THE WILD CASCADES THE JOURNAL OF THE NORTH CASCADES CONSERVATION COUNCIL SPRING 1999 he North Cascades Conservation TCouncil was formed in 1957 "To pro­ tect and preserve the North Cascades' scenic, scientific, recreational, educa­ THE WILD CASCADES Spring 1999 tional, and wilderness values." Continu­ ing this mission, NCCC keeps govern­ ment officials, environmental organiza­ tions, and the general public informed In This Issue about issues affecting the Greater North Cascades Ecosystem. Action is pursued 3 The President's Report — MARC BARDSLEY through legislative, legal, and public par­ ticipation channels to protect the lands, 4 Mad River: Motorcycle Romper Room? Or Addition to waters, plants and wildlife. Glacier Peak Wilderness? — HARVEY MANNING Over the past third of a century the NCCC has led or participated in cam­ 6 Hot Flashes from Other Fronts paigns to create the North Cascades Na­ tional Park Complex, Glacier Peak Wil­ 8 Bad News for the Beckler — RICK MCGUIRE derness, and other units of the National Wilderness System from the WO. Dou­ Decision Time Nears for Middle Fork Snoqualmie glas Wilderness north to the Alpine Lakes — RICKMCGUIRE Wilderness, the Henry M. Jackson Wil­ derness, the Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness 9 The Northern Pacific Land Grant — Revest It Now? and others. Among its most dramatic vic­ Let's Be Practical: The Pragmatic Crusade — RICK MCGUIRE tories has been working with British Co­ lumbia allies to block the raising of Ross Volleys and Thunders — HARVEY MANNING Dam, which would have drowned Big The Railroad Land Grants Are Not History — GEORGE DRAFRAN Beaver Valley.

REVIEWS BY HARVEY MANNING 13 New Books of Some Note — MEMBERSHIP North Cascades Crest: Notes and Images from America's Alps, JAMES The NCCC is supported by member MARTIN; Geology of the North Cascades, ROWLAND TABOR AND RALPH dues and private donations. These sup­ HAUGERUD; Sunrise to Paradise: The Story of Mount Rainier National port publication of The Wild Cascades and Park, RUTH KIRK; An Ice Axe, a Camera, and ajar of Peanut Butter, IRA lobbying activities. (NCCC is a non-tax- SPRING; Hiking Snohomish County, 90 Hikes & Walks, Plus Parks, deductible 501(c)4 organization.) Mem­ Viewpoints, Water Access & Campgrounds, KEN WILCOX bership dues for one year are: $10 - low income/student; $20 - regular; $25 - fam­ 18 Land and Water Conservation — POLLY DYER ily; $50.00 - Contributing; $100 - patron; $1000 - $ustaining. A one-time life mem­ bership dues payment is $500. Cover Photo: PARK CREEK PASS AND MT. BOOKER — TOM MILLER PHOTO

The North Cascades Foundation sup­ The Wild Cascades ports the NCCC's nonpolitical efforts. Donations are tax-deductible as a 501(c)3 Journal of the North Cascades Conservation Council organization. Please make your check(s) EDITOR: Betty Manning out to the organization of your choice. The Foundadon can be reached, through Printing by EcoGraphics NCCC mailing.address: The Wild Cascades is published three times a year (Spring, Summer/Fall, Winter). NCCC members receive this journal. Address letters, comments, send articles to: North Cascades Conservation Council 77ie Wild Cascades Editor P.O. Box 95980 North Cascades Conservation Council University Station University Station Seattle, WA 98145-1980 Seattle, WA 98145-1980

• The Wild Cascades is printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.

2 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 NCCC Board

President Marc Bardsley Founded in 1957 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Board Chairman Patrick Goldsworthy

Vice President Charles Ehlert T& P/tffrJ&ht'* rtyv'rt Spring 1999

Treasurer Tom Brucker I suppose most of the civilized world can see the case fot minimizing pollution < global watming, and the waste of natutal tesources. We in the Notth Cascades Consetvation Council have specialized in the "not so clearcut" issues such as logging, Secretary mining, dam- and road-building, and species protection. We have had some success. Phil Zalesky While these problems have certainly not disappeated or become less important, it seems the affluence of the 90's has spawned another set of worties. It is ironic that the root cause of this latest dilemma is probably the biggest reason we got interested in Bruce Barnbaum the Notth Cascades in the first place. Dave Brower I'm talking about RECREATION. Out old friend, a part of our reason for organizing, has suddenly mutated to a form that we old-timers would have never Polly Dyer thought possible. Recreation has suddenly become the proverbial 800-pound gorilla swinging rudely through the public land management agencies. As always, money John Edwards talks. And this money, in huge quantities, is winning the hearts and minds of the Dave Fluharty managers and politicians with eyes ever on their budgets. Boating, skiing, RV's, snowmobiles, trail bikes, summer homes and the like have well-heeled advocacy Kevin Herrick gtoups and a very vocal constituency.

Peter Hurley A very large part of the NCCC energy is now focused on damage control of recreation-based situations. We have filed suit against the USFS to minimize trail bikes Conway Leovy in the Mad River area. Rafting and boating on our rivers and lakes demand more and more facilities, demands for more and wider roads in our National Parks and Forests Harvey Manning ate continual; snowmobiles and airplanes, both locally and nationally, are more than just a headache; and of course there is Stehekin where most of the demand for con­ Betty Manning struction is for accommodation of summer-cabin and recreation-based development. More and more, foot-powered people seem to requite wilderness amenities such as Carolyn McConnell bridges, trailhead expansions, hardened sites, permits, uset fees, and high-standard Jim McConnell trails. On a positive note, the National Park Service has recently decided to regulate jet skis. Rick McGuire I don't have the complete answer, but in the new millennium look to see a lot of Katie Sautet emphasis on eliminating machines from the backcountry. I expect a struggle between us good guys and a different bunch than we are used to trying to manipulate the use of Ken Wilcox public land. I think we will see mote people and corporations with expensive tastes demanding to use the commons for a playground. The rest of us, of course, will stand Hazel Wolf up for ourselves and for Mother Nature.

Laura Zalesky

Spring 1999 • THE WILD CASCADES 3 f^l^L )Q\J4AS. Motorcycle Romper Room ^V Addition to Glacier Peak Wilderness?

For many years the Forest Service, were Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and U.S. FOREST SERVICE; THE HONOR­ insisting with straight face that "there is no The Mountaineers; more will be signing on, ABLE ROBERT WILLIAMS, in his official conflict between boots and motorcycles," as formal approval comes from their he hottest spot in the Thirty (or capacity as Regional Forester, Pacific has flagrantly violated the law embodied in national offices. Forty) Year War on National Forest Northwest Region; THE HONORABLE NEPA and orders by Presidents Nixon and June 18, Judge Barbara Rothstein trails between feet and motorized RJCHARD A. FERRARO, in his official T Carter. We have long known we would be entered a temporary restraining order — capacity as Deputy Regional Forester, Resolution Trail Use in Mad River wheels has just gotten a quantum leap forced ultimately to seek justice in the STOP WORK. hotter, and more quantums to come. Pacific Northwest Region; THE HONOR­ Portion of Entiat and Rock Creek Roadless courts. On May 14 a draft complaint was We rejoice — but we do not relax. It Our Summer/Fall 1997 issue o(The ABLE SONNY J. O'NEAL, in his official completed by Steve Davis (Lane Powell was only a 20-day restraint. The court set Areas - Wenatchee National Forest Wild Cascades took the campaign through capacity as Forest Supervisor for the Spears Lubansky), reviewed by Karl dates for the government to lodge adminis­ the Environmental Assessment of the Wenatchee National Forest; THE Forsgaard (Vice President of Legal Affairs, trative record; plaintiffs to file motion for a Goose-Maverick Tie-Trail Project, the HONORABLE ROBERT J. SHEEHAN, in WHEREAS, motorized use of trails facilitate motorized use, or any construc­ Optiva Corporation), Andy Salter (Miller preliminary injunction; government's Finding of No Significant Impact by the his official capacity as District Ranger, Lake in the Mad River portion of the Entiat tion of new motorized tie-trails in the Nash), and Ira Spring. opposition papers due; plaintiff's papers Lake Wenatchee Ranger District, and the Wenatchee District of Wenatchee National and Rock Creek Roadless Areas, Mad River area; and due. The last action took place Tuesday, appeal to the Regional Forester by the As the draft was circulating among Forest Defendants. Wenatchee National Forest Washing­ To protect the Mad River area, we July 6. The judge extended the restraining North Cascades Conservation Council, organizations, Karl Forsgaard sent out an ton, causes environmental degradation, oppose the use of any Off-Road Vehicle order and set a hearing for August 4. Washington Trails Association, Sierra Club, alert May 27: Vm. PRAYER FOR RELIEF WHERE­ wildlife impacts and user conflicts; and (ORV) funds from the Washington Wilderness Society, Northwest Ecosystem "After weeks of phone tag I reached Much will be happening after we go to FORE, plaintiffs respectfully request that WHEREAS, user conflicts caused Interagency Committee for Outdoor Alliance, and The Mountaineers. — To cut Roger Ross, the Goose-Mav project press. Watch for the next issue! this Court: A. Determine and declare that by motorized use, including noise, dust, Recreation (LAC) grant program, or any to the chase, what this "Tie Trail Project" is person at the USFS Lake Wenatchee A concluding word (for now) from Karl the Forest Service's decisions approving the non-motorized user safety, deep, other source, to plan for or make trail about is an insistence that against all reason Ranger District. He said that despite Forsgaard: Goose-Maverick ORV Tie Trail Project are muddy ruts in wet areas, rutted and modifica'-'pns to facilitate motorized use and law the Mad River meadow country is the snow on the upper slopes, and the "We'vegot a lot more work to do to in violation of NEPA, 42 USC &USC & eroded trail tread, and general •- ^ River area; and intended by the Black Leather Jacket Gang washout of the Maverick Saddle road, get a preliminary injunction. The 4321 et. seq., and its implementing annoyance, act as a barrier to non- Slky* *ct the Mad River area, we in the Forest Service to be the sort of place they want the contractor to get Mad River country will make an regulations; and the APA, 5 USC & motorized users' use and enic- ^ the use of volunteer trail where, when your children walk a trail, you started NEXT WEEK on the lower excellent addition to the Glacier 706(1 )8c(2); B. Determine and declare these trails and the si>"' maintenance and construction work by warn them, "Look both ways for traffic." end of the project. Thus we'll have to Peak Wilderness, and you've gotta the Forest Service's decisions approving the environment; and any ORV or other motorized trail That, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. move into the expedite mode to get start somewhere." Goose-Maverick ORV Tie Trail Project are WHEREAS, theN. .*aver recreation organization on trails in the What the gangsters are trying to sneak one or more plaintiff organizations to —H.M. null and void; portion of the Entiat and Rock Creek Mad River area that would facilitate through, piece by piece, is a world-class approve the filing of the lawsuit in Roadless Areas is one of the largest motorized use and give such ORV Motorcycle Grand Prix from the Chiwawa the next few days." unprotected roadless areas in Washing­ organization a sense of ownership of the valley over the Mad River highlands and UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE, COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY ton, and has unique national and scenic trails; and Time was a-wastin', so on June 3 the down to the Entiat valley and then over the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF - 9 values including spectacular ridgetop To protect the Mad River area, we historic (so it will be recognized) Goose- Entiat Mountains and down to Lake AGRICULTURE; THE HONORABLE views from Glacier Peak to the Stuart oppose the authorization of any mass Maverick ORV lawsuit was filed in U.S. Chelan. DANIEL R. GLICKMAN, in his official Lane Powell Spears Lubersky LLP Range, gentle terrain for hikers of all motorized recreational activities on trails District Court, initially with only the two capacity as Secretary U.S. Department of Suite 4100 abilities and ages, and broad meadows in the Mad River area; and HOWEVER.... plaintiffs who had acted swiftly enough, the In another part of the war zone, in Agriculture; THE HONORABLE BRIAN 1420 Fifth Avenue rich in wildflowers; and To protect the Mad River area, we North Cascades Conservation Council and 1992 Susan Saul drafted the Dark Divide DOMBECK, in his official capacity as Chief, Seattle, WA 98101 WHEREAS, The Mad River support closure of trails in the Mad the Washington Trails Association; other Roadless Area Resolution that was endorsed portion of the Entiat roadless area will River area to motorized use; and organizations joining as plaintiffs by June 18 by 24 organizations. Herein is the text of be eligible for evaluation for recom­ We support recommendation of the the similar resolution that as of June 18, mendation for wilderness designation Mad River area for wilderness designa­ 1999, had been endorsed by the North during the coming Wenatchee Forest tion as an addition to Glacier Peak Cascades Conservation Council, the Sierra Plan revision process; Wilderness. : Club Cascade Chapter, the Washington HAP KMK HAP men : NOW THEREFORE, BE IT Trails Association, Wilderness Society, RESOLVED THAT to protect the Mad Land Exchange Update, Western Washington Wilderness Coalition, and The HAP W6R. HAP nwen River area, we oppose the reconstruc­ Land Exchange Project, PO Box 95545 Mountaineers. (Other organizations are tion or re-routing of existing trails to Seattle, Washington 98145-2545. engaged in review; the endorsement list will HAP KWBR. nnls KlvtK grow.) HAP nwen HAP nwen

4II THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 Spring 1999 • THE WILD CASCADES 5 \\4ft ^li^iyV fvW»fK Ot&T fiwhfo_

On June 6 the NCCC board dis­ A Gravel Pit Middle Fork cussed and took action on a number of issues in addition to those reported at (Another) and an Recreation Coalition length in these pages, or that will be in Interstate Highway (MidFORC) time to come. The notes here are merely The NCCC has joined the coalition to keep you awake. (Another) of conservation organizations seeking Thanks to the Northern Pacific Land sensible and sensitive management plans Grant, Weyerhaeuser "owns" the bulk of for the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River. Granite Falls Quarry Grouse Ridge, a terminal moraine of the NCCC Director Rick McGuire is a A gigantic excavation of glacial drift glacier that came from Canada in the leader of MidFORC. This is, of course, is proposed along the Mountain Loop Pleistocene. The Canadian gravel is the an area of long and continuing intense Highway east of Granite Falls. Four gold wanted to be dug by a Belgian interest to us. Indeed, the very first times the Snohomish Citizens Alliance, corporation, the Cadmium Company. publication of the proposal for an Alpine of which NCCC director Bruce The land in question being "private," Lakes Wilderness, prepared by the Barnbaum is a leader, has appealed who's to say no? Not free-enterprise Conservation Committee of The Moun­ rulings of the Snohomish County America, nor any of its states or counties, taineers under the leadership of John Council, and four times has been surely. Subject not to human morality but Warth, came in our Wild Cascades. The supported by the hearing examiner, John only the "higher morality" of the bottom problems and opportunities of the Gault. Having put itself in a quasi- line, Weyerhaeuser sees the opportunity Middle Fork will be regularly discussed judicial position, the County Council has to play still other profitable tunes on the in these pages by Rick. To cite just one not been legally able to talk to any same fiddle. In corporate headquarters that is current, the federal highwaymen person of the Citizens Alliance. How­ at Federal Way a scheme is brewing to are seeking from Congress $6,000,000 to ever, the wannabe digger, Associated run a new interstate, 1-605, from there to "upgrade" the Middle Fork road all the Sand and Gravel, has taken Council the gravel, as well as to the 80,000- way from North Bend to the National members to dinner. The Alliance has 100,000 acres of its Snoqualmie Tree Forest boundary. In the bible-manual of filed suit and the case will be heard in Farm (sic). Further, there is on old maps the feds, "upgrade" means high-speed superior court. The NCCC, which has (and some not so old), a thoroughfare freeway-style pavement. The 6M could standing in the case from past actions, called the "Lake Dorothy Highway." It more appropriately be spent to add more has voted funds for the litigation. Aside never was built, but highway schemes chuckholes (if any un-holey space can be from concerns over effects on the ground never die, they are just filed away to bide found) to further reduce the speed, water that supplies local wells, not to their time. The 1-605 is envisioned by perhaps to the extent of making walking mention the Stillaguamish River (fisher­ some at Federal Way as cutting through ies), the Mountain Loop Highway is a a viable alternative. the Alpine Lakes Wilderness (Senator gateway to the Henry M. Jackson Gorton could help) to Snohomish Wilderness and the Glacier Peak Wilder­ County. Weyerhaeuser advertises itself as North Fork ness and the Boulder River Wilderness. "the tree-growing company," but "tree Skykomish River farms" are less profitable than "house farms." The board is planning an inspection Enlargement of tour of this very important yet often Mount Rainier overlooked wilderness-edge valley. National Park Proposed timber sales, developments on private property (patented mining Certain private properties bordering claims), and candidates for Research the park in the Carbon River valley are National Area status will be examined. for sale. The NCCC supports extension Conway Leovy, NCCC director, lives of the park into the Carbon River as part-time at Index and will keep watch opportunity presents itself. for us.

6 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 Teanaway River Mine Claim on Boise-Cascade is selling its Cabin Thunder Creek Canadian Creek holdings to an Oregon firm, US On the high ridge at the head of Timberlands. The 1-90 corridor and the Thunder Creek is a patented mining Teanaway are involved. Any government News claim (the "Webster property"), which acquisitions will have to be negotiated had completely slipped our mind until with the latest heir of this portion of the U L/Clcl LC Our Canadian last summer when a Boy Scout troop was Northern Pacific Land Grab. Correspondent reports in the P-I that taken there by helicopter (private British Columbia is planning 240 more acres property!) couldn't find the trail out, and of clearcutting in Depot Creek, which Tieton River had to be rescued. The "Webster headwaters in icefields of the North owners" (courtesy of the 130-year-old Cascades National Park. Prior to the After the 1-90 Land Exchange is a Mining Laws so ably defended by building of the logging road the full length done deal, a Phase II Exchange will be Senator Gorton) have blasted 20,000 tons of Chilliwack Lake, with a spur up Depot studied. On the list of areas under of "ore" and want to helicopter it out consideration is ":Tieton River." No Creek, the vicinity of the headwaters was this summer for assay. We'll have the details. Important lands bordering the often cited as a candidate for the "pole of full story of the Websters in the next Goat Rocks Wilderness along the South remoteness" of the Cascades. The logging issue. Director Dave Fluharty expresses Fork Tieton River cry out to be pur­ destroyed groves of super-ancient western hope the Park Service can acquire the chased. Boise-Cascade is the main redcedar which forest ecologists rated more stolen property (pay the ransom) in the holder of the NP Land Grant booty here, impressive and significant than any of the next couple of years. but an individual "owns" a major portion sort then existing in the United States. of Conrad Meadow, the largest mid- Additionally, Vancouver climbers exploited montane valley-floor meadowland in the the logging road, roughed out a trail from entire Cascades, and what that individual Mountain Loop its end to the high country, and made and Boise-Cascade have been doing is a Highway Redoubt, formerly done only on "semi- expeditions," a weekend romp. shame of the nation. The Forest Service and the Federal Highway Administration have proposed The North Cascades Conservation to pave the unpaved portion of the Council and allies in British Columbia had a Holes in the Ground highway. The public has consistently heart-to heart with the climbers, who Discovering Washington's Historic and vociferously opposed. The Forest cooperated with the National Park Service Mines, volume I, West Central Cascade Service keeps coming back, hoping the in abandoning their bootleg shortcut trail, Mountains, by Northwest Underground people will "get it right." Now, appar­ or so we were told. The renewal of logging Explorations, Oso Publishing, 31328 ently, the Forest Service has little hope. in this sensitive area will certainly not North Brooks Creek Road, Arlington The FHA long since has given up on the enhance the reputation of the British 98223. Ask for it at your local library. people. Columbia government. Fascinating stuff. Neither will its plans to allow logging of Eighteen Mile and Twentymile Creeks, tributaries of the Skagit River just north of the border. Logging is already in progress on the Pasayten River, just over the border from the Pasayten Wilderness.

Whatever happened to the "Greater North Cascades Ecosystem" concept? The proposed international wilderness park? The Northwest Ecosystem Alliance says, "It's pretty grim along the border."

Spring 1999 • THE WILD CASCADES 7 Bad News for the Beckler

he Skykomish district of the Mt. Congress has apprpropiated money to we will see another opportunity wasted, Baker Snoqualmie National Forest the Forest Service to fix these problems, but, with the monies which could have gone T has recently released a document sadly, the definition of "fix" is left to the toward repairing this much damaged called "Beckler #2 Decommissioning and Forest Service. Rather than decommission watershed going instead to keeping these Stormproofing Roads in the Upper Beckler the roads and put them to bed, the Forest roads open, until the next November River Watershed." This unfortunate plan Service has instead chosen to use this money rainstorm washes them out yet again, represents a missed opportunity to fix some to once again repair the roads, and even sending tons more sediment into the of the worst water quality problems in the upgrade them in some cases. They have already choked Beckler - Skykomish river Cascades, in the Beckler valley north of coined a new word, "stormproofing," and system. Skykomish. have convinced themselves that by using this The Skykomish district was once one of The Beckler valley was one of the new term they will make this latest fix into the more enlightened outposts of the Forest premier timber mines on the Mt. Baker something different from the many which Service, but that era is now long forgotten.. Snoqualmie and was extensively roaded have come before. Scarce money which could have gone and logged from the 1960"s into the 1980's. Rainstorms, however, care little about toward fixing the problems from the past is Mile after mile of logging road was blasted buzzwords and are unlikely to recognize any instead being spent to keep the maximum and carved into steep, unstable differences between this latest round of number of miles of road open. Any real mountainsides, leaving a legacy of slides, fixes and the previous ones. So, once again solution to the problems of the collapsing blowouts and sedimentation which has left the bulldozers and backhoes will be roads and silted up rivers of the Skykomish the Beckler and south fork Skykomish rivers deployed to do yet another fix on these district will have to wait for a new genera­ very unfriendly places for fish. roads which will never be stable no matter tion of leadership from the Forest Service. how much money is poured into them. And — RICK MCGUIRE

Decision time nears for Middle Fork Snoqualmie

he North Bend ranger district of development. The valley has long been Highways Administration project which the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National plagued by uncontrolled shooting, dumping would turn the Middle Fork road into a TForest is expected this summer to and vandalism. Much progress has been wide, straight high speed highway. release an Environmental Assessment for an made in recent years against these problems, As one of the member organizations of "Access and Travel Management" plan for but much remains to be done. A good MidFORC, N3C will be sending out an the Middle Fork Snoqualmie river valley. decision by the Forest Service in the ATM alert to all its members once this ATM This "ATM" document and decision will plan could do a lot to further improve the document is released. It will be necessary for greatly affect the Middle Fork valley by situation in the valley. the conservation community to generate designating where new trails might be built MidFORC is proposing that the lots and lots of letters to push the Forest and which roads might be converted to Middle Fork road be gated and turned into Service to do the right things in the Middle trails. a trail above Taylor river. This would Fork. So please be prepared to take a few The Middle Fork Outdoor Recreation instantly create a huge area of backcountry minutes to write the Forest Service when Coalition, or "MidFORC," of which N3C is in the upper valley and turn a tortuous the alert shows up in your mailbox. It will be a member, is a group of conservation and driving experience into a wonderful hiking make or break time for the Middle Fork. recreation organizations which has been or mountain biking experience. MidFORC working for over ten years to protect this is also proposing a number of new trail 110,000 acre valley and to promote developments in the lower valley, and — RICK MCGUIRE environmentally sensitive recreational fighting against a proposed Federal

8 1 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 The Northern Pacific Land Grant

Northern Pacific Land Grant Boundary Clearcut

— PHOTO © DANIEL DANCER

Spring lQQO.THR WILD CASCADES 9 let'* gev PiA&lctl: The Pragmatic Crusade

here can be no doubt that the 1864 operations which kill not only downstream Government, it might just be possible. But Northern Pacific Land Grant has fish habitat but downstream human the examples from the past are a mixed lot, Tleft one of the most devastating residents every year now. at best. The French Revolution did in fact legacies to the Northwest environment of manage to confiscate the huge properties But can we really turn back the clock any law ever enacted by Congress. The owned by the Catholic church and some of and undo the wholesale privatization of massive giveaway of "public" lands whose the aristocracy and distribute them among North America? Can we revest the 1864 original native residents were still being the people who actually lived on them. But Land Grant? Probably not anytime soon. driven to death and misery to enrich a gang the parallels between it and any conceivable Much of the land has passed through many of freebooting speculators will always stand NP revestiture are limited. A better example hands by now, leaving a tangled trail of land as one of the darker chapters of the carving might be some of the Communist revolu­ titles that could perplex the most dedicated up of the North American continent. Yet it tions of the twentieth century which set up searcher. A huge proportion of the original is only one of many such shameful chapters. systems of "People's Commissars" who land grant is now broken up into small They began with the initial extermination of wielded absolute power to decide who holdings, and a very conservative estimate the Native Americans of the Atlantic coast stayed and who went. would be that there are now hundreds of to the final destruction of the Plains tribes, thousands, if not millions, of people now But does anyone seriously believe that and on through all the subsequent frauds living on and believing that they own pieces any of these scenarios, mild or radical, is and crimes which privatized the vast of the former land grant. There are now really likely to come about in the U.S. majority of what is now the United States. entire cities sitting upon former NP land. anytime soon? How much support is really And the process continues to this very day, Will we see Congress passing a law evicting out there for any of these alternatives? "Let under the cover of such laws as the 1872 and repossessing the lands of large numbers he who is without sin cast the first stone." Mining Act which still allows huge corpora­ of people living in the suburbs of Seattle? If Anyone who "owns" any sort of property tions to steal much of what little remains in such an unlikely event were to come about, just about anywhere has a collection of sins the public domain. Looked at through such would we see these people who thought in their land title if one looks back far a lens the history of the American land can they bought and paid for the land they live enough. Most, if not all of Seattle and its seem very sordid to say the least. on go quietly? It doesn't seem very likely. environs, passed into the "public domain" But what can be done now to stop of the European race as a result of the 1853 So can we just take back that portion of or reverse the process? We can, and must, Point Elliott treaty. How many of us would the land grant now owned by huge timber end the continuing disgraceful loss of what be willing to defend the fairness of that or corporations, those whose panzer style little remains by repealing the mining laws, virtually any other of the treaties between leave-nothing-standing logging operations and by stopping the timber program on the the whites and the Native Americans? What during the last few decades have caused the National Forests, which has never been about the Donation Land Act, and the most anger over the 1864 giveaway? anything more than a giveaway to rich Homestead Act, which were perhaps even Probably not, at least not without taking corporations, no matter what kind of greater frauds than the NP land grant, and away all those other people's small holdings Orwellian "ecosystem management" which underlie many of the land titles of the and houses as well. The U.S. Constitution rhetoric the Forest Service timber bureau­ Northwest? has usually been interpreted to imply equal cracy may now try to disguise it with. We protection under the laws, and the Few if any societies in human history can do our best to keep the oil drillers out Supreme Court has ruled that corporations have ever willingly undone centuries of of such places as the Arctic National Wildlife enjoy the same rights as citizens. It's shady dealings in the interest of fairness. Refuge. And we can do our best to stop the doubtful if even the most environmentally Nor are we, as conservationists, likely to ruinous destruction of public fish and friendly judge would agree that some but build much support for our goals by raising wildlife which has resulted from the not all of the holders of NP land grant land the specter of throwing people off land weakness or entire lack of laws which should must surrender it back to the public. which they fully believe, rightly or wrongly, restrain the harm caused to others by the is theirs. We can and will protect those lands heedless destruction which is usually the And even if such were possible, who which are still public. And although it will he norm on private lands - what economists would decide who gets to keep their land a long difficult struggle, we will eventually sometimes call "negative externalities," like and who loses theirs? If there were a regulate the use and abuse of private lands the landslides from blitzkrieg logging Communist or other politically radical so as to prevent the "owners" from passing takeover or overthrow of the existing U.S.

10 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 \]Mu^^J^^

the costs of their misdeeds to everyone and Cannon to right of them, If you've got it, flaunt it, no matter everything else around and below them. Cannon to left of them, how you got it, that's the motto of Port But we are unlikely, short of revolution, to Cannon in front of them Blakeley Properties, a family-owned firm revest the Northern Pacific land grant after Volleyed and thundered. which advertised a residential development 135 years. Far better for us to concentrate on Bainbridge Island as "lands still held by on what is truly possible than to put Forward the Light Brigade the original owner." (Chief Sealth, stop energies into a cause which, however noble Cato the Censor is remembered as a beating that drum! We can't hear ourselves and just, has virtually no likelihood of going tiresome old crab who invariably ended steal.) Those particular stolen goods were anywhere in this all too imperfect but all too every session of the Roman Senate by from other capers than the railroad grant, real world in which we find ourselves. crying, "Carthage must be destroyed!" but Port Blakeley since has acquired a tract Largely to shut him up the Third Punic War of Northern Pacific booty east of Lake — RICK MCGUIRE was waged, though little was left to do after Sammamish and thus is a certified member the First and Second except plough the site of the Robber Baron gang. EDITOR'S NOTE: of the destroyed city and sow it with salt. Radical reactionaries have succeeded, The Irate Birdwatcher of the 1960s Rick McGuire is a board member of the North by their thunder on the right, in shifting was wont to cry out at assemblies of the Cascades Conservation Council, president of America's political climate so far off-center North Cascades Conservation Council, ALPS, and active in MidFORC decisions. that "liberal" is an epithet which can fatally "The Northern Pacific Land Grant must be smear a candidate for public office. What revested!" Irate was getting at when he staged his Cato Surely, few of those who understood act was that thunder on the right must be the reference to Carthage and Cato matched by thunder on the left. supposed that Irate literally was calling for Revestment! the plough and the salt. After all, a couple It will not be done soon, and never of Punic-like wars would be needed first, down to the last of the 38,600,000 and the Hannibal-likes and their elephant- Northern Pacific stolen acres. However, no likes were — and are — formidable foes. more than the Scots forgive the insolent The point was — and is — that no matter Sassenachs, nor the Saxons the grasping how ancient a wrong may be, time doesn't Normans, nor the North the South for make it right. winning the post-Appomattox Civil War, Yet that is precisely what is being can we forgive the monstrous crime claimed by the kleptocracy which rules America today. Indeed, Alan Greenspan, committed against the people a century and maestro of the current superboom of the a third ago. free market, is an avowed disciple of Ayn Thunder on the Left! Rand, the Social Darwinian who wrote The We here present two views on how Virtue of Selfishness. Her "objectivism" much thunder is proper and useful about declaims that not only is wealth a measure land thefts of the Gilded Age, the era of the of virtue, poverty of vice, but that the duty of today's Robin Hood is to steal from the Great Barbecue, during which Billy poor to give to the rich. Vanderbilt, the Commodore's little boy, Truly, the brass balls of Weyerhaeuser when asked by a journalist the benefit a and Burlington Northern Resources are certain of his projects might have for the flagrantly displayed in demanding public, bellowed, "The public! The public be $4,200,000 for geothermal "rights" to damned!" A century and more since Billy Mount St. Helens — "rights" dating from was stuffed underground, his bellow echoes the Northern Pacific Land Grant, "rights" on in Congress, the Bellevue City Council, the two companies admit they never and the Rainier Club. planned to exercise! (The giviment paid —HARVEY MANNING up!)

Spring 1999 • THE WILD CASCADES 11 The Railroad Land Grants Are Not History

he contentious checkerboard land taking people's land away. But no one is refers to them, still profit from the crime. exchanges which have recently suggesting that we take people's land away. The land is still being damaged. The Ttaken place in the Northwest are a There's a fundamental difference between a communities are still being held hostage to symptom of the 19th century railroad land petson who owns a house on a city lot or a monopoly power. Despite the ongoing grant policy of the U.S. Congress. Ten few acres, and Plum Creek and problems, we're supposed to forget the percent of the continental U.S. was Weyerhaeuser owning millions of acres. crime. But many of us remember. supposed to be sold to homesteaders and Let's talk about reclaiming huge corporate And the last refuge of scoundrels is other settlers in order to raise funds for the holdings over 100,000 acres or so - concocted rights. The corporations will construction of the national railroad and reclaiming the land for people. claim that they are just people, and that telegraph systems. Instead, the railroads sold The corporations will claim that they they have rights. But a corporation is not a millions of acres of land to timber, mining, were innocent purchasers, and that they person. "Corporate personhood" is an and real estate corporations, including absurd legal fiction, applied in the 1880s by Anaconda Copper, Weyerhaeuser, Boise judges with land grant railroad interests, Cascade, Potlatch, Burlington Resources, and still used today to shield corporate Meridian Minerals, Great Northern Coal, power from public accountability. Power and Trillium Corporation. without accountability is tyranny. Ultimately, Land exchanges are not the only this is a battle between the public interest symptom of the land grants. Weyerhaeuser and corporate power. Environmentalists are owns more than a million acres in Washing­ doing immense battle against that power. ton State, purchased from the Northern But it's just not realistic to fight corporate Pacific Railroad for $6 per acre (about ten power without bringing up the real issues. cents per thousand board feet of timber). It's been the corporate agenda all along. It's Plum Creek Timber owns 1.5 million acres no wonder that people are losing their in Montana State — more than 90 percent power, while the corporations get stronger of the timber industry land in Montana — — WILLIAM FAULKNER every day. also acquired from the Northern Pacific Congress used public laws to create the land grant. These two corporations have railroad land grants, and Congress will been liquidating the native forests of the haven't broken the law. But the corpora­ forever have the ongoing duty to oversee Northwest, exporting raw logs and jobs tions which bought millions of acres from and amend those laws. The land grant from the region, and putting small mills out the Northern Pacific Railroad were not policy, and Congress's public interest duties, of business. innocent purchasers. Frederick should be part of the public debate. Weyerhaeuser and other prominent Land exchanges are a natural reaction Congress, the courts, and the public have purchasers sat on the boards of the railroad to the problem of the checkerboards, but avoided the real issues. Yet taking back the corporations. They willfully and repeatedly the symptoms of the railroad land grants land is hardly out of the question. Over the violated the letter and spirit of the law — will never be relieved until the underlying past 130 years, Congress has recovered 40 and bribed and threatened settlers, local problem is addressed. Of course Congress million acres from 26 railroads which officials, Congressmen, and federal land will have to be pressured to reopen the land violated their land grant contracts with the agents so that they could get away with it. grant issue; Congress always has to be public. Congress has the power to amend This is historical fact, and it used to be pressured to do anything meaningful. And the land grants — and has done so dozens common knowledge among the American when the land grant laws are (again) of times, whenever it was provided the people. amended to recover wrongfully acquired gumption through public pressure. grant lands, the corporations involved will The land grant-based corporations will The land grant laws were public laws likely go to court to defend their property then claim that even if their predecessors aimed at a public policy for governing public claims. Some of us look forward to that day. had broken the law, well, that was a long lands. That this policy has nevet been time ago. But lo and behold, the assets were The corporations, and unfortunately fulfilled is not mere historical curiosity. It is a passed along without the public duties that many environmentalists as well, will argue living tragedy with environmental and social that taking back the land grants would mean had been attached to them. These "heirs of consequences for all of us. In a 1944 poll, thieves," as Harvey Manning accurately

12 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 TO LEARN MORE only half of the American public had even CMc^dt- QiecluAie>^vui fJuV4- heard of the railroad land grants. More than 50 years later, even fewer of us Newsletter of the Cascade Checkerboard Project, sponsored by the Sierra Club, directed remember, and we're so busy fighting the by Charlie Raines; editor Amy Gulick. little battles that we keep delaying the real 8511 15th Avenue NE debate. Even if you remember history, if Seattle, WA 98115 you don't do something to change it, you're Free on request; write to be put on the mailing list. Contributions are appreciated and condemned to repeat it. should be directed to the Sierra Club Foundation at the above address.

—GEORGE DRAFFAN IrMUs&U&MtyUjJjk

Editor's Note: George Draffan is a historian Newsletter of the Western Land Exchange Project, a non-profit charitable organization and librarian who provides research and conducting research, outreach, and advocacy for the reform of federal land exchange policy. information support services to citizens and Rachael Paschal, president; Bonnie Phillips, vice-president-secretary; Martin L. Rand, public interest organizations. He is the co­ treasurer, advisory board, Dr. John Osborn, Roy Keene, Laura Weeks. Staff, Janine Blaeloch, author ofRailroads 8c Clearcuts: Legacy of director; Joseph Cunningham, program coordinator. To receive the newsletter and support Congress's 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad the program of "fighting bad trades threatening our public lands," become a member for the Land Grant (available from your local regular (tax-deductible) dues of $25, student/optional low rate of $15. bookstore, or for $18 postpaid to Public Western Land Exchange Project Information Network, PO Box 95316, P.O. Box 95545 SeattleWA 98145-2316). He also has written Seattle, WA 98145-2545 "Taking Back our Land," a 50-page history of how railroad lands have been reclaimed many times. ^/tM>4^tei04^

Journal of The Lands Council, a non-profit organization working for sustainable forests and divetsified economies in the Pacific Northwest. Editor, John Osborn; associate editor, Derrick Jensen; layout and design, Easy. Free on request; write to be placed on the mailing list. Contributions (tax-deductible) are welcome. The Lands Council S. 517 Division Spokane, WA 99202-1365 The December 1998 issue contains Part 10 of the "Railroads and Clearcuts" series. George Draffan's article, "Taking Back Our Land," treats in detail (1) The Disposal of America's Public Lands since the Revolution; (2) The Railroad Land Grants, a series of federal and state acts between 1850 and 1871, giving away 130,400,000 acres, of which 38,600,000 were the Northern Pacific Land Grant; (3) The Movement for Forfeiture; (4) 75 Years of Land Grant Forfeiture ; (5) The Accomplishments and Failure of Forfeiture; (6) The Land Grant Legacy Lives On.

Spring 1099 • THE WILD CASCADES 13 WASHINGTON FOREST PROTECTION ASSOCIATION Some Mugwump Words — We're managing private forests so they work for all of us — MEMBERS: nder American law, corporations know no one, myself, personally, who Appleton Ridge Tree Farm have the rights of persons, but are disagrees that forests cannot be left to the Arden Tree Farms, PNC. not required to behave according amorality of giant corporations, their Barker Tree Farm U Bloedel Timberlands Development, Inc. to the moral code expected of good, management must be brought into the Boise Cascade Corporation decent, God-fearing persons. The corpora­ human community of values. One sugges­ Broughton Lumber Company tion is by legal definition amoral. Granted, tion has been to revest the Northern Pacific Joseph Buhaly C&cH Tree Farms to persons who strive to be moral, this seems Land Grant. Campbell Group Champion the equivalent of immoral. Another step is the emphasis of the Pacific Timberlands, Inc. To be sure, the persons who operate Western Land Exchange Project, "Research, Conifer Northeast, Inc. Crown Pacific, Ltd. the corporations must expect to be Advocacy, and Outreach for Land Ex­ Danforth Properties considered immoral by persons who do not change Policy Reform." The Cascade Estate of Ralph G. DuMoisy Erewhon Tree Farm operate corporations. Burning up children Checkerboard Project does not disagree Bob & Lynett Falkner by failing to fix a faulty pipeline valve, with this. The two groups are working Frank Tree Farm extorting $100,000,000 from the citizenry toward the same goal. The mugwump Global Pacific Forest Products, Inc. Green Crow Hampton Resources, Inc. to cover "cost over-runs" on a stadium built believes all us mugwumps ought to listen Hancock Timber Resource Group for corporation profit and (personal ego) carefully to both. International Forest Consultants Inc. and "desrroying an important ancestral The following headline and opening Fred Han Phil Hess transportation route of the Muckleshoot paragraph of the lead article in the June Ray A. Kawamoto Indians" — these thing are done by 1999 Land Exchange Update introduce a Lake Riley Tree Farm Longview Fibre Company corporations and under our free market report of the current status of the Huckle­ Dr. Jergen Manchot system are amoral and customary and berry exchange. Menasha Corporation expected. However, it does appear that the Merrill & Ring Mike Carlson Enterprises, Inc. persons who give the orders to their Miller Land & Timber Co. creature, their Frankenstein Monster, their COURT HALTS LOGGING Murray Pacific Corporation corporation, are in some sense not precisely ON LANDTRADEDTO Nielsen Brothers, Inc. James F. O'Donnell moral. They must forgive the non- WEYERHAEUSER Olympic Forestry Co. corporation-operating persons for tending Rachael Paschal, President, Olympic Resource Management O'Neill Pine Company to look upon them as BAD PEOPLE. Western Land Exchange Pacific Denkman/Pilchuck Tree Farm The reason we bring up the matter Project Plas Newydd Farm here is not to advocate overthrowing our Testament to the destruction Plum Creek Timber Company, L.R Port Blakely Tree Farms government by force or violence (person­ wrought by the Weyerhaeuser Francis J. Powers, Jr. ally, I just hate violence, and am not awfully Corporation, Huckleberry Rayonier strong in the force department) but to stress Mountain is wasted with Rayonier Timberland Operating Company Sheldon Properties that there is no disagreement on the clearcuts and roads that have Simpson Timber Company fundamental 'Tightness" of the land- brought the Green River Richard T. Sterling exchange question between the people watershed to the very edge of Stewart Tree Farms Stimson Lumber Company leading and supporting the Cascade ecological collapse. But a Steve & Julie Thompson Checkerboard Project and those of the recent decision from the Ninth George Thomson Toerring KG Deming Tree Farm Western Land Exchange Project. Circuit Court of Appeals has USR Company, LLC The "exchangers" are under no afforded Huckleberry Mountain Vaagen Brothers Lumber Inc. illusions about Weyerhaeuser & Company, a temporary reprieve. Washington Timberland Management, Inc. Weyerhaeuser Company their position is that when the villain has Maurice Williamson your sweetie pie tied to the railroad tracks — Washington Forest Protection and is twisting his mustaches and chortling Also in this current issue are reports on Association, 724 Columbia St. N.W, as the train draws nigh, your choices are exchanges in central Oregon, western Suite 250, Olympia, Washington 98507 — limited. Our director, Rick McGuire, has Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Virginia, and "Managing the Northern Pacific Land Grab so painfully made the point in his article. I California — the national context of our they enrich the stockholders" local situation.

14 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 New Books of Some Note

The New Age Cometh The present journal therefore cannot walked) in deep wilderness, the "reclusive" express much interest in Martin's text. The sort. photographs, yes, because they all-too- As for that classic unit, the crest, the North Cascades Crest: Notes and vividly exemplify the latest technology of book omits these indispensable pieces: Images from America's Alps camera and darkroom, to us old trampers Redoubt-Custer Ridge; Northern Pickets- as incomprehensible as sending an expedi­ Picket Pass-Southern Pickets Traverse; James Martin, Sasquatch Books, Seattle, tion to Everest to dig up Mallory's bones Snowfield-Klawarti Traverse; Eldorado- 1999. 1328 pages, 8x10. 75 color photos. and sell photos of them to the media. The Forbidden-Boston-Sahale. The Ptarmigan Trade paperback, $19.95. color! Oh the color! Poor Lady Macbeth, Traverse is sampled from the north end, the When James Martin "stumbled across repeatedly washing her hands: "Who south end, and the middle. For his Tom Miller's The North Cascades" and thus would have thought the old man to have "complete" he cops out halfway, failing to discovered "America's own Alps," he moved had so much blood in him?" Poor me, do the classic finish of the First, Second, and from California to be near the "... wildness. swirling in what feels like a bad acid Third Traverses by, respectively, the I couldn't live without it." flashback: "Who would have thought my Ptarmigan Climbing Club, Tom Miller & black-and-white North Cascades.. ..?" Excellent! This was precisely why we Company, and Ira Spring & Company. (The Mountaineers) published Tom's book Technology is progress, you can't fight These lapses might charitably be in 1964. The wildness needed eyes to see, it. Ethics, though, are in some measure attributed to a late-arriving and hungry boots to walk, to save it for — well, for eternal. Photographers of ancient times publisher, and/or a writer-photographer James Martin. So blessings on him. On his brought down commandments from Sinai: trying too hard, too soon. My hardball- book, too. One, always tell where the camera is. Two, ethical judgment is that these folks haven't However, not to be ignored is the always clearly announce when it's in the sky. paid their dues, are motivated by something difference. The North Cascades of 1964 had Three, always be upfront about the other than whatever it is that drives the an agenda, and so did the Sierra Club's The telephoto. Violate these commandments of NCCC. Jehovah and the world you "image" may be Wild Cascades in 1965, as did in following You can't beat the price. The color as mind-blowing as a bus trip with Ken years a veritable library of books from these hysteria and the winter aerials and the Kesey but it is not the world experienced by and other publishers, books that were baited zoom-zooms — the fishies will bite bite bite a mind that sees through eyes that are with pretty pictures and useful information — and flop flop flop. Exploiting the North connected to boots on the ground and are and that, when the fish nibbled, set the hook Cascades as a commodity, the publisher and unable to zoom. Four, when "imaging" a and demanded letters to Congress. author will cash in big. Not to worry about wild creature, explain how you got close Martin does recommend that the hiker Tom Miller. It was of no concern to him enough to look it in the eye, and if caught in "should try to walk primarily on rock, camp that in those early years of Mountaineers a zoo in Clallam County or Africa estab­ on snow instead of meadow, and carry out Books they were too poor to pay royalties; lished for professional wildlife imagers, be waste." He says a good word for grizzlies he had a good job at Boeing, weekends and frank about it, as was Art Wolfe, the mentor and a bad word for clearcutting and believes vacations free. pronounced by Martin to be ".. .by "the natural word deserves respect. " Yet acclamation the world's most accomplished when the fishies of Outside and Amazon dot outdoor photographer." com are hooked by Martin's pretty pictures, what does he expect of them? To flop In the book title, "crest" led me to expect step-by-step tracing of the wildland around in the frying pan? He is aware Geology of the North Cascades there was a Great Year, 1968, but after unity from Canada to Glacier Peak, an 1964 is totally blank on that library of expectation reinforced by the back-cover Rowland Tabor and Ralph Haugerud, "agenda" books. He doesn't even mention encomium that credits Martin with knowing drawings by Anne Crowder, The Mountain­ that 1984 was, itself, a pretty good year. In "these reclusive mountains as few others eers, 1999. 143 page, 8-1/2x11, visuals, short, the sort of stuff the present journal do." But the text describes a half-dozen or (maps, color photos, line drawings) galore. has focused on since 1957 is of no interest so day or overnight trips to the wilderness $19.95 (a bargain!) to Martin. edge, and only two routes (that he, himself, Continued on next page

Spring 1999 • THE WILD CASCADES 15 Ninety years of North Cascade Newly we have Bruce Barcott, The ago in fire lookouts and on trail crews, and geologizing packaged in a "mountain Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on sadly last, a survivor of the 1981 disaster on mosaic," and little more needs be said than Mount Rainier, 1997, "Lighthearted the Ingraham Glacier, eleven comrades that the "Tabor" of the authorship is half of personal account of trips to Mount Rainier; dead, the most in American alpinism. The the "Tabor &C Crowder" who in 1965 gave interviews with its aficionados and research­ "Arkansas boys" of the Depression CCC are us Routes and Rocks: Hikers Guide to the ers." And Tim McNulty and Pat O'Hara,: featured, and the Army ski-troopers of North Cascades from Glacier Peak to Lake Washington's Mount Rainier National Park: A 1940-42, and the "big-time skiing" of the Chelan. Centennial Celebration, 1999, "Beautiful, 1930s (Don Fraser, who won it in 1934 and informative portrait of the park and the 1938, tells about the Silver Skis race, from That classic has been out of print for Mountain, its history, geology, and ecology." 10,000 feet at Muir to 5,000 at Paradise, in years, become a collector's treasure, and And finally, Ruth Kirk, Sunrise to Paradise: just over 9 minutes!). perpetuated by photocopy machines by the The Story of Mount Rainier National Park, thousands of pirate copies. The Crowder Enough hors-d'oeuvres — pull your 1999. family happily is as involved in this book as chair up to the table and go at it. in its predecessor, whose co-author is I've not read the Barcott and McNulty/ I haven't counted the photographs and remembered in the dedication, "the late O'Hara books, for two reasons: The drawings, numbering somewhere in the Dwight Crowder who knew its mountains publishers did not send me review copies, hundreds: or the photographers and artists and its rocks and would have liked to have and in any event I'm really pretty filled up (Molenaar and Tsutakawa are here, of written this book." No review or description with the same old same old about The course); several dozen are named, the rest or recommendation is really necessary — a Mountain. Please, authors, my apologies. namelessly attributed to the National Park notification suffices. YOU WANT THIS No disrespect meant. I know and admire Service, University of Washington Libraries, BOOK. And you don't want just to library- your work and likely will get around to and Washington State Historical Society. borrow. BUY IT. From a human bookstore, these books one day. When the price is not a supermarket in a mall or in right (free, that is). The result is not only a pictorial history of the Mountain but the evolution of cyberspace. Even if you are geology- Ruth Kirk's publisher, the University of challenged, "Part 1: North Cascades photography from the invention of the Washington Press, did send me a review camera (virtually) to the up-to-the-minute Geology," will primer you in. Then you'll copy. If they had not, I'd have borrowed be set for "Part 2: Geologic Notes for color gaudies. Among my favorites: Alma from the library, because no matter how Wagen, "our lady guide," in pre-WWII Points of Interest," a rock-feast that will often a tired old field has been plowed, require the book to be permanently in your riding britches and rattlesnake boots; Ruth always turns up new stuff and serves it Imogen Cunningham's 1915 portrait of her rucksack — as they like to put it nowadays, in high style. your "Eleventh Essential." new hubby Roi Partridge, a scandal at the The 150 pages, 8x11, offer a sumptu­ time (her comment half a century later — ous spread. Ruth presents the vital statistics "You could never chase a naked husband and the history. She spotlights The First around Mount Rainier today."); visitors People, the first botanizers, the (self-alleged) arrived via the new (1906) Tacoma Eastern first climbers, the first woman on top, Fay Railroad, captioned "Two ladies in elegant Mount Rainier National Park Fuller, in "heavy flannels, woolen hose, dress."; Elcane Longmire and his beard; Centennial warm mittens and goggles. . ." carrying "two Chief Saluskin (1915); the "Dancing Girls" Mount Rainier enters its second single blankets containing provisions for from Miss Mary Ann Wells School, come in century a national park with a suggested three days and strapped from the shoulder 1931 to celebrate opening of the road to reading list handsomely augmented by under the arm to the waist." Reaching "the Sunrise; the Paradise Golf Course of the several impressive new volumes. This is not tip top" at 4:30 p.m. she felt sick from 1930s; John Muir sitting on the porch of to say the list was not already richly exhaustion and fumes but "after vomiting. . the Kernahan log cabin, 1888. . felt all right and ready to enjoy the night." respectful. Some of my personal favorites The reader always expects (and gets) Ruth's narrative is accompanied by "Voices have been (alphabetically by author) Aubrey from Ruth the best and most accurate of the Mountain," a chorus including Haines, Mountain Fever; William Moir, lowdown on scientific research. The Schmoe and Haines and Molenaar and Forests of Mount Rainier; Dee Molenaar, The geology of The Mountain has been a Spring and Levertov, as well as the iess Challenge of Mount Rainier; and Floyd personal pet fascination. Often I've gazed familiar names of folks who summered long Schmoe, A Year in Paradise. out from the Issaquah Alps over the broad

16 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 expanse that only recently was identified as Ira Spring having come up, have you censorship from Powers Above. To quote the Osceola Mudflow of some 5700 years seen his autobiography? An Ice Axe, A from my screed: ago, and mused "What if it came again, Camera, And A Jar of Peanut Butter, The "If guidebooks were rare hereabouts in now?" For reasons having to do with urban Mountaineers, 1998. 239 pages (8-1/4x10- the 1960s, the same cannot be said of the non-planning, Fve kept up pretty well with 1/2), some hundreds of photos (b&w). 1990s. Ira and I take the precaution of not the on-going identification of the 60-odd Paperback, $24.95. reading any of the row upon row of lahars that have swept down every one of Boy Scouts in the Olympics, photo­ newcomers to bookstore shelves in order to the Mountain's valleys. However, I'd fallen graphing tourists at Mount Rainier, avoid the ever-present dangers of uncon­ behind the data, my newest information islanders in the South Pacific, girls rappelling scious plagiarism — and of repeating being about the Electron Mudflow of 600 for Esquire and leaping crevasses for the someone else's mistakes. I scan the fore­ years ago. Ruth brought me into the Sunday supplements, skiers at Chamonix, words, though, because there, if anywhere, current picture, which is such that geologists pilgrims on Fujiyama, Justice Douglas on the is the environmental conscience. I regret to are more or less privately warning their beach, Canadian Club whiskey drinkers for say that in the forewords I have scanned I friends to move out of Orting, to not invest the national magazines, and Betty Manning haven't found any to speak of. Which is not in Puyallup real etate, or for that matter, on Eldorado. (The photo of the peanut to say there isn't any. But the absence points Auburn or Kent or Tukwila. In the mid- butter-and-jelly sandwich is by his son-in- up the reason Ira and I got into 1990s came the discovery of an eruption- law, Tom Kirkendall.) guidebooking in the 1960s and why we're triggered lahar of 1100 years ago which laid still at it." down sand 12 feet deep near the Port of Seattle's Terminal 107. Ken Wilcox passes my test — with honors. I knew he would before ever I The Mountain (and the Seattle Fault) opened the book — which I had encour­ promise to give mankind a second chance at FROM THE WHULGE TO THE aged him to do because my old Footsore building a respectful Puget Sound City. CASCADE CREST series was dying, leaving much fine walking Stick to the high ground and stay off the in limbo, and because his close-up focus Hiking Snohomish County, 90 Hike & jelly-bowl soils and you may be able to enjoy could provide finer detail than Footsore ever Walks, Plus Parks, Viewpoints, Water Access & it. had. Reading the foreword was confirma­ Campgrounds. Ken Wilcox, Northwest Wild tion. However, I don't wish to give the Books, Bellingham, 1998. 260 pages (4-1/ impression the book is laudable merely • • • 2x6-1/2), some 100 small photos (b&w), because it's good for the land. It's also good about 80 maps. Paperback, $13.95. for you, the pedestrian. The 300 miles of Addendum When the notion was floated of 100 walking are separated into: The Coast, Classic Hikes, I alternately snorted and Urban Walks, Lowlands and Foothills, and You couldn't expect the Centennial to groaned, opining with some vigor that North Cascades. All 90 hikes and walks are escape the notice of Ira Spring, could you? 100+100+100 etc. were enough of that. day trips, identified by one to four symbols His tribute to the occasion is a Fourth However, the publisher (The Mountain­ from "Easiest" to "Most Difficult". Some Edition of 50 Hikes in Mount Rainier eers) drew attention to the horde of dozens of "Other Walks and Hikes" invite National Park — ALL THE 81 PHOTOS IN nibblers and proposed a Microsoft-like exploration. THE GORGEOUS SINGAPORE COLOR defense against "loss of market share." THAT IS BOGGLING AMERICA. If you If you enjoy this volume (you will) They sweetened the pot by suggesting we thought the first edition, 1969, was you'll want the companions in the series; might have some fun with the text, adding something, be prepared to sit down while Hiking Whatcom County (1996) and personal experiences on the routes. A major your head stops swimming. Says the back ("coming soon") Hiking Skagit County, inducement for Ira was coming out from cover, ". . . Wondrous hikes around the Hiking King County, and Hiking the San black & white into living color. What won Northwest's most beloved icon." It is hailed Juans, Whidbey and Camano Islands. me over (aside from the impossibility of (if you can't trust a back cover, who can you arguing with Ira the Smiling Steamroller) trust?) by the Seattle Times as "invaluable," was that the publisher acceded to my by Sunset as "Authoritative," and by Summit • • • demand that I be permitted frontmatter as "Outstanding." $14.95 per copy. Ideal space for "Our Greenbooks and How they for Christmas stockings. The whole family Grew" — stipulating no (zero, nada) will go blind.

Spring 1009 • THE WILD CASCADES 17 Land and Water Appropriations Conservation Fund Needed for Land Originally authorized by Congress in enhance recreation opportunities. AHR the 1960s, the Land and Water Conserva­ opposes any legislation that would have Acquisitions tion Fund was established from revenue incentives for additional offshore oil or gas accruing from Outer Continental Shelf leasing, as does Olympic Park Associates and The Clinton Administration tecently (OCS) oil and gas leases, on a permanent other conservation/environmental organi­ announced its proposal for full funding of basis, to ensure long-term funding for zations. the Land and Water Conservation Fund to LWCF and an urban counterpart, the Several "funding initiatives" are now acquire key lands. The Plum Creek land Urban Park and Recreation Recovery being considered by Congress. One is the exchange bill stated Congress's intent to Program. (UPARR), Unfortunately, since the Lands Legacy Initiative by the Clinton acquire additional Plum Creek lands to early 1980s, the $900 million annual OCS Administration which would allocate $440 protect their natural and scenic values. proceeds for LWCF have seldom been used million to federal LWCF acquisition and There are about 16,000 acres of priority for either the federal or state programs. At $150 million for a moderate state program Plum Creek lands not included in the the federal level, approximately one-half, but without any funding provision for exchange, and the bill specifically mentions or $450 million, was to be used for recreation for states. The balance of the the Carbon, Yakima and Tieton Rivers, and protecting natural areas, such as national proposed initial $1 billion would go towards Watch Mountain and Goat Mountain as parks, national forests, wilderness, and fish various other protection categories, key areas for acquisition. Another acquisi­ and wildlife refuges through the purchase including, forests, habitat conservation, tion priority is old growth forest and of private inholdings from willing sellers. farmland protection, and coastal protection. roadless lands in the Skykomish valley. Top The other half was intended for a state Several bills now in Congress would priority is a 640-acre parcel in Martin matching grants program with funds reactivate LWCF from offshore oil and gas Creek adjacent to the Henry M. Jackson appropriated to states for planning, leasing income. Wilderness, just above the Iron Goat Trail developing, and acquiring land and water Polly Dyer of Olympic Park Associates areas for state and local open space and attended a National Summit of Americans and a smaller piece on Gunn Peak near natural resource protection, and recreation for Our Heritage and Recreation in Index. These areas are threatened with enhancement. Prior to the 1980s funds Annapolis, Maryland, and Washington, logging and roadbuilding by Longview from LWCF had assisted Olympic National D.C., in early June. She expects to keep up Fibre. Lands within Willapa Bay National Park in a gradual purchase of private on these attempts to reinvigorate the Land Wildlife Refuge (actually once part of the inholdings from owners willing to sell. A and Water Conservation Fund, especially as checkerboard land grant) have also been small amount recently became available for it may help in protecting Olympic National identified as high priority by environmental ONP. Park and environs and its sister national groups for acquisition. However, since the early 1980s, most parks in the North Cascades and Mount Call your senators and representative of the authorized $900 million from OCS Rainier. Your voices can go far in telling and urge them to include funds from the oil and gas drilling went into the federal your congressional representatives and Land and Water Conservation Fund to treasury and was appropriated for pro­ senators they absolutely must take the lead purchase Plum Creek and other high grams other than the intended parks, in making Land and Water Conservation priority lands. conservation and recreation programs. Funds a permanent and dedicated fund; Senator Patty Murray, (202) 224- Minimal amounts had been allocated for that LWCF is every bit as important to 2621; Senator Slade Gorton, (202) 224- the federal LWCF program — not quite include in the budget as anything else. 3441; Representative Norm Dicks, (202) zero, but almost. Virtually no funds were Budget cuts are the general responses that 225-5916. allocated for the state and urban programs. they can't do anything about. BUT < they Within the past year a new group, Ameri­ can, if enough of you tell them so. The Cascade Checkerboard Project is cans for Our Heritage and Recreation, was For details and keep up-to-date on the sponsored by the Sierra Club. Director, Charlie formed especially to work on behalf of full progress of the bills in Congress, contact Raines; Newsletter Editor, Amy Guilick. 8511 and permanent funds for the Land and AHR's Pacific Northwest Representative, 15th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98115; (206) Water Conservation Fund. AHR recognizes Joe LaTourrette, 120 State Ave. N.E., Suite 523-2147; Fax (206) 523-2079; http-./l the LWCF's original purpose as a long-term 256, Olympia, WA. 98501-8212; Phone www.sierraclub.or/chapters/wa/checkerboard/. investment in non-renewable resources, 360-754-2324, FAX 360-754-2594; e- Contributions are appreciated and should be specifically offshore oil and gas revenues, to mail: [email protected]. directed to the Sierra Club Foundation at the protect America's natural resources and —POLLY DYER above address.

18 THE WILD CASCADES • Spring 1999 for Senators and Representatives - U.S. Congress

Rep. Jay Inslee—[email protected] Rep. Jack Metealf—[email protected] Rep. Brian Baird—[email protected] , Rep. Norm Dicks—e-mail him through his website: www.house.gov/dicks Rep. Jennifer Dunn—[email protected] Rep Adam Smith—[email protected] Rep. Doc Hastings—no e-mail, 509/547-1972 Rep. George Nethercutt—[email protected] RepJimMcDermott—no e-mail Senator Patty Murray (D)—[email protected] Senator Slade Gorton (R)—e-mail him through his website: www.senate.gov/-gorton/

Membership Application

Be part of the North Cascades Conservation Council's Advocacy of the North Cascades. Join the NCCC. Support the North Cascades Foundation. Help us help protect North Cascades wilderness from overuse and development. NCCC membership dues (one year): $10 low income/student; $20 regular; $25 family; $50 Contributing; $100 pa­ tron; $1,000 sustaining. A one-time life membership dues payment is $500. The Wild Cascades, published three times a year, is included with NCCC membership. Please check the appropriate box(es):

• I wish membership in NCCC The North Cascades Conservation Council (NCCC), formed in 1957, works through legislative, legal and public channels to protect the lands, waters, plants and wildlife of the, North Cascades ecosystem. Non-tax-deductible, it is supported by dues and donations. A 501(c)4 organization.

D I wish to support NCF The North Cascades Foundation (NCF) supports the NCCC's non-political legal and educational efforts. Donations are tax-deductible as a 501(c)3 organization.

This is a • NCCC Membership • NCCC Renewal Membership •Gift NCCC $

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Total $__ Name

Address Please cut, enclose check and mail form and check to: City State Zip NORTH CASCADES CONSERVATCON COUNCIL Membership Chair L. Zalesky Phone 2433 Del Campo Drive A Everett, WA 98208 ; I

Spring 1999 • THE WILD CASCADES H 19 dcKumerit'documentidocument!document!docurnent!docuraent!dociiment!

Please document evidence of abuses to the Cascades backcountry this summer Use your camera, pencil, paper to record ques­ tionable conditions: sheep, cattle, inappropriate camping, horse problems, etc. Send pictures and information to the NCCC. Check the NCCC website: www.halcyon.com/rdpayne/nccc

dcKumentldocunientldocumentldocumentldcKumentldocunient-document!

THE WILD CASCADES BULK RATE Journal of the North Cascades Conservation Council U.S. POSTAGE Post Office Box 95980 PAID University Station SEATTLE, WA Seattle, Washington 98145-1980 PERMIT No. 8602

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