The Wild Cascades The Journal of the North Cascades Conservation Council Winter 2015

visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  1 The North Cascades Conservation Council was THE WILD CASCADES  Winter 2015 formed in 1957 “To protect and 3 President’s report — Karl Forsgaard preserve the North Cascades’ scenic, 4 Index-Galena road fix price escalates — Rick McGuire scientific, recreational, educational, and wilderness values.” Continuing Thinning proposed at Deception Pass and Dugualla State Parks — Dave Fluharty this mission, NCCC keeps government officials, environmental organiza- 5 Sustainable roads — the next steps — Ed Henderson tions, and the general public informed 6 NCCC Actions, July 2014 – February 2015 about issues affecting the Greater 8 Yakima Plan update — Karl Forsgaard North Cascades Ecosystem. Action is pursued through administrative, legal, 9 Public can’t afford to subsidize new water projects — John Osborn and Ken Hammond, The Spokane Spokesman-Review and public participation channels to protect the lands, waters, plants and 10 Pratt River Valley and environs now in Alpine Lakes Wilderness — Rick McGuire wildlife. 12 The original “starfish” Over the past half century NCCC has led or participated in campaigns 13 A rough winter for glaciers — Tom Hammond to create the North Cascades National 14 Mother Nature, not the National Park Service, closed the Stehekin Road Park Complex, Glacier Peak Wilder- — Dave Fluharty and Carolyn McConnell ness, and other units of the National 15 Driving to Stehekin —­ Ed Henderson Wilderness System from the W.O. 16 New dams and diversions — Rachel Paschal Osborn Douglas Wilderness north to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, the Henry M. 18 Okanogan-Wenatchee Travel Management update — Karl Forsgaard Jackson Wilderness, the Chelan-Saw- North Cascades grizzly bear EIS process launched tooth Wilderness, the Wild Sky Wil- 19 Morning Star additions and Reiter connections — Mike Town derness and others. Among its most 20 The Corvid’s eye dramatic victories has been working with British Columbia allies to block 21 Board members, Park managers discuss helicopters near Cascade Pass the raising of Ross Dam, which would Polly Dyer birthday have drowned Big Beaver Valley. 22 Holden Mine remediation to continue at least one more summer NCCC is supported by member dues 23 Membership application and private donations. These contri- butions support the full range of the COVER: Looking east up Middle Fork Snoqualmie valley from possible new trail Council’s activities, including publica- viewpoint on lower Quartz Mountain near Middle Fork campground. Stegosau- tion of The Wild Cascades. As a 501(c) rus Butte at center right. —Kevin Geraghty photo (3) organization, all contributions are fully tax deductible to the extent The Wild Cascades allowed by law. Membership dues for one year are: Living Lightly/Student Journal of the North Cascades Conservation Council $10; Individual $30; Family $50; Sus- Editor: Anne Basye taining $100. Editor emeritus: Betty Manning North Cascades Editorial Board: Philip Fenner, Anders Forsgaard, Conservation Council and Rick McGuire P.O. Box 95980 Printing by Abracadabra Printing | Pat Hutson, Designer University Station The Wild Cascades is published three times a year (Winter, Spring, Summer/Fall). Seattle, WA 98145-2980 Letters, comments, and articles are invited, subject to editorial review. NCCC Website The Wild Cascades Editor www.northcascades.org [email protected] North Cascades Conservation Council PO Box 95980, University Station, Seattle, WA 98145-2980 The Wild Cascades is printed on recycled paper.

2  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 NCCC Board

Officers president Karl Forsgaard vice president Founded in 1957 Tom Hammond SEATTLE, WASHINGTON treasurer Tom Brucker The President’s Report Winter 2015 secretary Marc Bardsley This issue of The Wild Cascades illustrates significant accomplishments that you, as NCCC members, helped to bring about through your support of NCCC. It is also full of reminders of what is left to be done. Other Directors It’s exciting to see the new Wallace Falls bridge connecting the State Park’s popular trail system with the new trails across the river in Reiter Forest. I re- Bruce Barnbaum member hiking up to the bridge site from the Reiter side five years ago, starting from the Reiter Road gravel pit and using downed trees to cross May Creek. Polly Dyer Soon you will be able to get to Wallace Falls with a shorter hike from the new County trailhead on May Creek Road, as well as from the State Park trailhead. Philip Fenner On the Reiter Forest side of Wallace Falls, there’s more work to be done to pro- tect the new trail corridor from logging. There’s also the opportunity to protect Dave Fluharty forest just upstream from the bridge as a future expansion of Morning Star Natu- Anders Forsgaard ral Resource Conservation Area. The new additions to Alpine Lakes Wilderness resulted from a long campaign Ed Henderson in which NCCC was always engaged. My own memories include looking down the upper Pratt River valley from the summit of Pratt Mountain, as well as reach- Dave LeBlanc ing the lower end of the Pratt River by wading the Middle Fork in early autumn’s low flow, before the new trail from the Gateway bridge was built (the remnants Carolyn McConnell of the prior trail were a slower route, but not too hard to follow). I personally Rick McGuire thanked Congressman Reichert for his Wilderness expansion bill when he first introduced it, and had to wrassle with some of its early opponents. Thom Peters The same defense bill that gave us the Alpine Lakes additions also gave us a setback on the Stehekin River. I’ve enjoyed hiking and biking the length of the Thom Schroeder river from Cascade Pass to Lake Chelan on several trips, and I can see why the National Park Service wants to let nature take back the upper valley beyond the inevitable recurring washouts of the road. We need to continue educating every- Advisors one about why the road should not be relocated and rebuilt in the upper valley.

Charles Ehlert In our advocacy against the worst parts of the Yakima Plan, NCCC succeeded in getting the State Legislature to require a benefit-cost study, and in December Kevin Geraghty the study results were released, showing that the proposed Bumping and Wymer dams do not make economic sense. We need to continue educating elected of- Fayette Krause ficials and the public about the benefit-cost study results, as well as the environ- mental damage entailed in these projects. Betty Manning Last but not least of our future work assignments, off-road vehicle impacts on hiker-horse trails of Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest just moved into a new Laura Zalesky stage. With the status quo as a baseline, future changes to designated routes (in- cluding whether motorcycles are allowed on a particular trail) will be addressed by the Districts within the Forest. For starters, there are some large ATV loops being proposed on Forest roads between Highway 2 and Canada. We need on- the-ground advocacy in each watershed and in each District. Thanks everyone for your support of NCCC, helping to accomplish this prog- ress, and helping with all the work that remains to be done.

Karl F. Forsgaard visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  3 Index-Galena road fix price tag escalates By Rick McGuire

The price of keeping roads together upper North Fork. Either would be a major dependent on precarious road access. $27 in the Cascades continues to spiral ever change from FHWA, which is famous for million might buy as much as 500 miles of higher. It now appears that the cost to re- its rigidity. Complicating matters is the new trails. Don’t hold your breath, though. place a mile of the North Fork Skykomish fact that the North Fork river is pointed The “access” lobby has the Forest Service road (aka Index-Galena road) where it was straight at the road a mile or so below the paralyzed with fear. The ever-shrinking washed out in 2006 about six miles above existing big washout, and it seems to be budgets are guaranteed to go toward he- Index, has reached $27 million dollars. only a question of when, not if, it will take roic, and doomed, attempts to keep almost Yes, you read that right, $27 million for away the road there. Could it be that even every road open. a mile of road. It’s hard to say just what FHWA understands that spending $27 mil- And in trying to keep them all open, lion right above the next place to go might is causing such runaway price inflation. they will end up with close to none of not be a wise investment? Might Snohom- Partly it is because the engineer/bureau- them open. For many years now, the ish County finally realize that spending crats at Federal Highways Administration cheaply built roads of the Cascades have such a huge sum for the convenience of know only one way to build a road: vastly been falling apart one by one. As the wood overengineered. The plan for this road is a couple dozen cabin owners might not and organic debris they were built on rots a 40-mile-per-hour design speed. Just why make sense when roads are falling apart away, the failure rate is accelerating. As it has to be built this way has never been all over the county? they disappear, the crowding in the still- explained. The Beckler River also looks poised to accessible places gets worse and worse. An Apparently FHWA is looking at other take out the Beckler road not far above entirely new approach is needed, but it ap- alternatives, such as (God forbid!) build- the Highway 2 turnoff. What to do? NCCC pears things will have to get much worse ing a lesser road, or putting money into and others have proposed a program before that can be contemplated, if ever. the Beckler River - Jack Pass route into the of intensive trailbuilding in places not

Thinning proposed at Deception Pass and Dugualla State Parks By Dave Fluharty

Washington State Parks, in a poorly for accelerating the process in the name of No effort is being made to mitigate the advertised “Forest Health Initiative,” asked “forest health.” The main points cited by impact on public. Both proposed actions for comments on proposed thinning of NCCC in its letter are: include the prime public access routes and portions of Dugualla Bay and Deception The jury is still out for use of thinning to trails in each area. Pass State Parks [Hoypus Unit]. NCCC re- “enhance” natural processes. Most often Thinning, as proposed, actually costs sponded with a letter opposing the action the result is vulnerability to wind throw State Parks because the amount of trees because of the connections between these and other natural threats for the remain- removed does not cover the cost of the key coastal forests and mountain ecosys- ing trees. The ground disturbance, too, logging operation. With the enormous tems via river corridors. The integrity of does not lead to a net benefit for the site. budget cuts sustained by State Parks, is the North Cascades ecosystem is integrally State Parks seem to ignore the inclu- this a wise use of scarce funds? connected to intact and preserved coastal sion of these areas as part of what appears Based on our review, NCCC opposes the forests. Therefore the forests of Decep- to be the presence of Late Successional proposed thinning projects in Deception tion Pass and Dugualla State Parks are of Reserves under the USFS Northwest Forest Pass and Dugualla State Parks. In addi- critical interest for preservation as well as Plan, which is relevant to the habitat needs tion, NCCC argues that State Parks and its recreation. of Northern spotted owls and marbled Commission as well as the general public Before responding, NCCC reviewed the murrelet. should be appraised of the forest health documents provided and members visited State Parks should provide leadership initiative and be provided opportunity to the sites. In our considered opinion, in support of allowing natural processes evaluate and comment. the forest health in the two sites is not to achieve forest health as opposed to David Fluharty summarized these significantly different than that found in mechanical intervention. comments and thanks Fayette Krause, other parts of these and other similar State A substantial infestation of holly, an Phil Fenner, Rick McGuire and others who Parks. In fact, natural processes of suc- invasive species, would justify efforts to supplied information and commented on cession appear to be occurring as would eradicate the plants before they proliferate the thinning. be expected and there is no justification further.

4  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 Sustainable roads – the next steps By Ed Henderson

Mount Baker Snoqualmie National For- est has 2,500 miles of roads, and the U.S. Forest Service has a budget to maintain only about 25% of them, or 628 miles. The Travel Management Rule (36 CFR part 212.5) requires the Forest Service to provide a Minimum Roads Analysis by September 30, 2015. The USFS Sustainable Roads project is part of the response to this regulation. Already, the Forest Service staff has produced a pair of Motor Vehicle Use Maps and an INFRA database. The next, more difficult action is to develop a strategy for evaluating which roads to close and which to keep open with the limited funds available. To engage the public in developing this strategy, in 2013 the Forest Service conducted public meetings attended by al- most 300 people and received over 1,800 responses to an online survey. Municipal agencies and tribes gave input, and Forest Service internal requirements also pro- vided guidance. Reducing the mass of data produced by this process to meaningful results took longer than expected. —Ed Henderson photo and necessary administrative control Two factors are apparent in the reported NCCC is committed to remaining and the cost of maintenance and risk of results. First, there was a strong message engaged in the Sustainable Roads Proj- environmental damage due to erosion, from the public that the maintenance ect. This is an opportunity to reduce and landslides and washouts. The criteria in of roads should be cost effective and all control the environmental damage being WTA’s State of Access report are a good roads should be subjected to a strict cost/ caused by the crumbling roads on the starting point, although other factors will benefit analysis. Second, there aren’t any forest that were built on the cheap for re- need to considered and added (See TWC, roads on the maps that don’t have at least source extraction and have outlived their Spring 2013.) some interest to someone. usefulness. Our primary criteria will be Now the collected information is being Second, each and every road on the for- environmental restoration, the closing and placed on maps showing the roads, usage est must be evaluated by these criteria and decommissioning of roads with high risk and destinations. The USFS Washington assigned a value based on cost/benefit. To of damage due to landslides, erosion and DC office has directed the local Forest be effective, this process must be compre- washouts, along with the removal of cul- Service to produce maps of roads likely hensive, rational, and include on-site in- verts which block fish passage and are in needed and not needed for future use. spections to assess the current conditions danger of becoming blocked and creating How will this translate into a strategy for and potential risk of many roads. flood conditions. Of secondary concern is maintaining a sustainable road system on Assembling a ranked listing of all the the large number of short, dead-end spur the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National roads from best to worst would be step roads built only to give access to specific Forest? three. It should be easy to identify the top timber sales which are no longer needed As an NCCC board member engaged in and bottom of the pile—roads that must and should be closed. NCCC will work the project, I will be lobbying for a three- be kept open and maintained and roads toward a balanced program providing step process. The first step is to develop a that can and should be closed and decom- reasonable motorized access while mini- comprehensive set of criteria that clearly missioned. Ranking the ones in the middle mizing the environmental impact of the identify the benefits, access, level of use will present the real challenge. crumbing roads.

visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  5 PROMOTING EXPANDING, ESTABLISHING, ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND and PROTECTING RECREATION IN WILD AREAS WILDERNESS AREAS Why it matters: balancing access with economics and Wilderness preservation, Why it matters: federal land designation we evaluate motorized use and places NCCC as Wilderness and Park is the gold where it needs to be limited to reduce standard of ecosystem protection, land impacts and recurring road repair precluding most damaging industrial and costs. Actions commercial exploitation. Testified as a co-appellant before Filed a FOIA request and met North  a Snohomish County Hearing Cascades National Park staff to Examiner to require a full Environ- july 2014 – express our opposition the Park’s mental Impact Statement (EIS) for 2015 recent use of helicopters for trail the proposed motocross racetrack february construction near Cascade Pass, complex on the Mountain Loop and its plans for motorized trail Highway. Advocacy carried out by work in Wilderness in 2015. Served as a member of DNR’s dedicated NCCC volunteers Continued advocacy to protect Al- statewide Recreational Trails Policy  pine Lakes Wilderness in the Icicle Committee. in the last eight months to Work Group process regarding increased water storage in wilder- Submitted comments to Okano- protect and preserve the ness lakes. gan-Wenatchee National Forest on its Proposed Action under the Trav- North Cascades’ lands, Participated in celebrations of the el Management Rule, designating  Wilderness Act’s 50th Anniversary roads and trails open to off-road waters, plants, and wildlife. in Albuquerque and Seattle. vehicles and banning cross-country Continued participation in the travel by ORVs. Also provided  Cascades Wild campaign for new input to the Forest and other con- wilderness. servation nonprofits regarding new proposals to create loop routes for Displayed history of North Cas- ATVs on Forest roads. cades at Braided Rivers’ launch  of new book/advocacy tool, The Submitted a letter to the U.S. For- North Cascades, Finding Beauty est Service advocating the inclu- and Renewal in the Wild Nearby. sion of Over-Snow Vehicles (snow- mobiles) in the Travel Management Signed joint letter opposing the Rule. attachment via “rider” to the De-  fense Authorization bill of a pleth- Met twice with Mount Baker-Sno- ora of Wilderness-related actions, qualmie National Forest staff and some good and some bad, and other conservation nonprofits to separately advocated against the discuss recreational management bad Stehekin River Road provision. and environment protection.

Signed joint letter to Congress op- Participated in a joint work party  posing HR 399, a bad bill abolishing with National Park and National environmental protections within continued 100 miles of the U.S. border includ- ing in wilderness areas.

6  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 PROTECTING ANCIENT FORESTS AND PROMOTING PROTECTING WILDLIFE AND RESPONSIBLE FOREST MANAGEMENT HABITAT Why it matters: like real estate, they’re just not making ancient forest anymore. We Why it matters: from microscopic fungi to seek to restore watersheds and fisheries damaged from decades of heavy logging and top predators, the wilderness ecosystem’s road building and protect significant forests from degradation. living members are interdependent, so keeping viable populations of each species As a result of our advocacy, the Continued participation with is essential to preserve the ecosystem for State Legislature-mandated Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National future generations. benefit-cost study of Yakima Plan Forest on the Sustainable Roads Signed joint letter to Congress op- component projects was released project.  posing delisting the wolf under the by the Water Research Center, Endangered Species Act. Submitted a letter to Washington showing that the proposed Bump- State Parks opposing its proposed Signed joint letter supporting ad- ing and Wymer dams miserably fail  “thinning” of coastal forest at De- ditions to Morning Star Natural a benefit-cost test. Began publi-  ception Pass and Dugualla State Resource Conservation Area, which cizing the WRC results, including Parks. aligns with our ongoing advocacy placement of an op-ed in the Spo- for protection of adjacent Wild Sky kane Spokesman-Review. Testified Signed joint letter commenting on Wilderness, Reiter Forest, and Wal- against a water projects funding the DEIS for control of invasive spe- lace Falls State Park lands. bill SB 5628 in the State Senate. cies in the Mount Baker-Snoqualm- Submitted comments to the Na- Lobbied Congress and agency of- ie National Forest. tional Park Service on its EA for Re- ficials in D.C. Testified at the Co-  Signed joint letter commenting on placement of Administrative Facili- lumbia River Policy Advisory Group ties in the Stehekin River floodplain. meeting. Submitted comments to the worldwide importance of car- the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on bon sequestration in the Tongass Continued as a party in the Enloe/Si- the Cle Elum Lake Pool Raise DEIS. National Forest.  milkameen Falls water right appeal. Signed second joint letter to the  Northwest Power and Conservation Council to strengthen the Protected Area Program. recreation in wild areas, continued Signed joint letter to Senator Mur-  ray thanking her for support of Forest staff in the Maple Pass Res- Signed joint letter with scoping Restoring America’s Watershed Act toration Plan. comments on proposed trails on (S. 2916), which included support of Frog Mountain and to Alpine Falls. the Legacy Roads and Trails Reme- Attended a public meeting on the diation Program. potential for National Park fee in- Signed joint letter with conserva-  Signed joint letter to the U.S. For- creases. tion group comments on Aesthet-  est Service requesting inclusion of ics and Recreation Management  In Mountaineer magazine, ex- Legacy Roads and Trails language in Plans submitted for the Enloe Hy- plained NCCC’s long-standing its 2015 budget request.  droelectric Project. commitment to developing envi- Signed joint letter commenting on ronmentally sustainable and user- Gave a presentation to a retire-  the scoping of proposed geother- friendly trails. ment community about hiking the mal leasing near Mount Baker. Pacific Crest Trail. Signed joint letter requesting that  BLM hold at least one public west- side meeting for its draft Eastern Washington Resource Plan. visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  7 Yakima Plan update By Karl Forsgaard

A significant accomplishment of our Yakima Plan storage components miser- implement an integrated plan, as defined Yakima Plan advocacy was the State Leg- ably fail a benefit-cost test: in RCW 090.38.010” (which specifies the islature’s 2013 funding of a benefit-cost “Based on moderate climate and market Yakima Plan). The funds would be raised study of Yakima Plan component projects, outcomes, storage infrastructure projects with a new statewide property assessment including proposed irrigation dams. This implemented alone and without proposed ranging from $35 on a single-family home was necessary because the U.S. Bureau IP instream flow augmentation result in on less than one acre to $375 for a com- of Reclamation had refused to prepare the following estimated out-of-stream mercial property on more than five acres. a benefit-cost analysis under the federal net present value and B/C ratios, none of The bill provides that the assessment Principles and Guidelines for each water which passes a B-C test”: would be submitted to voter approval in project in the Plan. The State-mandated • Bumping Lake Expansion: Benefit/Cost a statewide referendum. In January 2015, study has now been completed, and it (B/C) ratio of 0.18 [i.e. a return of 18 NCCC testified in the State Senate Ways identifies those projects in the Yakima cents on the dollar] and Means Committee hearing on the Plan that are not economically sustainable. bill, citing the SWWRC study results and • Wymer Dam and Reservoir: B/C ratio opposing the raising of property taxes to The Legislature directed that the study of 0.09 [i.e. a return of nine cents on fund uneconomical and environmentally be conducted by the State of Washington the dollar] Water Research Center (SWWRC). Es- damaging dams. It is unclear whether the • Keechelus to Kachess Conveyance: B/C tablished by the U.S. Congress in 1964, bill will move out of committee. ratio of 0.20 [i.e. a return of 20 cents the SWWRC is one of 54 water research As we went to press, a public comment on the dollar] institutions or centers in the United States. period was underway for the 842-page The Water Resources Research Act Pro- • Kachess Drought Relief Pumping Plant: Draft EIS for two I-90 components of the gram is administered by the U.S. Geologi- B/C ratio of 0.46 [i.e. a return of 46 Yakima Plan, the Kachess Inactive Stor- cal Survey under the general guidance of cents on the dollar] age Pumping Plant and the Keechelus-to- the Secretary of the Interior. SWWRC’s These results are discussed in the Kachess Conveyance (a.k.a. K-to-K Pipe- Director, Jonathan Yoder, is a respected guest editorial published in the Spokane line). NCCC intends to submit comments Professor of Economics in the WSU School Spokesman-Review and reprinted in this by the March 10 deadline. The Bureau of of Economic Sciences. The SWWRC report issue of TWC on page 9. Reclamation’s Kachess-Keechelus DEIS is mandated by the State Legislature was Meanwhile, State Senator Jim Honeyford available for review at: www.usbr.gov/pn/ released December 15, 2014, and can be (R-Sunnyside) introduced SB 5628 to cre- programs/eis/kdrpp/index.html reviewed at: ate a $3.8 billion grant program to fund swwrc.wsu.edu/documents/2014/12/ybip_ irrigation water storage and flood control Former NCCC board member Brock Evans bca_swwrc_dec2014.pdf projects. It provides that in ranking proj- ects for grants, Ecology “shall prefer proj- on the Bumping Lake Trail. The SWWRC report concluded that most ects that are consistent with or designed to —Karl Forsgaard photo

8  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 Public can’t afford to subsidize new water projects

By John Osborn and Ken Hammond The Spokane Spokesman-Review, January 4, 2015

Water is political currency. Politicians reservoirs in the Cascade Mountains, serv- excess of costs over benefits. hold hostage worthy public programs in ing irrigation districts in Kittitas, Yakima In 2013, the cash-strapped Washington exchange for public funding of money-los- and Benton counties. Here, construction Legislature wisely tasked independent ing water supply projects. A case in point costs total $286 million, with $149 million economists to study the latest Yakima is the Central Arizona Project or CAP – the allocated to irrigators. The GAO reports Basin proposal. In December, a team of largest, most expensive aqueduct in the slightly better repayment. Still, Yakima Washington State Water Resource Center United States. Valley irrigators have paid less than 10 economists concluded that costs of water In the 1960s, President Lyndon B. percent of the total costs. supply projects in the Yakima Basin – in- Johnson horse-traded approval of CAP Crops grown in these federal projects cluding new dams – outweigh benefits by in exchange for votes to enact civil rights don’t pay for the existing water supply in- 90 percent or more. In contrast, proposed legislation. While LBJ’s goals were worthy, frastructure, loudly signaling that expand- fisheries enhancement projects of im- it is a fact that taxpayers got stuck with ing these irrigation projects won’t cover portance to tribes and the general public most of the bill for CAP. costs either. Nonetheless, the U.S. Bureau are cost effective. (Read: “Benefit-Cost Similar subsidies apply to federal proj- of Reclamation has partnered with Wash- Analysis of the Yakima Basin Integrated ects all over the West, including Eastern Plan Projects.”) Washington. Public subsidy for new irrigation proj- To protect the public purse, objective Federal irrigation proj- ects needs to end. Dust Bowl-era justifica- economic analysis of water projects is a tions no longer apply to an increasingly powerful tool. Two recent studies shine ects in Eastern Wash- corporate agricultural sector. Govern- light on Eastern Washington’s two major ington don’t pencil out. ments struggle to pay for public necessities federal irrigation projects: the Columbia such as education, health care and even Basin Project and the Yakima Project. It is time to end waste- maintenance backlogs for existing dams Productive irrigated agriculture and local ful feasibility studies, and water projects. New and expanded economies depend on these federal mega- water projects are simply not affordable. projects. But the two projects have not close the chapter and We are at the end of the water frontier. paid for themselves – far from it. State and move on. Water-project proponents in Washington, federal budget leaders should take heed. D.C., and Olympia must acknowledge A 2014 study by the U.S. Government that federal irrigation projects in Eastern Accountability Office (“Availability of In- Washington don’t pencil out. It is time to formation on Repayment of Water Project end wasteful feasibility studies, close the ington’s Office of the Columbia River to Costs Could Be Better Promoted”) evalu- chapter and move on. There are more pursue multibillion dollar expansions of ated irrigation district repayment for 130 affordable means of sustaining profitable both the Columbia Basin and Yakima proj- federal water projects in the Western U.S. agriculture in Eastern Washington. ects. At Grand Coulee Dam, the Columbia Fortunately for taxpayers, federal guide- Basin Project pumps uphill 3.3 million Spokane physician John Osborn is a lines now prohibit federal funding for acre-feet of river water for delivery to conservationist with the Center for Envi- water projects when costs exceed benefits. 670,000 acres across the Columbia Plateau. ronmental Law & Policy and the Sierra A recent economic study of expanding the This massive project cost $2.4 billion to Club who has worked closely with NCCC Columbia Basin Project into the Odessa construct. (In today’s dollars, the cost to oppose the worst parts of the Yakima Subarea forced the bureau to decline would be enormously higher.) Of that, Plan. Ken Hammond is retired profes- funding that project. $685 million was allocated to irrigated sor and chairman of the department of agriculture. But $495 million – nearly 75 Instead, the Office of the Columbia geography at Central Washington Univer- percent – has been written off for pay- River has stepped into the gap to assess sity and has been active for decades in ment by Bonneville Power Administration whether, and how much, Odessa Subarea water planning. farmers can pay to pump and deliver water ratepayers, socializing the costs to millions of people paying their utility bills. to their farms. Depending on size, state subsidies of several hundred million or As reported by the GAO, of the $190 mil- a few billion dollars would be needed to lion left to be repaid by the irrigators, only replace groundwater with river water for $60 million has been paid, with payments this small group of potato farmers. stretched over 50 years at zero interest. On balance, irrigators have paid less than 5 The proposed Yakima water projects are percent of their share. similar. To expand in the Yakima, large state subsidies will be required to replace The Yakima Project stores and diverts traditional federal subsidies to pay for the 1.2 million acre-feet of water from five visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  9 Pratt River Valley and environs now in Alpine Lakes Wilderness By Rick McGuire

n De- cember 18, 2014, President Barack OObama signed the Na- tional Defense Autho- rization Act, a catchall “must pass” bill with many provisions unre- lated to defense. The Alpine Lakes Wilderness additions and Wild & Scenic rivers bill, previ- ously introduced and sponsored in the Senate by Patty Murray, and in the House by Dave Reichert and Suzan Del- Bene, were among many items tacked on to the NDAA, some good and some bad. Since its first introduction in 2007, the Alpine Lakes bill had previously passed both the House and the Senate, but never in the same Congress. Last minute deal-making Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest had Garfield Mountain—described by finally put it across the finish line in the been overcut for years and the end was in Fred Beckey as a “hazardous, puz- final days of the 113th Congress. sight for the heavily subsidized, one-time zling enigma”—towers above the “harvest” of invaluable ancient forests, the Middle Fork Snoqualmie near Taylor The Alpine Lakes bill’s flagship provi- timber industry still called many of the River. —Monty Vanderbilt photo sion is the addition of the large, low-eleva- shots. The Forest Service never much liked tion, heavily forested Pratt River valley to Wilderness, and the together the industry the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, a longtime and the agency managed to keep most of A land shaped by logging goal of conservationists. It also added the forested valleys out of the Wilderness. Much of the lower and middle eleva- some adjacent areas along the Middle The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, probably tion terrain in the Pratt valley was railroad and South Forks of the Snoqualmie to the more than any other, came out looking logged in the late 1930s. Because early day Wilderness, all of it adding up to a 22,000 like a starfish, with protection extending logging was less thorough than “modern” acre increase. It also designated the Pratt out along ridges but intervening valleys cutting, much legacy survived and no and part of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie as excluded. Nowhere was this more evident artificial replanting took place. The forests Wild and Scenic rivers. than in the Pratt valley, which the subse- of the Pratt regenerated on their own, with NCCC’s history with the Pratt goes way quent Alpine Lakes Plan said had been a natural mix of species, and are well on back, starting with efforts, alongside oth- kept out of the Wilderness on account of their way to becoming old-growth, ancient ers, to incorporate it and other low-eleva- being “high value timberland.” forest once again. tion areas into the original Alpine Lakes And it is, although people today prefer Due to low wood prices, only the best Wilderness in 1976. NCCC members were the word forest over timber, which has quality trees were worth cutting during active in opposing the Pratt timber sale in usually meant something waiting to be those Depression years. The higher eleva- the late 1980s, and in the later campaign cut down. The Pratt River joins the Middle tions, and anyplace difficult to reach, were to add to Pratt valley to the Wilderness, Fork Snoqualmie at an elevation of less uneconomic to log, and left alone. Thus and to protect and encourage proper de- than a thousand feet, and its location at many areas of forest survived untouched. velopment in the entire Middle Fork valley. the very western edge of the Cascades Today in some places one can see what The original 1976 boundaries of the means it has a true lowland climate, just Harvey Manning called the “bathtub ring,” Alpine Lakes Wilderness, expanded now the kind of place needed to round out and where second-growth forest on lower for the first time, reflect the politics of the complete the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and slopes meets old-growth forest on upper era when it was established. Although the fix those starfish boundaries. slopes, although this effect is becoming

10  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 less noticeable as the trees of the younger real story. Those responsible have passed to two dozen miles of new logging roads, forests catchup to the old growth. away. Maybe an old article offering some targeting both the remaining old-growth Just above the confluence of the Pratt clue sits in an archive somewhere. But and regenerating second-growth forests. and Middle Fork, where the Pratt River whatever the reason, the “high grade” for- The sale proposal came just as the wheels trail starts up the Pratt valley, lies the est is an attractive and interesting place to were coming off the Forest Service’s interesting “high grade” area. It is basically visit today. program of liquidating all of what was an old-growth forest, The Japanese were left of the old growth forest. Awareness but not “virgin” forest, paying good prices of the many values of ancient forests was because it was very for scrap iron during spreading, and support for its taxpayer- lightly logged. The NCCC’s history with the late 1930s, and subsidized destruction was falling rapidly. few stumps present most of the rails were The campaign to “Save the Pratt” took do not even look to be the Pratt dates to 1976, pulled up and sold as off. Every weekend, conservationists the remains of the big- starting with efforts to logging finished up in would take people across the Middle gest and best Douglas incorporate it into the successive parts of the Fork Snoqualmie in canoes to visit the firs, which is what Pratt valley. This gave endangered Pratt. Then-Congressman would be expected. original Alpine Lakes rise to a North Bend John Miller, Republican of Seattle, took an Clearcutting was Wilderness. and Snoqualmie leg- interest in the valley and introduced a bill the universal method end that was repeated to designate the Pratt River as Wild and of logging in those around many a Scenic. Although the bill did not go any- days, and it is hard to Middle Fork campfire, where, it helped the overall effort to keep fathom why anyone that the rails from the logging out of the Pratt. As opposition would go to the considerable effort of Pratt River logging intensified, the Forest Service bowed to cutting, and especially of hauling out just a went to building Yamamoto’s fleet that public pressure and cancelled the sale. In few trees from such an area, while leaving attacked Pearl Harbor. The final logging the early 1990s the authors of the North- most of the potential profits standing. The operations came to an end in 1941, and west Forest Plan recognized the values of stumps are scattered thinly throughout other than trees growing back, not much the Pratt valley by designating it as a “Late the whole area and it does not look like a happened in the Pratt valley for nearly five Successional Reserve.” place where someone started at one end decades until the Forest Service proposed After the Pratt timber sale was stopped, and went bankrupt before finishing up. a giant timber sale there in the late 1980s. opponents began to realize that the real The only theory that seems plausible is prize was not just the Pratt, but the entire that it was some sort of Potemkin “demon- Pratt timber sale galvanized Middle Fork Snoqualmie valley. The stration” forest where Boy Scouts, or other conservationists closest mountain valley to Seattle, it had parts of the public, could be taken to show The Pratt timber sale set off a firestorm degenerated into a place where vandalism, them what logging was supposed to look of opposition. The Forest Service pro- wild shooting and garbage dumping were like, but of course never did except in this posed to construct a new bridge over the common. Open dead-end spur roads were one unique place. We may never know the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and build close a continuing invitation to all kinds of nas- tiness, and the valley had a well-deserved reputa- tion as a place to avoid. It quickly became clear that allowing the Middle Fork to remain a moun- tain slum was intolera- ble. NCCC members and other formed the Middle Fork Outdoor Recreation Coalition (“MidFORC,”) to take back the valley. Continued on page 12

View toward Rus- sian Butte. —Monty Vanderbilt photo

visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  11 Finally, in 2014 things started moving. is anything but ineffective. The “mom in Pratt River Valley Hastings was retiring, and at long last tennis shoes” has done more to advance Continued from page 11 there was the possibility he might let the the cause of Wilderness and public lands Alpine Lakes bill through in exchange for than any other Washington member in A concerted campaign over 25 years has something he wanted. After years of ef- many years. made huge progress. Almost all of the fort, he finally allowed a hearing and the Probably everyone who worked toward Middle Fork is now in public ownership. bill was reported through. On the Senate passage of the Alpine Lakes bill would A new campground was funded and built. side, the opportunity was the NDAA. It have preferred to see it go through on its The Middle Fork road to Taylor River is was turned into a Christmas tree, with all own, not as part of such a package. Law- currently being paved. New trails and fa- kinds of stuff added on to it since the ex- making was famously compared to sausage cilities are planned or under construction. pectation was that it “had” to pass. Some making, supposedly by Otto von Bismarck, Closure of the many dead-end spur roads of its provisions were appalling, including although actual evidence seems to be lack- did more than anything else to rid the val- a transfer of 70,000 acres of prime old ing. During the last campaign, the Republi- ley of the dumpers and shooters. growth forest from the Tongass National can “Pledge to America” promised to “end Forest to Sealaska corporation, guarantee- the practice of packaging unpopular bills A seven-year legislative push ing its doom. A mine on an Arizona site with ‘must pass’ legislation...” It’s good to The conservation community, includ- sacred to the Apache tribe was thrown in know that many in Congress are pledging ing NCCC, never gave up on the goal of by Senator John McCain, once thought of to be good, and it will be interesting to see adding the Pratt valley to the Alpine Lakes as one of the few environmentally friendly if this time is really different. Wilderness. Opportunity came in 2007 Republicans. Doc Hastings got an autho- Even though the manner of its final when U.S. Representative Dave Reichert, rization to change Wilderness boundaries passage was not all that might be hoped Republican of Auburn, took an interest in to allow building of a new road in the for, at least it is over with. The Pratt valley protecting the valley, then located in his Stehekin valley. Fortunately, no money is now part of the Alpine Lakes Wilder- eighth Congressional district. In the next was attached. ness. It’s time to move on to the next, even Congress he was joined by Senator Patty Senator Murray and her Washington greater challenge, which will be to manage Murray, who introduced a companion bill co-sponsors saw an opportunity to get the the tidal wave of humanity headed for the in the Senate. Senator Maria Cantwell also Alpine Lakes measure through. Although Middle Fork. Ways need to be found to signed on. After redistricting moved the Murray has not commented on the me- accommodate vastly increased use levels. Pratt into the first district, and Congress- chanics, it is probably fair to speculate that More trails and facilities need to be built, woman Suzan DelBene was elected to that she knew the NDAA would go through, while protecting important wildlife areas. seat, she signed on also. and that while she did not like or support Facilities require money, which is ever There were the usual ups and downs, any of its bad provisions, she could either harder to come by. At least the Stehekin and the frustrations of seeing it pass one stand by or add her own good provision in road looks unlikely to find funding. But house of Congress but not the other. the form of Alpine Lakes. It is unfortunate sources of funding need to be found, and The hostile House Resources Commit- that Congress now works that way, but soon, to keep the Middle Fork from being tee chair Doc Hastings held things up for there is a word that describes it: politics. loved to death. years. Hastings couldn’t be bothered to do And there is another word for members anything for his fellow Washington state of Congress who fail to adapt to it: inef- Republican colleague, Dave Reichert. fective. Patty Murray has proven that she

Member profiles The original “starfish” It took 12 years for Alpine Lakes cant and took so long and so much needed to be designated after the passage of work to get. Like Wild Sky, these the Wilderness Act, and what we got additions broke through the barrier Tell us about yourself! looked like a starfish on the map. Its at last and saved low-elevation valley We’d like to feature YOU on boundary followed the ridges out forests long coveted by the timber and back and excluded the valleys industry. our new website! Email us a full of ancient forests at the behest NCCC knows of several other short profile of yourself and of the timber industry. valley forests adjacent to Wilderness tell us why you’re an NCCC Similar problems arose when that escaped the chainsaw or have setting boundaries of other Wilder- “late successional reserves” that member. Email philf@ ness Areas, but Alpine Lakes was deserve to be added to our Wilder- northcascades.org and the poster child for what NCCC’s ness areas in the future - hopefully include a photo if you’d like. late founder Phil Zalesky also liked before it’s too late! Want to learn to call “Wilderness on the Rocks.” more? Email ncccinfo@northcas- Thanks! That’s one reason the 2014 Pratt and cades.org Middle Fork additions are so signifi- —Phil Fenner

12  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 A rough winter for glaciers

The winter of 2014-2015 has been the worst for snowpack in my 30-plus years of observing the North Cascades. While there have been several similar low-snowpack years where I’ve done winter ascents, none has seen as little snow, and as many days with record-setting high temperatures (six at time of press). In Phil Fenner’s photo (right), taken during the 2013-2014 season, note the snow loading at eleva- tions from 2,000 to 5,000 feet. In Thom Schroeder’s photo (below) taken February 14, note the lack of snow along the entire length of the forested ridges on the Pyramid-Colonial-Snowfield group, which rise above 7,000 feet. Most telling and troubling is the lack of avalanche snow in Ladder Creek valley (center of image) in what is traditionally the snowi- est time of the year. It should be an interesting summer for fish, farm- ers, glaciers and people—including those on the North Cascades Glacier Climate Project.

—Tom Hammond

A late afternoon spot of sunlight on Perry Creek valley (winter 2013-14). —Philip Fenner photo

Pyramid-Colonial- Snowfield peaks (winter 2014-2015). —Thom Schroeder photo

visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  13 Mother Nature, not the National Park Service, closed the Stehekin Road

By David Fluharty and Carolyn McConnell

ontrary to the belief stated River in the late 1940s. That track fell to the conclusion to close the road above by advocates like Linda Evans into disuse until 1968 when the North Park Creek as unrepairable. Restoring Parlette (The Seattle Times, Cascades National Park and Lake Chelan road access from Park Creek to Cotton- December 2, 2014), the forces National Recreation Areas were designated wood Camp would mean building a whole of nature and not the National by Congress. The National Park Service up- new road in ancient forest above the flood CPark Service have closed the Upper Ste- graded the track to a bumpy gravel road as plain, with serious environmental and hekin River Road. The NPS has carefully far as Cottonwood Camp below Cascade fiscal costs. reviewed the status of the road and deter- Pass. When the Bridge Creek log bridge The 500-year floods of 2003 were a mined that the costs—both environmental gave out in the late 1960s the road was similar wake-up call, washing out multiple and fiscal—are too great to justify trying closed for several years until the NPS built additional sites in the Stehekin Road be- to maintain the road. This reverses a trend another bridge at considerable expense. low Park Creek, notably at Milepost 15 and where the NPS can be seen as more than Over the years the NPS has dealt with Car Wash Falls. Based on a full Environ- heroic in trying to keep open a road that rebuilds of bridges at Bridge Creek and mental Assessment process that included for all intents and purposes should never Tumwater Creek as well as continued hydrological and geological assessments, have been built or maintained for public maintenance of a constantly eroding road purposes. surface. Total costs of these activities Hiker on PCT section Let’s back up. A track was bulldozed amounted to millions of dollars. In 1995 proposed for Stehekin without engineering expertise to support much of the upper three miles of the road River Road relocation. an unsuccessful episode of speculative was eroded down to bed rock and other —Karl Forsgaard mining in the headwaters of the Stehekin areas badly damaged. That led the NPS photo

14  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 the NPS concluded that it could no longer Locally owned private vehicles or NPS modest accommodations, visitor services, justify trying to maintain the upper Ste- vehicles brought up lake on a barge are park interpretation, and the ferry land- hekin Road. the only motorized vehicles, which means ing. The 5% that heads for the Wilderness Thus, we are in a con- that traffic to the Upper is not a large component of the Valley tinuing debate between Stehekin Valley was always economy. In fact the NPS monitoring data some local and regional extremely light and hardly show that public use of the Upper Stehek- citizens and public officials NCCC and others justified the considerable in Valley has actually increased since the advocating to reopen the ask, how can such investments in bridge road closure. road to provide access to building, and road mainte- Advocates of rebuilding the Upper the Upper Stehekin Valley expenditures be nance and repair that the Stehekin Road obsess over the limitation while others like NCCC, justified for a road NPS incurred after it took placed on willy-nilly rerouting of the Ste- Washington Trails Associa- responsibility for the road hekin Road by suggesting that we should tion, National Parks and serving relatively from Chelan County. simply revise the Wilderness Act bound- Conservation Association, few persons and It is also important to ary to allow the routing above the river. and Pacific Crest Trail As- with such limited note that when Congress What is not revealed are four key facts. sociation, to name a few, designated North Cascades First, in order to accomplish this reroute, support the NPS decision access? National Park and LCNRA the NPS would have to rebuild the Pacific to close the road. it deliberately did not au- Crest Trail in that area. For that and other Because Stehekin can thorize road access down reasons conservation groups, including only be accessed by foot, Bridge Creek from the Washington Trails Association, opposed ferry or floatplane, it has maintained North Cross State Highway the change in designation. Second, to its unique character as one of the most (Highway 20) as development interests build the road to NPS standards would remote inhabited areas in the contiguous urged. Thus, Congress voted to maintain mean significant environmental impacts. United States. Starting in the tiny “village” the isolation of Stehekin. Third and most important, the site of the of Stehekin 55 miles up Lake from the Under these baseline conditions, it is reroute and other portions of the road city of Chelan and ending 25 miles farther not surprising that 95% of all visitation still are subject to continued erosion by up-valley below Cascade Pass, the Stehekin to the Stehekin Valley takes place in the Road is a road from nowhere to nowhere. Lower Stehekin River area where there are Continued on page 23

Driving to Stehekin By Ed Henderson

As part of the recently passed National Call upon the US Navy and Marine found, smuggle the pieces up the lake on Defense Authorization Act, Congress Corps’ amphibious capability; get a land- the commercial ferryboat to Stehekin. Of tacked on a little gift for retiring Represen- ing craft to carry your car 55 miles up course, some assembly will be required tative Doc Hastings, a well-known, vocal Lake Chelan. When the bow ramp drops once you arrive. opponent of Wilderness. The legislation at Stehekin, drive off onto the beachhead After you’ve enjoyed a drive on the 23- gives the National Park Service authority and on up the road. mile long road, what will you do with the to move the Stephen Mather Wilderness If the Navy and Marines aren’t available car? Well you can’t drive it home anymore boundary in the North Cascades National on landlocked Lake Chelan, perhaps the than you could drive it to Stehekin. The Park in order to relocate the washed-out Army’s airborne parachute riggers could roads don’t run that direction either. You road in the upper Stehekin River valley. prepare your car to drop into the landing could retrieve the car the same way you The upper 10 miles of the old road has zone from a C-130 Hercules. got it into Stehekin, except of course for multiple washouts and landslides above Maybe your car’s springs and shocks the parachute drop. Or perhaps the NPS High Bridge. Over 3,000 feet of the old can’t withstand the impact of a parachute will have finished with those helicopters roadbed is now the riverbed. Building a landing. Then you may want to try the they are using to transport trail construc- road on a new alignment would be both Air Force’s short landing strip air trans- tion loads up to Cascade Pass; maybe they expensive and absurd. port capacity. You could assure the pilots could pluck your car out. Or you could just However if this new road is built, that there is almost no chance of hos- sell the car and leave it in Stehekin. But anyone wishing to drive up the valley to tile ground fire on the approach to the there’s not much use for a car in Stehekin, Cottonwood Campground at the eastern Stehekin airstrip. They will only need to so the market value will be pretty low. foot of Cascade Pass will face a challenge. thread between high mountain peaks and If this all sounds silly and expensive, so This is a classic example of “You can’t get passes. is relocating this road from nowhere to there from here!” — at least not by driving Or, you could take the classic Himala- nowhere. The best idea is to leave the road your vehicle. Stehekin, at the head of Lake yan expedition approach. Disassemble closed, your car at home and walk, enjoy- Chelan, is isolated; no roads go there. So, the car and hire porters to pack the parts ing the Wilderness in the upper Stehekin to drive on this expensive new road one across Cascade Pass down to Cotton- River valley. needs to transport a car to Stehekin. Here wood Campground. Or if porters can’t be are some suggestions for how to do that: visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  15 New dams and diversions in Alpine Lakes Wilderness? By Rachel Paschal Osborn

The State Department also holds a water right of Ecology’s Office of the for Snow and Nada Columbia River (OCR) is Lakes. The scope of funding and sponsoring these interests is a mat- proposals to increase wa- ter for evaluation. ter diversions from seven lakes in Alpine Lakes Eightmile Lake Wilderness that flow into Proposal Icicle Creek: Colchuck, The Eightmile Lake Eightmile, Upper and Restoration and Expan- Lower Snow, Nada, Upper sion proposal evaluates Klonaqua and Square the ability to increase Lakes. water storage in Eight- In 2012, OCR fund- mile Lake by rebuilding ed Chelan County to form a dam, increasing pool a “collaborative” Icicle level and/or drawing Work Group (IWG), os- the lake down further. tensibly to solve instream The original dam and flow problems in Icicle control works for the Creek while obtaining lake have collapsed and more water from the sys- Snow Lakes and Enchantments from current usable capacity tem for out-of-stream uses. Wedge Mountain. is 1,375 acre-feet of water. The impetus for creating IWG comes —Karl Forsgaard photo The Eightmile Lake Storage Restoration from a City of Leavenworth lawsuit against Draft Appraisal Study (Nov. 2014) evalu- Ecology regarding quantification of the ates four options for increasing storage City’s water rights. That lawsuit is on hold capacity: 2,000, 2,500 (2 options), and while Ecology uses the IWG process to for agriculture, and improving ecosystem health. 3,500 acre-feet. All four options include attempt to find water for Leavenworth. If re-building the dam to its original height, All this must occur while achieving com- the effort fails and the lawsuit moves or higher, as well as drawing down pliance with state and federal laws, includ- forward, a court decision could under- Eightmile Lake pool below its current, ing the Wilderness Act – no small feat. mine Ecology’s authority to quantify water semi-natural outlet. The proposal is based rights that pre-date the 1917 water code. IWG is a “quid pro quo” process. This on assumptions about water rights and The statewide implications are substantial; raises the question whether ecosystem easements held by IPID, which actively presumably Ecology would prefer to settle benefits, including water quality improve- manages four of the Alpine Lakes to serve and vacate the lower court orders. ments and restoration of instream flows water to about 7,000 acres of orchards and for endangered species, may only be converted lands in the Wenatchee Valley. Funding IWG achieved if new water supply is provided IPID holds water rights dating from To implement Leavenworth settlement for Leavenworth (along with other IWG 1926 to store water in and divert from the efforts, OCR entered into a $700,000 goals). This in turn raises questions lakes. The Eightmile Lake water right was contract with Chelan County to run IWG about whether state and federal laws (for adjudicated in 1929 at 2500 acre-feet an- and pursue water development projects. example, Clean Water Act and Endangered nual volume, and 25 cfs rate of diversion. Chelan County subcontracted with Aspect Species Act permits) may be superseded by However, the Eightmile dam collapsed Consulting for investigations ($506,000); a stakeholder-based collaborative process. Dally Environmental Service for meeting and IPID has not used the full (artificial) facilitation ($16,000); Cascadia Law Group Overview of Alpine Lakes storage capacity for many years. There are ($$ unknown); and Icicle Peshastin Irriga- Water Projects questions about relinquishment of water rights over and above what IPID needs and tion District (IPID)($25,000 per year for Three current proposals relate to Alpine has used in the past. At a minimum, Ecol- two years). OCR is now seeking another Lakes: (1) Eightmile Lake Restoration-Stor- ogy would have to issue water rights for $3.5 million to fund IWG into the 2015-17 age; (2) Upper Klonaqua Lake pipeline; new and increased uses. biennium. and (3) Alpine Lakes Optimization-Auto- mation. The latest consultant studies are IPID holds easements that allow it to IWG Goals on the Chelan County website. “store” water in several Alpine Lakes, In addition to finding water for Leav- although the scope of the easement for IPID holds grandfathered easements enworth, IWG goals include improving Eightmile Lake does not cover the entire and water rights to store and divert water instream flows in Icicle Creek, making lake. As described in a Review of Eight from the lakes. Leavenworth Fish Hatch- the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery Mile Lake Storage Authority (Aspect Con- ery (owned by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, sustainable, protecting tribal rights to fish sulting, March 2014), IPID’s easements operated by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) at the Hatchery, improving water reliability cover only a portion of the lake.

16  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 Any increase in storage capacity would Alpine Lakes Optimization/ The proposals to install automation require U.S. Forest Service approvals. Sec- Automation Proposal equipment, manipulate lake levels, and tion 4(d)(4) of the Wilderness Act of 1964 increase diversions from the lakes seem The current IPID and Hatchery diver- requires Presidential approval to establish likely to require approvals from the U.S. sion methods are primitive: drain holes and maintain reservoirs within wilderness Forest Service and the State Depart- and gates at the lakes are manually areas. ment of Ecology. To date neither agency opened and closed at the beginning and has indicated their positions regarding The appraisal study hypothesizes that end of the irrigation season by IPID and these proposals, although as discussed the easement language will allow and Hatchery staff who hike into the Wilder- above, Ecology’s OCR has provided perhaps even require the Forest Service ness. to approve an expansion of Eightmile: “In substantial funding to study new dams The Alpine Lakes Optimization and performing maintenance, repair, opera- and diversions from the Alpine Lakes. Automation Appraisal Study (O/A Study) tion, modification, upgrading and replace- (Aspect Consulting, Nov. 2014) evaluates ment of facilities, [IPID] will not without Alternative Conservation the potential to install telemetry equip- prior written consent of the Forest Service, Proposals and Public Outreach ment at each of the seven lakes to allow which consent shall not unreasonably be and Environmental Processes IPID and the Hatchery to remotely control withheld, materially increase the size or Rather than divert additional water from the water release structures from their of- scope of the facilities.” Alpine Lakes Wilderness, water solutions fices. Rather than uncontrolled drainage, for Icicle Creek could be found through The proposal raises questions about the automation would allow the water users more sustainable approaches. Approxi- scope of impacts on riparian zones and to fine-tune the quantities of water they mately 117 cfs of new instream flow could wilderness surrounding the lake, includ- remove from the lakes to meet both con- be added to a 6-mile length of Icicle Creek ing trails, campsites and other public sumptive use and instream flow require- (downstream of Snow Creek) by moving amenities. Eightmile Lake is one of the ments. This would increase efficiency and IPID’s take-out point downstream to the more popular trail destinations in Alpine potentially drain the lakes. Lake Wilderness, partly because of its easy Wenatchee River. accessibility. However, the Forest Service Water conservation opportunities are has not yet provided a public position substantial. Rather than looking to Alpine regarding proposals to expand or draw More sustainable water Lakes as the first option, the City of Leav- down Eightmile Lake. enworth and other users should adopt an solutions for Icicle Creek aggressive water conservation plan. These Upper Klonaqua Pipeline include aggressive water actions, combined with promoting water Proposal markets that facilitate selling and trading The Klonaqua Lake proposal involves conservation, moving IP- water rights, could supply future water installing a siphon or pump or blasting ID’s take-out point 6 miles uses, but they have received minimal con- a tunnel to drain Upper Klonaqua Lake sideration. into Lower Klonaqua Lake, detailed in the downstream, and promot- Manipulating lake levels and allocating draft Bathymetry and Topographic Survey ing water markets that fa- new water rights from Alpine Lakes Wil- of Upper Klonaqua Lake and Conceptual derness could be controversial. Although Release Options (Aspect Consulting, Nov. cilitate selling and trading IWG was asked to create a Wilderness 2014). water rights. subcommittee, that idea was eliminated IPID holds some form of water rights without discussion in December 2014. and easements for Upper and Lower Chelan County held a public meeting in Klonaqua Lakes. IPID has never accessed The original concept for the study was Seattle in 2013, and a similar meeting was water from Upper Klonaqua, and accord- to evaluate more efficient use of water and held in February 2015. Meanwhile, scop- ing to the report, has used only 1,600 refill rates. However, the scope of the O/A ing under the State Environmental Policy acre-feet of its 1926 water right to 2500 Study has expanded to include analysis of Act (SEPA) will be scheduled for spring or acre-feet from Lower Klonaqua Lake. increasing storage at Snow and Eightmile summer 2015. National Environmental Nonetheless, the Upper Klonaqua study Lakes. The study evaluates increasing stor- Policy Act (NEPA) processes are unknown evaluates the natural storage capacity of age at Upper and Lower Snow Lakes by 5 at this time. Upper Klonaqua, including how much feet and drawing down Lower Snow by an In addition to Alpine Lakes storage and water could be obtained by drawing down additional 3 feet. The study also evaluates water right proposals, IWG is evaluating the lake. two options at Eightmile Lake. The first several other projects to improve instream Issues with this proposal include that involves rebuilding the dam to its original flow and habitat in Icicle Creek. There is any new water project in a wilderness area height (adding 4 feet to current pool); also movement afoot by other water users would require approval of the U.S. Forest the second adds another 1 foot above in the Wenatchee Valley to capture Icicle Service (and, according to the Wilderness that. Both options also evaluate lowering Creek (including Alpine Lakes) water for Act of 1964, possibly the U.S. President). the Eightmile Lake outlet by 19 to 22 feet downstream uses. And because this proposal would increase below current drawdown levels. The ultimate “package” of projects will diversion from the Klonaqua Lakes, Ecolo- The O/A Study then evaluates the wa- require public scrutiny and input. gy would have to evaluate relinquishment, ter supply opportunities should six of the and issue new water rights to accomplish seven lakes be fully drained each year. Excerpted from Naiads blog by Rachael the goal. Neither the Forest Service nor (At present, IPID diverts on a rotating Paschal Osborn, a Spokane water lawyer Ecology has expressed opinions yet about basis from the four lakes to which it holds who works closely with NCCC on the Icicle the viability of these proposals. rights.) and Enloe/Similkameen matters. visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  17 Okanogan-Wenatchee Travel Management update By Karl Forsgaard

In late December 2014, Okanogan- new mixed-use roads were proposed, and affirmatively state a strong commitment to Wenatchee National Forest released its going forward such a proposal would be serious analysis of environmental impacts Proposed Action under the Travel Manage- made at the district level. and recreational balance in the districts’ ment Rule, designating roads and trails This looks similar to the approach future decision process about routes open to off-road vehicles (ORVs) and ban- taken by Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, Gifford open to ORVs. This is especially needed ning cross-country travel by ORVs. Pinchot and Olympic National Forests in roadless areas where ORV use became The Proposed Action was an abrupt with the 2005 Travel Management Rule – entrenched without any analysis of ORV reversal of the approach undertaken by they merely memorialized the status quo impacts, including the Teanaway, Mad OWNF for more than nine years to imple- regarding motorized routes. MBSNF and River-Entiat and Lake Chelan-Sawtooth ment the 2005 Rule (which had a four- ONF did so without public meetings (those roadless areas. year implementation timeframe). After forests did not have to deal with the ex- There have been recent proposals by conducting rounds of scoping in 2007 and tensive ORV use present on OWNF lands). All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV) proponents for 2009 with public meetings and detailed GPNF does have extensive ORV use and it large ATV loops of 50 miles or more to be maps of proposed new ORV routes, OWNF took the extra step of holding public meet- established on Forest roads, outside of the had been moving toward a Draft EIS that ings, but ended up merely memorializing Travel Management process and without would have included a range of alterna- the status quo. compliance with NEPA, reportedly seeking tives (such as a pro-wilderness alternative, A primary feature of the 2005 Travel to have the loops opened by the summer and a pro-ORV alternative) on which the Management Rule is the ban on cross- 2015 riding season. We are concerned public would have commented. country travel, whereby areas and routes about the negative environmental impacts Rather than the full DEIS that we had are closed to motorized use unless posted of such ATV loops, including increased been expecting, OWNF simply opted to open (as opposed to the opposite para- traffic and potential facilitation of the memorialize its existing system of roads digm, where many forests previously had a very same off-route travel and resource and trails open to motorized use. No rule of open unless posted closed). There damage that the Travel Management Rule is value in implementing that paradigm seeks to eliminate. NCCC asked OWNF to shift nationwide. clarify how these ATV loop proposals will NCCC board member Thom Peters at NCCC submitted comments on the Pro- be handled under the Travel Management Rule. Mad Lake. —Karl Forsgaard photo posed Action, urging OWNF to revise it to

18  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 Morning Star additions and Reiter connections

By Mike Town

NCCC advocacy has played a timber sale, to explore ways to key role in expanding recreation protect the trail corridor (the Reiter possibilities near Wallace Falls. lands closest to the Wallace River) Thanks to our advocacy, a new from logging. footbridge over the Wallace River In February 2015, NCCC also gorge will allow hikers, equestri- supported the expansion by 2,500 ans and mountain bikers to travel acres of the Morning Star Natural between Reiter Forest and Wallace Resource Conservation Area (MS- Falls State Park for the first time NRCA), just a short walk upriver in decades. Near the bridge, a pro- from the new bridge. It has been posed expansion of the Morning approved by the State Legislature Star Natural Resource Conserva- and should be funded this year. We tion Area (MSNRCA) will add 2500 also called for a more comprehen- acres of protection next to the Wild sive long-term view for public land Sky Wilderness. management in this area where a The non-motorized trail system State Park, federal Wilderness Area of Reiter Forest, on the western and Washington State NRCA are edge of Wild Sky Wilderness, is a adjacent. Connecting these areas in big win for conservation. Reiter a multi-agency management plan is a State Forest managed by the could greatly enhance the goals of Department of Natural Resources the State’s NRCA program by: (DNR). For decades, Reiter was literally over-run with off-road • protecting habitat for Murrelets vehicles and had suffered extensive and Spotted Owls as well as other damage. Over the last few years, species dependent on old forests NCCC has led efforts to identify • providing a corridor of connectiv- and repair the damage as well as ity for wildlife between the Wild design a more sustainable trail Sky Wilderness, Wallace Falls State system for both motorized and Park, and MSNRCA non-motorized users. • enhancing the recreational ex- In March 2011, we co-signed a perience for hikers accessing this letter supporting DNR’s application area from Wallace Falls State Park, for a NOVA grant to construct the Wild Sky Wilderness and the new trailhead in Reiter Forest. Wallace River bridge. We wrote of New footbridge above Wallace Falls “the tremendous potential for the develop- with Reiter on the left and Wallace A second legislative proposal seeks ment of a low-elevation trail system which Falls State Park on the right. to add an additional 2500 acres to the is accessible all year long and is located —Karl Forsgaard photo MSNRCA through the Trust Land Transfer close to the rapidly growing Puget Sound (TLT) process. These sections are either area. Reiter has potential for trails which too high to support sustainable logging, access historic artifacts, mature forests, and 120 feet long and can be reached by and/or their steepness poses significant and viewpoints overlooking numerous a three-mile hike in Wallace Falls State access problem, and/or they contain a waterfalls and the Puget lowlands. … A Park. From the bridge there are views of number of failing logging roads too ex- potential trail along the old rail grade the river, falls, Snohomish Valley and out pensive to repair and maintain. Using the to the east side of Wallace Falls from the to the Olympics. We believe that once this TLT process to add these adjacent lands Reiter Foothills area will also significantly bridge is “discovered” it will bring a large to the MSNRCA (while compensating the decrease the overuse of the neighboring increase of hiking visits to the State Park. trust through the acquisition of land more Wallace Falls State Park.” Funding and con- The bridge will be completed this spring suitable for logging) will better serve structing the new bridge “would greatly but closed at the Reiter Forest side until beneficiaries of the trust and maximize expand nonmotorized trail opportunities the Reiter trail system has been completed. ecosystem services to society. Adding the and provide the critical linkage…. recre- Ultimately, the main trail will connect the adjacent areas could be done in a piece- ational users will be able to hike, moun- bridge with the new Snohomish County meal fashion or all at one time. tain bike, and ride horses between Wallace trailhead off May Creek Road. However, Falls State Park and the DNR-managed right next to the trailhead will be the We believe that these boundary changes lands of Reiter Forest.” 200-acre DNR timber sale, and the new will enhance the social and ecological trail will be routed through the clearcut. values of the current MSNRCA proposal The new bridge over the Wallace River As reported in TWC Spring/Summer 2014, and will allow for the best suited use for gorge is located just above the Upper Falls the County asked DNR to hold off on the these areas. of Wallace Falls. The bridge is 75 feet high visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  19 The Corvid’s eye

National forest lands along the west slope of the North Cascades are once again a riot of green from edge to center. Nearly a quarter-century has passed since the post-World War II logging frenzy on the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie (MBS) and other national forests in the Northwest came to a merciful end, following listings of the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet under the Endangered Species Act. Well over four decades of intensive cutting on mostly lower elevations of the MBS had by then reduced much of this temperate rain forest to but a shadow of its primeval grandeur. Gifted writers have de- scribed the results as resembling a moth- eaten coat or a dog with mange, though probably no simile has fully captured the level of wanton destruction that occurred here. One needed to see it firsthand, with the usual involuntary reactions of solastal- gia and nausea, in order to grasp at some level the horror which had transpired. The Divine’s own face, against its will, had An illustrative example of this auspi- tion is absurd on its face, since the correct been shorn of much of its whiskers. cious phenomenon is the oft-overlooked answer is obvious: let it grow, left to its Time may not heal all, though none can swath of MBS land rising south of the natural evolutionary trajectory. Ah, but the dispute its capacity to soften life’s hard Skagit, west of the Sauk, and north of the corvid knows his humans, and particu- edges. Patience remains virtuous. Scien- Stillaguamish rivers. Known colloqui- larly those humans prone to the foibles tists and historians have marveled over the ally as the Finney Block, after the Skagit of forestry; the softest of sciences. No day reforestation of New England, for instance, tributary creek that effectively bisects it, is complete without some proclamation since that region’s agrarian peak in the this roughly 150 square miles of relatively that younger forests left to the whims and 19th century. By compari- gentle terrain was a prime carelessness of Ma Nature are doomed to son, recovery of national target of the 20th century’s eternal mediocrity, or at best will develop forest land in the North Cas- Commercial bad old days, when U.S. far too slowly for the refined tastes of cades is still in its fairly early Forest Service policy was the Very Serious foresters, their political stages, yet already there thinning is an essentially to liquidate all allies, and certain hangers-on. Without is evidence of a powerful anthropogenic old-growth forest under chainsaw intervention via commercial resilience and rebound, ar- the purview of the agency. thinning (plus lots of logging trucks), guably as impressive as the disturbance that Consequently, the Finney we are told, these second-growth forests natural forces still at work invariably Block was hit especially will never reclaim their original stature. in the North Appalachians. retards forest hard, with logging roads Never mind how preposterous the notion Ground that seemed an ap- and their resulting clearcuts is of a hubristic, savannah-evolved species propriate set for a dystopian development metastasizing to seemingly going back to “fix” the forest it previously tale of nuclear winter as every formerly remote basin, destroyed, and think not of the parallels of recently as 1990 may now mowing down forests which the thinners’ arguments to the theory of reasonably be called young in many cases had not seen a burning a village in order to save it. And forest. Here, in 2015, we encounter vigor- stand-replacing fire since first taking seed when confronted with the claim that more ous conifers and hardwoods now towering after the last ice age. Even here, though, thinning will also translate to an economic over the tallest man, reassertion of natural the chainsaws and bulldozers didn’t quite panacea for struggling rural communities, hydrology among the countless streams, get to all of it. Roadless areas centered do resist the temptation to point at the and gradual recolonization by shy, retiring around Higgins and Pressentin creeks, as scalped hills under private and state own- creatures. Remnant wildlands in the heart well as a sizable extent of old forest in the ership while asking why foothills denizens of the range no longer seem so much like uppermost North Fork Stilly basin, some- aren’t already dressed like J. Paul Getty. forlorn islands, but instead as the primitive how survived the carnage, and now form Esteemed readers of The Wild Cascades core of a much grander whole. The great wild anchors within a small but rollicking are well-versed on the thinners’ chica- alpine areas of the North Cascades are of sea of forest regeneration happening all nery by way of numerous incisive articles little consequence without an unbroken across the Finney Block. carpet of forest stretching well beyond What then is to be done with all this them. Continued on page 21 recovering forest on the MBS? The ques-

20  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 Board members, Park managers discuss helicopters near Cascade Pass Polly Dyer National Park (NOCA) Superintendent Karen Taylor-Goodrich and staff in No- birthday vember 2014 to discuss helicopter use in the Steven Mather Wilderness. Helicopters and other mechanized equipment are prohibited in the Wilder- ness, but the Park Service had chosen to use them under a “Categorical Exclu- sion” (CE), a clause of NEPA which when invoked by the agency means it’s not required to give advance public notice or take comments. We expressed strong concern that the CE was not appropri- ate in this case because the work was not minimal maintenance but trail relocation and campsite construction requiring heavy materials not available on site. We asked whether NOCA expected to use helicop- ters to complete or expand this project, and they said yes, they are already plan- ning to do more chopper runs there next summer. New trail (R) cut into fragile alpine Polly Dyer enjoyed celebrating meadow on Sahale Arm above old We hope to have further meetings soon trail (L) as part of helicopter-support- to try to negotiate a mutually acceptable her 95th birthday in February with ed trail construction last summer by alternative to helicopter use. Further, we many friends from the northwest NPS. want to determine if any mechanized conservation community, includ- —Craig Romano photo work is being contemplated elsewhere ing NCCC, of course. With her is inside Stephen Mather Wilderness (which David Fluharty, former NCCC Following up on a complaint by a mem- comprises over 95% of North Cascades President and current board mem- ber whose backpacking trip to Cascade National Park) under a CE, so that we can Pass was ruined by helicopter flights sup- alert our members and the public and ber. (See TWC Fall 2014 for more porting Park trail and campsite construc- hopefully “head it off at the pass.” We’ll info about Polly and her appear- tion work (see TWC Fall 2014), four NCCC keep you informed here in TWC and on ance at the National Wilderness board members met with North Cascades our Blog and Catalyst e-newsletter. Conference.)

The Corvid’s eye

Continued from page 20 featured over the years in this publica- private timberland corporations are ship- tion. There is neither space nor need for ping much of their raw, unprocessed logs the corvid to reiterate those important overseas (to the clear detriment of rural points, made with the authority inherent communities), as domestic demand does in NCCC’s careful observation of Cascades not approach the supply. What then are forests since 1957. It is enough to remind our national forests for? They are priceless readers and fellow skeptics that com- resources, functioning as critical carbon mercial thinning is an act with no natural sinks, reliable sources of clean water, sen- analogue that requires a large network of sitive wildlife habitat, genetic reservoirs harmful logging roads. It is an anthropo- for unfettered evolution, and low-impact genic disturbance that invariably retards recreation compatible with other goals. forest development, particularly on the In this day and age, that is more than wet west slope of the Cascades. Moreover, enough. Let us then allow our new forests there is no need for the resulting wood on the MBS and elsewhere to mature from our national forests. Currently, unimpeded. visit www.northcascades.org • ncascadesconservation.blogspot.com The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015  21 North Cascades grizzly bear EIS process launched

The National Park Service, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (US- FWS) have launched a public process to plan for the restoration of a grizzly bear population in Washington’s North Cas- cades Ecosystem. Public comments for the Grizzly Bear Restoration Environmental Impact State- ment (EIS) process were gathered during a series of open houses held in March in Winthrop, Okanogan, Wenatchee, CleElum, Seattle and Bellingham. Through Holden mine remediation to March 26, public comments can be made online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/ NCEG, or via regular mail or hand delivery continue at least one more summer at: Superintendent’s Office, North Cas- cades National Park Service Complex, 810 Holden Village has announced in the An overview of the Railroad Creek re- State Route 20, Sedro Woolley, WA 98284. Winter 2015 issue of their newsletter that alignment project just before water was The agencies stress that a range of strat- they will not be open for guests again next released into the new bed. On the right is egies and alternatives will be considered, summer, as remediation of the mine there Tailings Pile 3. The former creek bed is in and local communities, residents and continues for a fourth consecutive summer the middle and the new creek bed is on stakeholders will have opportunities for season, and all guest rooms will again be the left. —Holden Village photo input on the development of the recovery occupied by remediation workers from plan going forward. about May-October. The partially-below- Less than twenty grizzlies likely remain grade retaining wall, a herculean project in the North Cascades. While a few grizzly designed to ‘forever’ prevent leachate from bears have recently been sighted in the the tailings piles from reaching Railroad Canadian part of the North Cascades, no Creek, long made sterile by pollution grizzly bears have been sighted in the from the now-50+ year-old copper mines United States portion for several years. there, and the water treatment plant, There are as many as 50 grizzlies in the crucial to making Railroad Creek non- Selkirk Mountain Ecosystem northeast toxic again, remain to be completed. Work of Spokane, Washington, and confirmed also continues on upgrading the Village’s sightings have occurred in northcentral infrastructure in parallel with the reme- Washington in recent years. diation. See www.holdenvillage.org for If the North Cascades grizzly popula- Holden Village’s ongoing reporting. NCCC tion is successfully recovered, the region remains convinced that the extent of the will once again have populations of all the work required to contain (not “clean up”) native predators that were present prior the damage mining caused there, deep to the turn of the 19th century, something within the North Cascades Ecosystem, is a possible in very few places in the continen- prime example of why mining and mineral tal United States. exploration should not be permitted in settings such as this. For more information on Holden and other current mineral threats to the Cas- cades, visit www.northcascades.org/word- press/mining.

22  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015 Environmental Policy Act’s environmental anti-environment from day one based on Stehekin Road review requirements for floodplains and any objective review of his voting record Continued from page 15 wetlands protections, is estimated at $6.6 and leadership as Chair of the House of million. Because both estimates are now Representatives Natural Resources and the Stehekin River and would not repre- ten years old, costs are likely to be much Parks Committee. In an ironic sort of way sent a permanent solution. Natural forces higher. NCCC and others ask, how can the ill-advised proposal to rebuild the are still very active at the toe of the slope such expenditures be justified for a road upper Stehekin Road would be a suitable below the reroute, and it would only be a serving a relatively few persons and with statement of his legacy of anti-environ- matter of time before the reroute would such limited access? When we consider the mental advocacy, but is it right? NCCC have to be rerouted. Finally, in order to enormous needs of communities in North and others argue that it is not! Further, to accomplish the proposed reroute, the Central Washington following this sum- propose that rebuilding the road would boundary of the Mather Wilderness would mer’s catastrophic fires it seems the height honor former Governor/ Senator Dan have to be adjusted. of folly to focus funding on a road from Evans seems quite contrary to his overall The Defense Authorization Act which nowhere to nowhere. Surely the regional record in support of Wilderness protection passed in 2014 was used to authorize a priorities for both community-based eco- in Washington and his pragmatic engineer- change in the Wilderness boundary for nomic stability and environmental hazard ing and budgeting expertise. Steven Mather Wilderness, much to the protection have to be higher in North Cen- It is notable that Congress attached chagrin of NCCC. Besides setting an un- tral Washington than the Stehekin Road no funding to the Upper Stehekin Road fortunate precedent, the Act will increase ever will be. legislation in order to pretend that this is pressure to rebuild the road and open an What is even more galling is that mem- a simple Wilderness boundary adjustment. additional 10-12 miles. Furthermore, ad- bers of Congress suggest that this unjus- This is misleading and irresponsible. It vocates say that building a new road on a tified measure was approved to thank further leads to asking why the National new alignment in a different location will Representative Hastings for his service Park Service should be second-guessed by cost $1.3 million. But the cost of rebuild- in Congress. “Doc” Hastings has actively politicians when applying the laws that ing the road on the current alignment, sought to weaken the Endangered Species have been set for its operation including which is now a river bed, to NPS standards Act. He has blocked Wilderness designa- prioritization of funding. Stay tuned. and with full compliance with the National tions across the country. He has been truly

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Whitehorse (L) and Three Fingers (R) loom over Puget Sound from Guemes Channel in a rare showing of full snow-coat, earlier in the winter. —Philip Fenner photo

24  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2015