political purposes cuddle flam in one big balloon for easy puncturing,
“science summed up by the International up to environmentalists by adopting a “scien- which he does in 7000 well-chosen words spell-
Mountain Bicyclists Association (IMBA): Stud- tific” posture. ing out in detail the real world of wheel im-
ies show that bike impacts are similar to those In 2004 the heaviest of their (pseudo) sci- pacts on soil erosion, plants, and animals.
of other non-motorized trail users.” ence to date was trundled out, Gary Sprung’s For purposes of this paper he does not go
Says Dr. Vandeman, “Don’t you believe it.” “Natural Resource Impacts of Mountain Bik- into other aspects of mountain biking, explain-
ing.” Sprung says, “empirical studies thus far ing that “trail-walkers do not need any research
He began with “a favorable view of my fel-
do not support the notion that bikes cause to know that we shouldn’t step in front of a
low bicyclists as environmentalists. I turned to
more natural resource impact. . . we should speeding truck. Or mountain bike.”
them to help me campaign to keep bicycles out
make rational, non-arbitrary, less political deci-
of natural areas. Was I ever surprised! I discov- H.M.
sions regarding which groups are allowed on
ered that many bicyclists (e.g., many mountain
particular routes.”
bikers) aren’t environmentalists at all, but are
Park Service Under Attack by Adviser
New York Times istration of hiding it because of its emphasis
Oct. 29, 2004 on science over recreation.
A committee of experts urged the gov- “The report is being held hostage to the Bush
ernment last March to do much more administration’s campaign of ignoring science
to preserve biological diversity and in order to clear the way for controversial steps
ecological integrity in the national — such as opening up Yellowstone National
parks. Park to snowmobiles,” the group said.
A panel member, Dr. Sylvia Earle, an ocean- .
. . . Fran P Mainella, director of the park ser-
ographer who is explorer in residence at the vice, had intended for the report to be online
National Geographic Society, said she and her in September and that the failure to post it was
colleagues had expected that the National Park inadvertent.
Service would distribute the report and take The report can be found at the retirees’ site,
action on its findings. Instead, she said, “it has www.npsretirees.org, or at the agency’s “Sci-
just languished.” ence and Research” page, www.nature.nps.gov/
. . . . The report did not appear on the Web scienceresearch/index.htm.
until this week, when a coalition of retired park
employees posted it, accusing the Bush admin-
22 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
“MONUMENTAL,
David Brower’s Fight for Wild America”
Patagonia Inc. has sponsored a documentary to “inspire wilderness
lovers to put environmentalism ahead of all other issues this Novem-
ber 2. “ Written and directed by Kelly Duane, the 77-minute film
“chronicles Brower’s saga via old photographs and home movies, Si-
erra Club educational films, and interviews . . . “ Reviewing the film in
the October 1, 2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, William Arnold says, “the
film is an inspirational profile of the man who transformed the Sierra
Club into a powerful environmental lobby.”
Reviewer Arnold says, “the film makes a very strong case” that Brower
was “the greatest conservationist of the 20th century,” that “his extrem-
ism in the ‘60s was actually visionary prescience and his unwillingness
to accept any compromise in the interests of Mother Nature is his legacy.”
The individuals who in company with David founded the North Cas-
cades Conservation Council in the 1950s would not disagree with the
judgment by Duane and Arnold. Many of those still more or less vigor-
ously extant are spiritually sustained by the memory of him at board
meetings. One recalls him at the last of these he attended, on a sum-
mery afternoon, listening to the discussions, eyes following the butter-
flies as they fluttered by. Studying them had been his childhood pas-
sion. Now, when a board member sitting next to him, whispered a
query, he identified each. Companions of a lifetime. The ancient Greek
symbol of immortality.
Dave Brower — BETTY MANNING —HARVEY MANNING
Membership Application
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THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 23
After November 2
... AN EDWARD ABBEY QUOTE
WHICH MIGHT HELP A LITTLE...
We’re in this for the long haul. The commu- enough to fight for the land; it is even more your head firmly attached to your body, the
nity of wilderness advocates/managers/lovers important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is body active and alive, and I promise you this
will simply have to “outlive the bastards” as still there. So get out there and mess around much: I promise you this one sweet victory
Cactus Ed adjured us. Be kind to each other. with your friends, ramble out yonder and ex- over our enemies, over those deskbound
Fight like hell for the resource. plore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the people with their hearts in a safe deposit box
mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators.
”One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn
yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while I promise you this: you will outlive the bas-
yourself out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusi-
and contemplate the precious stillness, that tards.”
ast . . . a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fa-
lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy
natic. Save the other half of yourselves and your
yourselves, keep your brain in your head and — EDWARD ABBEY
lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not
Please help NCCC meet
the matching grant for publication of our
North Cascades history book.
See page 4 for details!
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University Station SEATTLE, WA
Seattle, Washington 98145-2980 PERMIT No. 8602
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24 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004
