THE WILD CASCADES February - March 1969 2 THE WILD CASCADES 91ST1TSESIO CONGRESN S riff . Kr% . r-T7bl S+1 bS* IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 25,1969 Mr. SAYLOR (for himself and Mr. SKUBITZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs A BILL To revise the boundaries of the North Cascades National Park in the State of Washington, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 2 fives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That, for the purpose of including within the North Cascades 4 National Park the Mount Baker Recreation Area and other 5 significant lands within the area of the park, the second 6 sentence of section 101 of the Act of October 2, 1968 (82 7 Stat. 926), is amended to read as follows: "The park shall 3 consist of the lands, waters, and interests therein within 9 the areas designated 'North Cascades National Park' and 79 'Mount Baker Addition' on the map entitled 'Proposed 11 Management Units, North Cascades, Washington,' numbered 12 NP-1000-CAS, and dated January 1969." I Cover photo: View eastward to Glacier Peak over Three Fingers Mt. and Sauk valley - Bob Gunning February - March 1969 3 JOHN P. SAYLOR SUBCOM M1TTEES: TWENTY-SECOND DISTEKT. PENNSYLVANIA TERRITORIAL AND INSULAR AFFAIRS IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEES: PUBLIC LANDS INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS MINES AND MINING Congress* of tlje vHntteb States NATIONAL PARKS AND RECREATION VETERANS' AFFAIRS COMPENSATION AND PENSIONS MEMBER: House of J3tepresentatil.es HOSPITALS NATIONAL FOREST RESERVATION COMMISSION INSURANCE PUBLIC LAND LAW REVIEW COMMISSION BHasfungtott, 30.C. 20515 AMERICAN REVOLUTION BICENTENNIAL COMMISSION Manch 6, 1,6° MA. Patjxich D. (joddswoAihu President NoAth (jascades PneseAvation (~ounctd 3215 N. <f. lOyid Seattde, Wojihtnaton Dean MA. (joJLdiwoAi.hu: 9 am encdosina thn.ee copies or mu bids, io JjuJLude. ike Mount BakeA and yAaniie Qieek Aeatons wJihin the NoAth C°^°ades Nattonad Pcuik, H. R. 7616. The pAovisions oh this bidd aAe simidaA to the amendments which 9 endeavoned to have appAOved bu the (Committee dunina the second session oh the °0th QonaAess. J sincen.edu hope that the (Committee wiJUL havoAabdu considen mu pnoposad, and have Aeauested the (haJAman to seek the necessoAu AepoAis hyiom the aaencies invodved Jun cvideA that it can be scheduded ban. Aeview bu the House (Committee on 9ntenioA and ynsudan Ahhains. 9- can ondu suaaest to uou and those Jndtviduads intenesied in incQApoAoting. these two aneas within the newdu estabdtshed nationad pank 4 THE WILD CASCADES - 2 - Ao Aeeh Ake AuppanA and at^AAAance tJiom uowi own. RepAeAenAaAAveA and SenaAoAA An AJxe UnAted SAaieA (^onateAA. you mau be OAAWied AnaA 3 wAAA continue Ao do wkateven. 3 can Ao bnAna abouA Ake AncAvuiAon ok AJxeAe ajieoA wAAnAn Ake NonAk QxAcadeA NaAAonaJL Pcuik. U/Aik evenu aood wA-dk, SAjnceneAjLL*. membex ok QdriaK'SSX February - March 1969 5 Editor's Foreword: The following article, excerpted from a book, was printed in the March 1969 issue of Field and Stream, not a magazine where we ordinarily expect to find "our kind" of thinking. An N3C member sent the piece along, commenting that Edward Abbey is "a guy after Irate Birdwatcher's heart." To which we respond, who needs Irate? Based on this sample, we intend to purchase and memorize Abbey's book (Desert Solitaire: A Season in The Wilderness). How To Save Our National Parks By EDWARD ABBEY ". leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations . The only foreseeable alternative ... is the gradual destruction of our national park system" EDITOR'S NOTE: A number of years Comfort Stations are there, too, all lit as Angel Arch or Druid Arch, can be ago Edward Abbey spent several seasons up with electricity, fully equipped in­ reached by jeep, on horseback or in as a park ranger in Arches National Monument. From his experiences and re­ side, though the generator breaks a one- or two-day hike. Neverthe­ flections while at this small and then un­ down now and then and the lights less the Park Service had drawn up developed desert monument in southern go out, or the sewage backs up in the the usual Master Plan calling for Utah the author wrote a book. This ar­ plumbing system (drain fields were modern paved highways to most of ticle, an excerpt from his book, is an the places named and some not impassioned plea for limiting vehicles laid out in sand over a solid bed of and development in our national parks sandstone), and the water supply named. and monuments. We feel that in this sometimes fails, since the 3000-foot Grand Canyon National Park. Most issue devoted to cars and camping, Mr. well can only produce about 5gpm— of the south rim of this park is now Abbey's viewpoint deserves equal time. not always enough to meet the de­ closely followed by a conventional REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF MCGRAW-HILL BOOR mand. Down at the beginning of the high-speed highway and interrupted COMPANY FROM DESERT SOLITAIRE A SEASON IN new road, at park headquarters, is at numerous places by large asphalt THE WILDERNESS BY EDWARD ABBEY COPYRIGHT €> 196B BY EDWARD ABBEY. the new entrance station and visitor parking lots. It is no longer easy, on center, where admission fees are col­ the South Rim, to get away from the lected and where the rangers are roar of motor traffic, except by de­ ARCHES National Monument has going quietly nuts answering the scending into the canyon. Torowcap been developed. The Master Plan has same three basic questions five hun­ Point in the remote northwest corner been fulfilled. Where once a few ad­ dred times a day: (1) Where's the of the park, at present still unim­ venturous people came on weekends John? (2) How long's it take to see paired (though accessible), has not to camp for a night or two and enjoy this place? (3) Where's the Coke been forgotten; the plans are in the a taste of the primitive and remote, machine? files for developing even that wild you now find serpentine streams of Progress has come at last to the and lovely corner. baroque automobiles pouring in and Arches, after a million years of neg­ Navajo National Monument. A out, all through the spring and sum­ lect. Industrial Tourism has arrived. small, fragile, hidden place contain­ mer, in numbers that would have What happened to Arches Natural ing two of the most beautiful cliff seemed fantastic when I worked Money-mint is, of course, an old dwellings in the Southwest—Kcct there: from 3,000 to 30,000 to 300,000 story in the Park Service. All the Seel and Betatakin. This park will be per year, the "visitation," as they call famous national parks have the same difficult to protect under heavy visi­ it, mounts ever upward. The little problems on a far grander scale, as tation, and for years it was under­ campgrounds where I used to putter everyone knows, and many other stood that it would be preserved in a around reading three-day-old news­ problems as yet unknown to a little primitive way so as to screen out papers full of lies and watermelon subordinate unit of the system in a those tourists unwilling to drive their seeds have now been consolidated backward part of southeastern Utah. cars over some twenty miles of dirt into one master campground that And the same kind of development road. No longer so: the road has been looks, during the busy season, like a that has so transformed Arches is paved, the campground enlarged and suburban village: elaborate house- under way, planned or completed in "modernized," and the old magic trailers of quilted aluminum crowd many more national parks and na­ destroyed. upon gigantic camper-trucks of Fi- tional monuments. I will mention Natural Bridges National Monu­ berglas and molded plastic; through only a few examples with which I ment. Another small gem in the park their windows you will see the blue am personally familiar: system, a group of three adjacent glow of television and hear the studio The newly established Canyon- natural bridges tucked away in the laughter of Los Angeles; knobby- lands National Park. Most of the canyon country of southern Utah. kneed oldsters in plaid Bermudas major points of interest in this park Formerly you could drive your car buzz up and down the quaintly curv­ are presently accessible, over pass­ (over dirt roads, of course) to within ing asphalt road on motorbikes; able dirt roads, by car—Grandview sight of and easy walking distance— quarrels break out between camp­ Point, Upheaval Dome, part of the a hundred yards?—of the most spec­ site neighbors while others gather White Rim, Cave Spring, Squaw tacular of the three bridges. From around their burning charcoal bri­ Spring campground and Elephant there it was only a few hours walking quettes (ground campfires no longer Hill. The more difficult places, such time to the other two. All three could permitted—not enough wood) to easily be seen in a single day. But compare electric toothbrushes. The this was 6 THE WILD CASCADES not good enough for the developers. fore assume that the greater the understood, and enjoyed when the They have now constructed a paved quantity of traffic, the higher the machines are left behind where they road into the heart of the area, be­ value received. There arc some who belong—on the superhighways and tween, the two biggest bridges. frankly and boldly advocate the erad­ in the parking lots, on the reservoirs Zion National Park.