The W/Ld Cas Ades

THE W/LD CAS ADES The Wild Cascades 2 Glacier Peak from liberty Cap RVILLE FREEMAN, secretary of O agriculture, followed up a four-day Bureaucratic Wrangling tour of the North Cascades this week by reiterating his department's opposition to the proposed national park in that Over Cascades wonderously scenic mountain area. We regret that Freeman did not see fit tb modify, in this case, his depart ment's typically bureaucratic stand against giving up an inch of territory it already controls. The federal study-team report on the North Cascades, issued last January, recommended by a 3-to-2 vote the cre ation of a national park in the area. The two minority votes were cast, not un- expectedly, by the two Agriculture De partment members of the team. Since the whole of the area under consideration is at present under the management of the Agriculture Depart ment's Forest Service, Freeman is ad amantly against what he calls "dupli cate administration." We are among the first to agree that the Forest Service has done—and no doubt will continue to do—a competent job of administering those mountainous areas of Washington State under its jurisdiction. The Forest Service has successfully applied its multiple-use concept to many areas where that concept is appropriate. But the whole point of setting aside a portion of the North Cascades as a national park is, of course, to apply a different concept to the most isolated, scenic and unspoiled parts of "Ametita's Switzerland." Both'federal and state study feints have now approved differing versions of the, park proposal, which first was made in r907. Senator Jackson and Governor Evans have worked effectively together to keep the North Cascades question from be coming a partisan political issue. Thus, it would appear that the prin cipal potential roadblock to an expe ditious resolution of the question in Con gress is a bureaucratic wrangle within the administration, with the Interior Department and its National Park Serv ice on one side and the Agriculture De partment and its Forest Service on the other side. But the longer the delay, the less unspoiled acreage wjll be left to quarrel over. ' President Johnson has clear guide lines for settling the dispute within his official family. He can support the gen eral conclusion reached by both his own study team and the study team appointed by the governor of the stale directly in volved.. Despite many differences within and between both study groups, the general '/ »• no reason for being iri a hurry fo decide conclusion ,is that a portion of the North Cascades should be set aside as a na whefher four department or mine handles this.' tional park before economic and popu lation pressures reach too far into this From the Seattle Times scenic paradise. 3 August - September, 1966 FREEMAN, who tourerf part of the . area on the, From the Seattle Times Udall Takes ground recently, said that he was impressed by the way the area had been cared for. First Look It is under Forest Service management, a branch of Freeman's Department of At North Agriculture. Freeman said there are no real philosophical differences Cascades between the departments on (See Page B for photograph) use, but it is a "question of By DON HANNULA managenjent." Hughes, a graduate of the Times Start Reporter University of Washington, BELLINGHAM, Sept. 17.— who lived in this state until "If you could chop it up in 1949, made an unpublicized ten pieces and put it in other climb of Glacier Peak a week states you could have na ago with Ken Carpenter, Ev tional parks," Secretary of erett mountainier. Interior Udall said today The deputy director of the after a flyover of the North budget was hopeful all dif Cascades. ferences could be ironed out It was Udall's (irst look "to the satisfaction of most." at the area, proposed for a By telephone last night national park. from Newhalem, Udall told He was with a party which The Times: flew over the area in three "This is an area of Wash fixed-wing planes from Boe ington I had only seen at ing Field, then landed at high altitude before. Today Bellingham Airport to shift was a real eye-opener. to two Air Force Husky heli copters from Paine Field and "This is a very distinctive one from McChord Air Force area. There is nothing like Base. , it in the park system. It is as if you had the Teton Also in the. group wah Ag Range in Wyoming multi riculture Secretary Freeman plied by fen—there are so and Senator Henry M. Jack many strikingly beautiful son. peaks and valleys. OTHERS WERE P h i 1 i i "It would make a very Samuel Hughes, deputy di unusual, wonderful addition rector of the budget and a to the national park sys former Seattle resident; Ed tem, if that ultimately is the ward P. Cliff, chief forester, decision." National Forest Service; Freeman had these com George Hartzog, director Na ments from Newhalem last tional Park Service; Dr. Ed night: ward Crafts, director of the "The country I saw today Bureau of Outdoor Recrea has been carefully and lov tion, and Winton Perkins of ingly managed for more the San Francisco office of than GO years by the Nation the bureau. al Forest Service. I have Two of the helicopters left been secretary only six Bellingham Airport at 11; 05 years of that, but I.apt tre o'clock for another flyover of mendously proud of the job the area. the Forest Service has done. Freeman and Jackson rode • "AND I AM also tre in one and Udall in another. mendously impressed with A third helicopter carrying the plans for the protection Perkins, Crafts and Sterling and the meaningful further Munroe, Jackson's adminis development of the area by trative assistant, had minor the Forest Service. engine trouble and was de "I think those plans are layed about 20 minutes. sound, sensitive and consis • The inspecting party will tent both with the preserva spend the night at Newhalem tion of the beauty of the instead of Stehekin on upper area and also its develop Lake Chelan, as originally ment so more people can planned. enjoy it." Udall, after a'flight over The party planned to fly Snoqualmie Pass, the Alpine to Mount Vernon early this Lakes, Glacier Peak, t h e morning by helicopter and Picket Range, Ross Lake up transfer to fixed-wing air to the Canadian border and craft for a flight to Seattle- back to Bellingham, said: Tacoma AirporT Freeman "These are some of the and Udall wer * scheduled Glacier Peak and Triad Lake near High Paso to return to Washington, scenic masterpieces hi t h e Charles Heesey Photo country " D. C, this afternoon. The Wild Cascades 4 18 gtyg &tuttlt jghttra Wednesday, Sept. 7, 1966 " Walt Woodward " Fate of New Road Up to Solons The consensus of three key THEY HAVE their dif realignments will make for a me how we are going to persons who recently trudged ferences as well as agree more scenic road. save these things'." ,. over part of the route of the ments, (m scarring, for ex incompleted North Cross- ample, Governor Evans "In an earlier field trip in On tourism versus com State Highway, now a ques an engineer himself, says: July, the Forest Service, the mercial hauling,' Chriswell Bureau of Public Roads and says recreation will "far out tion mark as to whether it "I saw some scarring in the H i g h w ay Department will be built for beauty or both approach areas. But I weigh" the use by truckers. reached agreement on a:Pol- Evans says recreation wuT utility: think nature will take over icy in cleaning timber so that 1. Chiseling a modern much of the hillside cutting we will not get a tunnel ef be "10 to 1" over all other thoroughfare through rugged and rock dumping now in fect through the trees," uses. terrain has resulted, and evidence in the Diablo re Chriswell says. "We picked Yet the road is being built, will result, in a certain gion. There is not so much Out the key vista points, so in grade and-in curve treat amount of scarring of t h e of this on the eastern side that tourists will have park ment, to accommodate forested, alp-like grandeur of and you already can see al ing space to take pictures trucks. After all, this oldest the North Cascade moun der and small evergreens be and otherwise enjoy the of all state highways was tains. ginning to take over there. view." begun in 1893 with com 2. Realignment of original "There will be some more merce as the prime object. route plans is making the scarring in the Washington • And Evans cites how a That was before the-time road more scenic than it Pass area. But this is a dif change in route now has the of either Evans or Chriswell. would have been. ficult thing to avoid in rocky highway skirting, not bisect And many of the road's country when you are forced ing, a lovely mountain mead present-day backers continue 3. The tourist - attraction ow near Washington Pass. value of the road will out to cut a ledge for a road. Your alternative is a tunnel. He and Chriswell still have to be motivated by the com weigh its importance for a discussion going on t h e commercial hauling. But there is no scenery in a mercial hauling aspect.

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