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c Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Sierra Club History Series PACIFIC NORTHWEST CONSERVATIONISTS Polly Dyer Preserving Washington Parklands and Wilderness Patrick D. Goldsworthy Protecting the North Cascades, 1954-1983 With Introductions by Richard Fiddler and Harvey Manning Interviews Conducted by Susan R. Schrepfer Ann Lage in 1983 Underwritten by The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Sierra Club Copyright (c) 1986 by The Regents of the University of California and the Sierra Club This manuscript is made available for research purposes. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows : To cite the volume: Pacific Northwest Conservationists, an oral history conducted 1983, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1986. To cite individual interview: Patrick D. Goldsworthy, "Protecting the North Cascades, 1954-1983," an oral history conducted 1983 by Ann Lage, in Pacific Northwest Conservationists, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1986. Copy No. Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Sierra Club History Series Polly Dyer PRESERVING WASHINGTON PARKLANDS AND WILDERNESS With an Introduction by Richard Fiddler An Interview Conducted by Susan Schrepfer in 1983 Underwritten by The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Sierra Club Copyright (c) 1986 by The Regents of the University of California and the Sierra Club POLLY DYER OCTOBER 1985 Photograph t>y David E. Ortman TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION INTERVIEW HISTORY I GETTING INVOLVED IN CONSERVATION 1 Marriage and Joining the Sierra Club Moving to the Northwest; Active in The Mountaineers 3 Forming the Northwest Chapter of the Sierra Club 6 Attitudes toward Women in Conservation 9 II NORTHWEST CONSERVATION IN THE 1950s 11 Fighting to Preserve the Olympic National Park The First Northwest Wilderness Conference Hikes with William 0. Douglas, 1958, 1964 Inholdings and Illegal Logging in the National Park 19 The Sierra Club's Pacific Northwest Chapter: More Voices for Conservation Dave Brower and the Dinosaur Campaign III FOR A NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK 31 Glacier Peak, the First Goal Organizing the North Cascades Conservation Council 34 Supporting a National Park in the North Cascades The Forest Service and Multiple Use Early Married Life A Practical Education 43 Politics and Conservation in the Early Sixties 45 On the Sierra Club Board of Directors 46 Hunters Oppose National Parks and Wilderness 48 Lake Chelan and Stehekin Valley 50 Ross Dam and Big Beaver Valley 54 The Threat of Small-scale Hydropower 56 IV CREATING AND PRESERVING WILDERNESS AREAS 60 Washington Wilderness Legislation 60 Opposition from the Timber Industry and Skiers 61 National Park Service Cooperation 62 Conservationists with Mountain Cabins: a Conflict of Interest? 63 Opposition to Wilderness from Packers 64 Alpine Lakes Wilderness Early Efforts 65 Alpine Lakes Protective Society 66 Meeting with Senator Jackson, 1975 70 The Support of Congressman Lloyd Meeds 71 Chauvinism: Who Goes to the Fund Raisers? 73 Why Alpine Lakes is Not in the National Park 73 V RELATIONS WITH THE TIMBER INDUSTRY AND THE PARK AND FOREST SERVICE 75 Trees Are All 75 Institute for Environmental Studies 78 Polly Dyer as a Conservationist: Self-Perceptions 82 Relations with Park Service People 86 The Wilderness Act 88 The Three Sisters Wilderness 89 Dealing with the Forest Service 91 VI THE SIERRA CLUB IN THE SIXTIES 94 The Dave Brower Controversy 94 An Emotional Board Meeting 100 Mineral King and Diablo Canyon: A Clash of Philosophies 102 The Sierra Club Favors a Nuclear Plant 103 Ansel Adams against Brower 105 The Sierra Club as a Volunteer Group 107 More Effort Needed on National Parks 108 Club Finances and the Brower Controversy 109 A Test of Wills 110 Brower Runs for the Board, 1969 and 1983 113 Recent Conservation in the Northwest FOE and the RCC 115 VII PRESERVING PARKLANDS AND WILDERNESS IN ALASKA AND WASHINGTON 118 Visiting Alaska's Glacier Bay, 1940s 118 The Mountaineers' Alaska Committee, 1960s 120 Southeast Alaska Conservation 122 Forest Service Policies in Alaska 124 President of Olympic Park Associates 126 Adding the Coastal Strip to Olympic, 1970s-1980s 128 The Problem of Lake Quinault 133 Protecting Mount Rainier National Park 137 Women in Conservation 139 Conservation is Its Own Reward 142 TAPE GUIDE 144 APPENDIX A - Vita 145 APPENDIX B - Continuing Education Program of the University of Washington Institute for Environmental Studies 150 INDEX 159 INTRODUCTION The Sierra Club has been through a period of intense change over the last thirty years. During that period it developed into an effective national force for conservation legislation, complete with lobbyists, an extensive publishing program, and chapters and groups active throughout the United States. Polly Dyer has been a leader and active participant in most of these changes; her record of these times is, therefore, of particular value. Sometimes I think that most big changes in the Sierra Club really took place in Polly's famous living room! The Pacific Northwest Chapter was one of the club's early outposts as it expanded outside California. Reading the chapter minutes from the mid- fifties, one gets the impression of a small band struggling with the problems of an enormous territory, developing new skills and strategies, and passing them on to a widening group of apprentices. These chapter leaders were a gifted group, but Polly has to be recognized as outstanding among them. She is one of the most open people any of us will ever meet, and this quality has helped her to pass on to countless newcomers both her visions for a living world and her skills for organization, persistence, and advocacy. Over the years, Polly and John's home has seen every sort of conservation meeting, from high-level strategy sessions to mailing parties. Practically every leader in the region has learned lesson after lesson about how things are done while sitting at the long Dyer table, drinking Dyer coffee, and absorbing Dyer wisdom. Polly has contributed greatly to the organizational health of the club despite being a person of strong convictions. It is sad but true that sometimes strongly committed people become so set on one particular policy or strategy that they cannot accept the inevitable compromises which any strong organization may require. Polly puts forward her views strongly and is persuasive more often than not. But if the group decides differently, she can accept that and get on with the work. I cannot think of a better example for new leaders. Her results are impressive. A short list of just the parks and wilderness issues to which Polly has made major contributions would include Alaska lands, the Olympics, Mount Rainier, the North Cascades, the Alpine Lakes, and, of course, the Wilderness Act of 1964 itself. She has been ii a director of the club, a recipient of the Walter Starr Award, holder of numerous other positions for the club, the North Cascades Conservation Council, the Olympic Park Associates, and The Mountaineers. Polly has been an honorary vice-president of the club since 1978. I can testify that she, like the wilderness she has done so much to define and protect, remains quite untrammeled. Denny Shaffer, when club president, put forth the goal that the club have an active group in every city of fifty thousand in the nation. Just a few more leaders like Polly Dyer, and we could take that goal for granted, Like so many, I'm proud to have been one of her students. Dick Fiddler Sierra Club Vice-President 1980-81 1 October 1985 Seattle, Washington 'ill INTERVIEW HISTORY I interviewed Pauline, or Polly, Dyer in August 1983 at her home in Seattle, Washington, where she has lived with her husband, John Dyer, since 1963. Their house is comfortable, unpretentious, and filled with mementos of their lives: seashells, rocks, plants, books, and photographs. It is a cultivated home, in which a visitor is invited to share memories and interests. The wooden frame house is set in magnificent surroundings, with tall trees and small gardens in the foreground and, in the distance, views of an inland lake and Mount Rainier. Pauline Dyer's warm and unaffected personality, which made the interview for me such a pleasant experience, is reflected in the frankness and sensitivity of her observations. Her husband, a retired chemical engineer whose influence in earlier years had brought her into the Sierra Club and conservation, was often present and participated briefly in the taping sessions. I met with her as well at the University of Washington campus where she is the Continuing Environmental Education Director for the Institute of Environmental Studies, a logical application of her training as a geographer and her interest in environmental protection. She has been one of the most active and influential environmental activists in the Pacific Northwest. The list of controversies in which she has participated during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s reads like a chronicle of western environmental history. The most notable battles, however, involved the North Cascades, Mount Rainier, and the Olympic Peninsula. In her interview she describes her years with the Sierra Club, from her husband's and her experiences in the San Francisco Bay Chapter in the late 1940s and their participation in the formation of the Sierra Club's Pacific Northwest Chapter in the early 1950s to their efforts to initiate the New England Chapter.