Winter 2008-2009

The Wild Cascades The Journal of the North Ca s cades Conservation Council Winter 2008-2009

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  1 The North Cascades THE WILD CASCADES  Winter 2008-2009 Conservation Council was formed in 1957 “To protect and In This Issue preserve the North Cascades’ scenic, scientific, recreational, educational, 3 President’s Report — Marc Bardsley and wilderness values.” Continuing 4 The Long-Term Future of NCCC: The Role of Bequests in Conservation this mission, NCCC keeps government — Jim Davis, Executive Director, North Cascades Conservation Council officials, environmental organizations, and the general public informed about Announcing the closing of the North Cascades Foundation issues affecting the Greater North 5 Reiter Forest Update — Karl Forsgaard Cascades Ecosystem. Action is pursued 6 Heybrook Ridge: Protected as a Snohomish County Park — Conway through legislative, legal, and public Leovy participation channels to protect the 7 Azurite Mine Cleanup lands, waters, plants and wildlife. NCCC Hosts North Cascades’ 40-Year Celebration Over the past half century the NCCC 8 NCCC Announces “American Alps Legacy Project” — Rick McGuire has led or participated in campaigns to create the North Cascades National 11 Re-Wilding the Cascades: Middle Fork Snoqualmie Bridge Out Park Complex, Glacier Peak Wilder- — Kevin Geraghty, Rick McGuire ness, and other units of the National 12 The Secret Lives of North Cascades Wildlife — Jim Davis Wilderness System from the W.O. 15 What Ever Happened to WPN-114: Life and Death Among the Bristle- Douglas Wilderness north to the cones — Charles Ehlert Alpine Lakes Wilderness, the Henry M. 19 Book Reviews — John S. Edwards Jackson Wilderness, the Chelan-Saw- The Bridge at the Edge of the World tooth Wilderness, the Wild Sky Wil- Two Planks and a Passion — the Dramatic History of Skiing derness and others. Among its most 20 North Cascades Glacier Climate Report for 2008 — Tom Hammond dramatic victories has been working with British Columbia allies to block 22 Conservation Updates and Alerts the raising of Ross Dam, which would 23 NCCC Membership Application have drowned Big Beaver Valley.

The NCCC is supported by member dues and private donations. These contributions support the full range Cover: Tower Mountain and Silver Star Mountain from the slopes of Golden of the Council’s activities, including Horn (1976). —Jo h n Ro pe r publication of The Wild Cascades. As a 501(c)(3) organization, all contributions are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Membership dues for one year are: Living Lightly/ The Wild Cascades Student $10; Individual $30; Family $50; Sustaining $100; Other, $______. Journal of the North Cascades Conservation Council

Editor: Betty Manning North Cascades Editorial Board: John Edwards, Tom Hammond, Conservation Council Carolyn McConnell and Rick McGuire P.O. Box 95980 University Station Printing by EcoGraphics Seattle, WA 98145-2980 The Wild Cascades is published three times a year (Spring, Summer/Fall, Winter). Executive Director, Jim Davis Letters, comments, and articles are invited, subject to editorial review. 1-360-296-5159 The Wild Cascades Editor North Cascades Conservation Council NCCC Website University Station, Seattle, WA 98145-2980 www.northcascades.org

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

2  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 NCCC Board president Marc Bardsley b o a r d chairman Founded in 1957 Patrick Goldsworthy SEATTLE, WASHINGTON vice president Charles Ehlert treasurer Tom Brucker The President’s Report Winter 2008-2009 secretary Phil Zalesky he American Alps Legacy Project, our lead article in this issue (page 8), points out the North Cascades Conservation Council’s executive d i r e c t o r Tstrategy for completing the historical vision of the North Cascades Jim Davis National Park. As we have developed our “American Alps Legacy Project”, some people have asked why we are so interested in changing the great park we already own. Why? After 40 years of enjoying a park second to Bruce Barnbaum none, the park faces many challenges and threats. The park needs many improvements and adjacent surrounding areas need the protection of Jim Davis having park status. Let me be more specific: Polly Dyer • Threats to land bordering the park that are either existing or John Edwards imminent include mining, off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, and small-scale hydro developments. Dave Fluharty • There are financial problems maintaining existing infrastructure Anders Forsgaard and non-motorized recreational access in the area. Administrative consolidation in some locations would be desirable. Karl Forsgaard • Other important reasons to make adjustments to the park Kevin Geraghty boundaries are the same as they were 40 years ago. The more Tom Hammond important would be to maintain scenic quality, protect wildlife habitats and travel corridors, provide economic benefits to local Betty Manning communities, maintain traditional recreational access, protect Puget Sound headwaters, and finally, secure carbon sequestration Carolyn McConnell in mature second-growth and old-growth forests.

Rick McGuire In developing our plan, it was deemed important to include most of the major stakeholders such as hikers, hunters, fishermen, skiers, car Thom Peters campers, and the one-time vacationer from out-of-state. Consequently, we are proposing to expand certain wilderness areas adjacent to the Mike Town park as part of the project as well as include much of Highway 20 and Ken Wilcox Cascade River road into the national park. Virtually the entire package of boundary adjustments are on public land that is designated roadless Ted Willhite area or other national forest land that is not protected by Congress.

Laura Zalesky We urge you to join us in this effort to complete the historical vision for the North Cascades National Park.

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  3 The Long-Term Future of NCCC The Role of Bequests in Conservation Jim Davis Executive Director, North Cascades Conservation Council

ith more than 50 years of accom- sector, including conservation groups ation, and human population growth. plishments and a raft of new con- that are confronted with significant fund Take action on your own to include W servation initiatives, NCCC is now raising challenges. Some groups may close NCCC in your Will or contact us for assis- taking a hard look at its long-term future. their doors. We can not let that happen to tance in setting up your bequest, We remain the leading conservation orga- NCCC. In addition to focusing on project [email protected]. We will soon nization focused specifically on protection support, we must also turn our attention be distributing a special mailing with guid- of the North Cascades. All other groups to fund-raising strategies that will support ance on how to make this very important have either a much broader geographic NCCC for decades to come. Dedicated contribution to NCCC. focus, with the North Cascades as only an members are the key to long-term survival Please help us preserve the North Cas- occasional priority, or a much narrower of NCCC. cades for future generations. geographic focus on only a portion of the We strongly encourage you to leave a be- North Cascades. Without a single focus quest to NCCC in your Will. Your bequest conservation group like NCCC, the future will assure that NCCC is around to coun- of the North Cascades could be very bleak. teract the expanding threats of wildlife Current economic conditions are hav- extinction, water shortages, hydropower ing a major impact on the not-for-profit development, mining, motorized recre- www.northcascades.org

Announcing the closing of the North Cascades Foundation

he North Cascades Foundation (NCF) The North Cascades foundation is no Patrick Goldsworthy was set up around 1970 by members longer necessary because of the change in T of the North Cascades Conservation the NCCC tax status. The trustees of the Paul Gerhardt Council to receive gifts, deductible to the foundation voted to cease operations and Ned Graves donor, which would provide support for turn over most of its remaining funds to non-political actions advanced by NCCC the North Cascades Institute. (As a remind- Emily Haig and other groups or individuals. The er, the institute is based in Sedro Woolley stated purpose of the foundation would be and – thanks to the High Ross Dam Settle- Charles Hessey “ . . . to protect and preserve the North ment - has a splendid mountain school on Phil Hyde Cascades’ scenic, scientific, educational, Diablo Lake.) This leadership gift will be wildlife and wilderness values.” known as the NCCC Founders Endowed Neva Karrick Scholarship Fund. The annual earnings of During the first twelve years NCF Rick Mack wholly funded actions to block High Ross the fund will aid graduate students at the Dam. If the $100,000 had not been raised Institute. Individuals who want to enhance Grant McConnell though the foundation, it is doubtful the the legacy of our founders can contribute High Ross Dam could have been stopped. to the fund at the North Cascades Insti- Rod O’Conner During the next 12 years NCF supported tute. The NCF founders were: Chester Powell defense of the Stehekin Valley and other valleys from inappropriate development. David Brower Dave Simons In the succeeding 12 years contributions Joseph Collins Jack Stevens to the foundation paid for publishing The Wild Cascades and Wilderness Alps by Ray Courtney John Warth Harvey Manning. And finally last year the Una Davies foundation gave NCCC the boost it needed Jack Wilson for an executive director’s first year, for a Polly Dyer Art Winder total expenditure of about $300,000. Leo Gallagher Phillip Zalesky

4  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 Reiter Forest Update Karl Forsgaard he North Cascades Conservation taken to contain them in that specific area, the Index Town Wall. Conservationists’ Council along with other conservation and to control the inevitable damage they trail proposals fall within the trail study T groups such as the Alpine Lakes Pro- cause and to clean up the dirt filled runoff area mandated by the Wild Sky Wilderness tection Society and The Mountaineers, has from any such area before it reaches Act. been continuing its efforts to combat run- important salmon spawning areas closely The DNR Northwest Region has failed away abuse by ORVs of the “Reiter Foot- downstream. to understand that they cannot go on hills” area of state lands with business as usual north of the Skykomish and ignore the rapidly river between Gold worsening damage to Bar and Index. Previ- public lands at Reiter. ous issues of The Wild DNR is failing to carry Cascades have re- out its most basic re- ported on the horrific sponsibilities to protect situation there, where state trust lands. DNR is also violating the Clean 4x4s, “monster trucks,” Water Act by allow- motorcycles and ATVs ing sediment to flow are continually carving uncontrolled from Reiter new routes and causing into the Skykomish river tremendous erosion just below, threatening and almost unbeliev- important spawning able damage of every areas for endangered kind to this much- salmon populations. The abused place. “braided channel” reach For years the of the Skykomish just Washington State below Reiter is where Department of Natural three quarters or more Resources, which man- of all salmon spawning ages these lands, has in the entire Snohomish done almost nothing watershed occurs. about this ever worsen- Trees being killed by 4x4s traveling cross-country through Reiter Forest on In a January 31, 2009 ing state of affairs. After State trust lands that are supposed to be managed by Washington State letter to DNR, the con- years of delay, a plan- Department of Natural Resources, adjacent to Wild Sky Wilderness and servation reps cited over ning effort was started Wallace Falls State Park. — Karl Fo r s g a a r d p h o t o 20 internet videos of 4x4 last year, which gave users causing damage at some hope that some- Reiter which have been thing might finally be done to stem the At that same January 28 meeting, the posted on websites such as YouTube. One damage. However, as this process contin- motorized recreation reps were asked how could easily spend hundreds of hours ues, there seems little hope that DNR will they plan to control the reckless individu- watching these videos of vehicles driving willingly take the steps needed to control als whose machines continue to cause through streams, throwing mud, killing the damage. DNR formed a Reiter advisory so much damage and sedimentation into many trees and tearing up the land at committee that was at first heavily stacked salmon streams, and the motorized reps Reiter. Conservation reps asked that an toward ORV interests, offering only one said, “we don’t know.” ecologist from the State Department of token seat to environmental interests. Recently, DNR staff took Reiter advisory Fish and Wildlife or Department of Ecol- More conservationists were finally added committee members on a field tour of ogy be added to the Reiter advisory com- to the committee after widespread outcry, DNR’s Walker Valley ORV area in Skagit mittee to represent ecological concerns at but DNR has persisted in ignoring environ- county. A conservation rep had asked DNR the state government level. mental input. to include specific damaged sites on this Because the DNR Northwest Region The Northwest Region of the DNR has field trip, but DNR refused to do so, and has shown itself incapable of coming up always been among the most backward instead took the field trip participants on with an acceptable plan for Reiter, hope outposts of that agency. It has been clear a Potemkin-style tour to “hardened” sites now rests with newly elected Public Lands from the start of this process that DNR’s displaying less damage. Commissioner Peter Goldmark. Major intent has been to make a sacrifice area NCCC and other conservation groups changes are urgently needed in DNR’s of Reiter and officially open most or all of also want to see a new Natural Resource Northwest Region. Goldmark has repeat- its 10,000 acres to ORVs, and to do little Conservation Area established between edly said that he wants to change the way to mitigate the ever growing devastation May Creek and the Wallace River, along the DNR does business. What better way caused by these machines. This would be with other protection measures and con- for him to begin than by cleaning house entirely unacceptable to conservation- struction of new non-motorized trails. The at the NW Region, and coming up with a ists, who at the January 28th meeting of Reiter foothills area is directly adjacent reasonable plan to solve the problems at the Reiter committee put forward a draft to and surrounded by Wallace Falls State Reiter? Look for further updates in future proposal to open only a limited area to Park, the Wild Sky Wilderness, and the issues of The Wild Cascades. ORVs provided that adequate measures are Forks of the Sky State Park, which includes

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  5 Heybrook Ridge Protected as a Snohomish County Park Conway Leovy

success- ful col- Alaboration between a local grassroots group, a major conservation organization, local government, and a landowner could serve as a model for future conservation efforts in our region. One-hundred- thirty acres of mostly mature forest on Hey- brook Ridge will be protected and managed as a new Snohom- ish County Park. Purchase of the property from the previous owner, WB Foresters of Stanwood was ing the negotiations between Snohomish of a forest park that offers education as completed in October, 2008. County and WB Foresters and encour- well as recreation will soon be a reality.” When WB Foresters announced their aging all participants to persevere. The intention to log the 100-year-old forest on cooperation of WB Foresters was essen- Above: The preserved land on Hey- the north slope of the ridge directly across tial. Even as timber prices were plummet- brook Ridge is the low forested slope the north fork of the Skykomish river ing, the landowner extended the deadline between the north fork of the Skykom- from Index a grass roots group of mostly through August to allow time for comple- Index residents organized the “Friends of ish river below the viewer and the tion of negotiations. The collaborating Index-Persis ridge in the background. Heybrook Ridge” (FOHR). FOHR presi- groups and residents of the town of Index The town of Index is just behind the dent Louise Lindgren negotiated a one- and adjacent areas celebrated with a gala year-delay through June of 2008 for the barbecue and hoedown at the Outdoor steep forested ridge to the right. commencement of logging operations to Adventure Center in Index on October 4. Photo by Bill Pope taken from near allow time to raise the original purchase The next step is to complete the original Bitter Creek in the Wild Sky Wilder- price of $1.3 million. The local group went vision of FOHR for preserving the forest ness. to work, generated extensive publicity, for recreation and education as well as organized hoedowns and other activities, conservation purposes. The group will and raised over $600,000 with substantial continue to provide advice and assistance help from an anonymous donor. This was to Snohomish County for the development enough to persuade Snohomish County of a trail system that will provide easy to complete the final lower purchase price access from the town of Index to mature of $1.21 million plus closing costs using forest, ridgetop views of the north and $700,000 from the Snohomish County south fork of the Skykomish river, and, Futures Fund. ultimately, to the Heybrook Lookout on The Cascade Land Conservancy played Forest Service land to the east. According a critical role in the process, shepherd- to FOHR President Lindgren “Our vision

6  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 Azurite Mine Cleanup The Azurite Mine site, 19 miles from Mazama, above Canyon Creek near Golden Horn is among the worst of many toxic mine sites in the North Cascades. It lies within the area covered by the “Ameri- can Alps Legacy Project” which is aimed at completing the national park, and adding wilderness. The Azurite Mine which operated from 1918 to 1939 yeided gold and left 41,000 tons of tailings that contain toxic metals including cadmium, copper, lead, and ar- senic, the last at levels near 200 times the Current and first superintendents of North Cascades level considered the safe threshold. Seep- National Park Service Complex: Chip Jenkins, left, and Roger Contor. age from tailings reaches Mill Creek where elevated levels are a toxic hazard for aquatic life, including bull trout. The con- NCCC Hosts North Cascades’ taminated water enters the Skagit River and reaches Puget Sound. Given the great potential of the area for 40-Year Celebration protection as part of the American Alps Legacy, NCCC has communicated to the On October 3rd, more than one hundred friends gathered at the Woodland Park Forest Service concern that the welcome Zoo’s Rainforest Pavilion to celebrate the 40th birthday of North Cascades Na- remediation proposal should assure tional Park. President Lyndon Johnson signed the park bill into law on October maximum protection during its comple- 2, 1968. tion. NCCC concurs with the Forest Ser- Warmed by an excellent salmon dinner, we were inspired by the words of vice that remedial action alternative 2B chairman of the board Patrick Goldsworthy, past president Dave Fluharty, and is preferred but recommends that more several others, before park superintendent Chip Jenkins introduced our first key- stringent measures be imposed during the note speaker. Roger Contor, the first superintendent of North Cascades National process, as summarized here. Park, entertained us with some great stories, humor and reflections on his time It is proposed to treat the tailings with at the park in the late 1960s. a method that is designed to remove toxics Peter Jackson, son of the late Senator Henry M. Jackson, who led the effort in from percolating water, and to cap them Congress to establish the park, followed Contor. Introduced by North Cascades with soil. This will require the reconstruc- Institute executive director Saul Weisberg, Jackson also spoke to the common tion of road 5400-700 in an area with theme for the evening, “Honoring the past, inspiring the future.” It was especial- potential wilderness status. It is therefore ly gratifying to have Jackson, Contor and Jenkins sharing the stage with Golds critical that the cleanup program provides worthy and fellow NCCC co-founders Polly Dyer and Phil Zalesky, as well as a for the decommissioning of this road in a who’s-who of North Cascades conservation notables. timely manner, and for mitigation during its use to ensure minimal long-term All sang a round of “Happy Birthday”, if in several keys at once, before the cake impact. The road should be decommis- was promptly devoured. A silent auction topped off the evening, with dozens of sioned when cleanup is completed in an great items going to many happy bidders, with more than $4,000 raised (after estimated two years. Monitoring studies expenses). Many thanks go to the dozens of donors who supported the event. proposed for the ensuing three decades Also, thanks to NCCC board member Ted Willhite for officiating, Athena Pangan, should not require the use of vehicles. Ac- Kris and Ken Wilcox for organizing the event, and to the facilities and catering cess to the site should be severely limited staff at the zoo for a fine job all around. for the duration of road 5400-700 to ensure exclusion of unauthorized ATVs and ORVs. The road should be converted to a to ensure the integrity of this significant worst of the 250 sites that may have haz- foot trail when decommissioned, the cost area. ardous waste, among the 2,200 abandoned to be included in the budget for the entire The Azurite Mine has special signifi- or inactive mine sites on Forest Service cleanup project. cance in the context of North Cascades land in Washington state. Mineral rights for the Azurite and Gold conservation; the Forest Service is to be — Tom Hammond Hill prospects should be fully withdrawn encouraged in moving to clean up the and John Edwards

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  7 The time has come to finish what began in 1968 and complete the North Cascades National Park NCCC announces “American Alps Legacy Project” Rick McGuire

orty years after the landmark establish- The time has come to include missing for the continued enjoyment of present and ment of the North Cascades National links of lower-elevation lands important to future generations. FPark, its principal public advocacy wildlife, to include scenic mountain land- So, why are the boundaries of the North group, the North Cascades Conservation scapes along the North Cascades highway, Cascades National Park so particularly Council (NCCC), has announced a new and to fix strange, logic-defying boundaries strange? Mainly it is because they were campaign to build upon the legacy of what that cut across forests and rivers in ways drawn to exclude forests. Some important was accomplished in 1968. The goal of that make little sense, cutting up ecosys- valleys did get included, most notably the NCCC’s “American Alps Legacy Project” is to tems for no reason. This will, no doubt, Chilliwack and upper reaches of the Ste- complete the park by including significant be an ambitious project. It took over ten hekin and Baker rivers. Others, such as Big lowland forests and pristine rivers, as well years of citizen effort before the park was Beaver and Thunder creeks were included as bringing in well-known, scenic areas established in 1968. Quick results are rare partly in the park and partly in the NRA, along the North Cascades highway between in conservation campaigns, but NCCC has which protected them from logging but not Newhalem and Washington Pass. Designa- always taken the long-term view. from flooding by once planned dam proj- tion of new wilderness within and adjacent Nowhere else in the continental United ects. But as one follows the lines around the to the North Cascades National Park will States can one find such impressively alpine map, one sees indentation after indentation, also be considered. mountains and sprawling meadowlands put there to make sure that lower-elevation The American Alps Legacy Project is not as in the North Cascades, with over 700 forests were left well outside. only a conservation initiative, it is a pro- glaciers and so much dramatic mountain posal to protect and enhance recreation relief, nor, with the possible exception A New Politic access and visitor facilities across the North of the Olympics, such impressive forests. The timber industry was a far bigger force Cascades, including such initiatives as Political realities of the 1960s, when logging in Washington state in the 1960s than it is development of a new park visitor center on was king, made it difficult to include many today. Old growth was what the industry the eastside, and construction of new trails forested valleys within the park. But much wanted, and got. “Timber Democrats” in in and around the park where appropriate. has changed over the intervening decades. Congress appropriated hundreds of millions Its aim, completion of the park, is expected Awareness of the ecological importance of of dollars annually to the Forest Service to to generate significant economic benefits lowlands has grown along with the realiza- pay for road-building deep into what was to gateway communities in the Methow tion that there is much more to mountains the wildest country in the lower forty- and Skagit river valleys. NCCC believes that and wildlands than just scenery. Salmon- eight states. Valley after valley fell victim to conservation is best served in the long run spawning areas are all at lower elevations, taxpayer-subsidized, money-losing timber through the active support of those who as are critical winter habitats for many sales. The boundaries of the North Cascades recreate and/or live in the North Cascades. species of wildlife. Protecting watersheds in National Park were drawn by the Forest Ser- the North Cascades is the single most cost- vice and the timber industry, not the Park Unfinished Work effective way of protecting Puget Sound. Service. They made sure the vast majority of The North Cascades National Park is the As things now stand, very few people ever big-tree forests were outside of those lines. greatest piece of unfinished conservation actually enter the North Cascades National Fortunately, there are still numerous oppor- work in Washington state. Several hundred Park. Because of the strange boundaries tunities to fix those mistakes. thousand acres of pristine wildlands cur- drawn in 1968, motorists driving across Some of the places which were designated rently adjoin the national park, and though the North Cascades on the North Cascades national recreation area instead of national they are enjoyed and loved by millions as highway never enter the national park, but park were so designated in order to accom- if they were part of the park, they remain only the Ross Lake National Recreation Area modate hunting, which is not allowed in unprotected. The 1968 legislation desig- (RLNRA). Then, just three miles east of Ross national parks. Others, including the Skagit nating the park and its associated national Lake, the highway enters something called a River valley and lower Big Beaver and Thun- recreation areas was a great victory in the “scenic highway corridor” passing through der creeks, were excluded from the park to context of those times. Now the time has 30 miles of spectacular mountain wilder- allow hydroelectric developments which, come to secure the best of what remains ness, yet none of it is within the national thanks largely to NCCC, never occurred. unprotected in the wild North Cascades, park or the RLNRA. These outstanding While the desire to allow continued hunting and to complete what was left unfinished in lands are certainly of national park qual- was understandable, it, and the deference to 1968. ity. Surely, most would agree that these hydropower interests, resulted in virtually wildlands should be properly safeguarded all of the most accessible areas being kept 8  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 out of the park, including the entirety of turned out that he was a big fan of hut-to- dam. This part of the Skagit remains an the North Cascades highway corridor. Many hut hiking as practiced in parts of the Swiss important salmon-spawning area, along hunters would agree that much of the area Alps, had grand visions for the same thing with its tributaries Bacon, Goodell and designated as NRA is not prime hunting ter- in the North Cascades, and was in a position Newhalem creeks. This big, low, verdant rain. NCCC believes that some of the NRA to make sure that what he considered to be westside valley with its extensive bot- acreage and the highway corridor itself can good hut sites were kept just outside of the tomland forests of maple and cottonwood be upgraded to park status with little or no park. Fortunately, his grand scheme never would make an ideal western gateway to the impact on hunters. amounted to more than an odd footnote in national park. Another strange story behind the park the annals of sausage making. Alma – Copper Creeks: An example boundaries is related by NCCC’s Harvey Adjusting Boundaries of one of the stranger boundaries in a Manning in his classic work Wilderness region where strange boundaries abound, Going around the map of the North Alps: Conservation and Conflict in the Alma Creek starts out in the national park, Cascades National Park and the NRAs, some North Cascades. The book relates the crosses into national forest, and then into of the places NCCC is specifically examin- fascinating story of how and why NCCC NRA before entering the Skagit. It would ing for designation as park or wilderness decided that a national park was the best make great sense to fix the senseless bound- include: way of protecting the North Cascades, and aries here and protect the entire valley in its subsequent campaign to make it a reality. Skagit River: At what should be the west- the park. The nearby Copper Creek valley Noting how many of the boundaries, even ern gateway of the park a few miles above should also be seriously considered for at high elevations where timber cutting was Marblemount, one enters not the national inclusion in the park. never a factor, “look like they were drawn park but the Ross Lake NRA. This section Cascade River: Another area of illogical, by a lunatic,” Manning relates how some of the Skagit River was excluded from the truncated boundaries, most of the north years after the establishment of the park, an park and placed into NRA status to allow fork Cascade River and Marble Creek are old Forest Service employee who had been the building of Seattle City Light’s “Copper within the park, with the rest of the drain- closely involved paid a visit to Manning’s Creek” dam, which would have flooded the age in national forest. The most popular Cougar Mountain home. When Manning Skagit valley from that tributary upstream to alpine hiking destination in the North asked him who drew the crazy lines, the Newhalem. Fortunately, NCCC and others Continued on page 10 man in green proudly replied, “I did.” It stopped the building of the Copper Creek

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  9 American Alps Legacy Project, continued from page 9

Cascades National Park, Cascade Pass, is we are not suggesting any boundary adjust- tered, chewed and chopped up. Roads have reached largely from a national forest road ments to that area. been punched into almost every valley, and that suffers frequent and severe storm Thunder Creek: Thunder Creek is a big, clearcuts have spread into myriad places damage. The situation here will take some low-elevation, forested valley surrounded by once celebrated for wild beauty. British sorting out. NCCC is exploring the option high glaciated peaks, and is one of the most Columbia is still an inviting place, but much of putting everything north and east of the impressive places in the North Cascades. of it has taken a hammering from rampant mainstem of the Cascade River into the Its lower reaches were left out of the park logging. park, and roadless areas to the south and because Seattle City Light wanted to build a The change one sees below crossing west into the Glacier Peak Wilderness. dam to store additional water on Thunder south of the 49th parallel is breathtaking. Baker River to Sauk Mountain: A vast Creek upstream from Diablo Lake. This area Entire valleys can be seen, untouched by roadless country stretches from Mount could be added to the park, along with Ruby logging. Even as one continues south and Shuksan south almost to the North Cas- Mountain, excluded because of a once- west, away from the national park and wil- cades highway, but has no formal protec- planned tramway to its summit, an idea derness areas, the lands and forests below tion as park or wilderness. Ranging from abandoned long ago. still present a remarkable sight. Thanks to lush lowland valleys such as Baker River to Granite and Bridge Creeks: The long the slowdown in logging on federal lands, extensive heather and blueberry covered and scenic Granite Creek valley, which the and the fact that trees grow quickly in the highlands, virtually all of these lands are North Cascades highway follows for many North Cascades, places which were heavily completely untouched, one of the biggest miles from Ross Lake up to Rainy Pass, has logged in decades past and became bywords “blank spots” on the map of the North the kind of outstanding scenery one expects for ugliness are now looking much better, Cascades. This extensive area is particularly to see in a national park. Many visitors have with some even starting to look downright valuable as an undisturbed refuge for many wondered how it was ever excluded from attractive again. Much has changed over kinds of wildlife and includes large areas the North Cascades National Park. Up- four decades, both politically and physically. of critical lower-elevation winter habitat. per Bridge Creek, with its high peaks and Previously damaged parts of the Cascades The outstanding conservation values of this pristine meadows, and a major section of are on the comeback. pristine area make it a prime candidate for the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, also Reflecting on the compromises that were formal protection as wilderness. deserves consideration for inclusion in the necessary to establish the North Cascades Bacon Creek: The Bacon Creek valley, park. National Park in 1968, NCCC’s Harvey excluded from but largely surrounded by Golden Horn and Upper Methow: Manning said: “In 2000, they will say of the North Cascades National Park, stands Every year thousands of visitors marvel at the North Cascades Conservation Council, out on the map like a sore thumb, with the sights from the viewpoints at and near ‘You were too timid. You compromised too some of the most blatantly irrational bound- Washington Pass. Here is the scenic climax much. You should have been more far-sight- aries dating from 1968. Bacon Creek is one of the North Cascades highway, with iconic ed, more daring.’ I hereby place on record of the places coveted by timber interests Liberty Bell Mountain and Early Winter my personal apologies to the year 2000. In at that time and thus left out of the park. Spires rising in salmon-hued, neck-craning our defense, we will then only be able to Bacon Creek is also a productive salmon relief. Here too is the high point of the say, ‘We did not ask for protection for all of stream and an important part of the Skagit Skagit watershed in the United States, with the land we knew needed and deserved pro- river system. Although partially logged at headwaters in currently unprotected Swamp tection. We did, for a fact, compromise in lower elevations, much of this valley retains and Porcupine Creek valleys, along with the the name of political practicality. We tried to park qualities and is a prime candidate for headwaters of the Methow River, critical to save you as much as we thought possible.’ “ inclusion in the North Cascades National ranchers, fruit growers, and salmon. Other Harvey Manning may have apologized Park. headwater reaches of the Methow system, to future generations for NCCC’s inability Big Beaver Creek: This magnificent perhaps including Cedar Creek, should be to secure a bigger park at that time, but he, valley with its western red cedar forests, considered for wilderness status. and everyone else at NCCC, never stopped among the most amazing in the Northwest, thinking about filling in the gaps and finish- was partially excluded from the national It’s Time to Act ing the job. park to allow flooding by Seattle City When one considers the political climate NCCC invites you to join with us in finish- Light’s once-planned High Ross Dam. The faced by NCCC at its inception in 1957, and ing what was started in 1957, and partially High Ross project would have also flooded the huge power then wielded by the timber completed in 1968. The time has come. It’s a large stretch of the Skagit upstream in industry and hydropower interests, it is time to complete the North Cascades Na- British Columbia. A coalition of NCCC remarkable to think that in the space of tional Park, and put the final pieces in place and Canadian allies (notably the unforget- 11 years NCCC and its allies succeeded in that will protect the wild forests, lands and tably named “Run Out Skagit Spoilers,” or protecting the heart of the North Cascades. rivers that make the North Cascades, our “ROSS,”) stopped that project and saved The results of that work can nowadays be “American Alps,” one of the most important the valley and the cedars. As one of the seen to great advantage from above. Airlin- and fascinating wild places not just in the outstanding old-growth forests of the North ers returning to Seattle from Europe on a Northwest, but on earth. Cascades, the Big Beaver cedars should be southwesterly course over the North Cas- considered for inclusion in the national cades can offer a good perspective in clear park, along with everything else on the west weather. The landscape of much of southern side of Ross Lake. The east side of Ross Lake British Columbia, so wild just a few decades provides important access to hunters, thus ago, can now only be described as a tat-

10  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 Re-wilding the Cascades: Middle Fork Snoqualmie Bridge Out Kevin Geraghty Rick McGuire

pening up another chapter in the continuing story of the re-wilding of the OCascades, the Middle Fork Snoqualmie river and especially its tributaries have once again this winter swept away roads, bridges and trails. The effects of this latest round of changes will likely be long lasting, with repairs slow in coming if they happen at all. Most noteworthy is the destruction of the northern approach to the road bridge over the Taylor river, with possible damage to the bridge structure which may render it unsafe and unusable. A narrow but substantial structure of concrete and steel, the Taylor bridge was put in a couple of decades ago as a “permanent” replacement for a previous structure. It now stands as an Ozymandian comment on the fragility of man’s works in the Cascades. The river it spanned has moved partially out from under it, leaving an odd-looking, orphaned crossing that no longer crosses the river. The conventional approach to “fixing” it would be to deploy heavy equipment to shove the river back where it is “supposed” to be. It may not be so easy this time. The Clinton-era Northwest Forest Plan, which has managed to survive an eight-year-reign of hostility towards ecosystem-based forest policy, dictates a certain level of respect for natural aquatic processes, especially within designated “key” watersheds like the Middle Fork Snoqualmie. One of those processes is The Taylor river bridge from the north bank. river channel migration. Manhandling the —Kevin Ge r agh t y p h o t o river back under the span does not qualify. In addition, there are questions about bridge integrity. The river has removed much of the material which was around the Quick fixes have been done below the than they were twenty years ago, and the underground upright supports for the span Taylor crossing, and above Taylor many trend seems to be accelerating. structure, leaving a strange looking span on gullies have either buried or washed away Conservationists long ago proposed stilts. Prestressed concrete beams and sup- the road. The Middle Fork trail on the south ending the Middle Fork road at Taylor river, ports are very strong for the loads they are side of the river is also heavily damaged in a with foot and bike access beyond. This sum- designed for, but there could be a problem number of places, and it will be a significant mer, we will all get a chance to experience if the river piles back material where it job to fix it. that. has now been taken away, sideloading the While some will no doubt lament the loss supports. The span may now be outside its of quick motorized access, there is a certain design parameters. something about seeing these works of man The Middle Fork road itself has also been erased that is quite appealing to the lover damaged in numerous places. of wild nature. There is no denying that in some respects the Cascades are now wilder

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  11 Jim Davis

The Secret Lives of Jim Davis North Cascades Wildlife

12  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 Wolverines are a rare and elusive predator inhabiting the North Cascades. This remote camera photo was provided by the US Forest Service.

Opposite page, clockwise: Deer were abundant at almost every remote camera site. It is no surprise that the new Methow Valley wolf pack has survived. This shot of a cougar was captured near Early Winters after substantial snowfall. Coyotes move throughout their range checking on anything new. Bobcats are fairly common in the North Cascades, but photos are rare. This photo of a marten was unexpected, but reveals that predators come in all sizes. Martens usually rely on old-growth forests for food and shelter. This page, top to bottom: This wolf is part of the new pack discovered in the Methow Valley this past spring. My son and I heard them howling in late January. Bears were more prevalent than expected. This mom and cub visited one of our remote camera sites during the summer. Coyotes are true scavengers, with this one taking home the prize left by hunters.

Turn the page to read how these photographs were captured.

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  13 The Secret Lives of North Cascades Wildlife Jim Davis

Wildlife viewing is one of the most excit- NCCC photos, along with remote photos taken ing recreation activities in the North Cascades. by other conservation organizations, telemetry Whether we are visiting high mountain meadows tracking, and direct sightings have confirmed or densely vegetated riparian areas, many of us that at least two adult wolves and five pups in are on the alert for bears, cougars, elk, mountain the pack have survived. goats, and other wildlife. Of course, even the The long-term survival of these and other best pair of binoculars or the latest high tech wolves in Washington State depend on how they spotting scope can not assure that we will find are managed by the Washington Department of what we are seeking. Some of us even come to Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and other state and doubt that wildlife is very abundant in the North federal agencies. WDFW recently distributed a Cascades. draft of their Washington Wolf Conservation and This couldn’t be further from the truth. Several Management Plan to biologists, wolf specialists, remote cameras used in NCCC’s wolf monitoring and wildlife program managers to obtain feed- project this past year revealed just how prevalent back on the scientific integrity of the draft plan. wildlife really is in the North Cascades. Coyotes NCCC’s review of the draft plan indicates and deer were everywhere. Bears were far more major scientific weaknesses in setting conserva- abundant than we expected. We even captured tion goals (i.e., the number of wolves that are photos of a cougar, a bobcat, and a marten. needed to sustain a genetically viable population The US Forest Service captured several remote in Washington). NCCC will call for a more rigor- camera photos of elusive wolverines in the North ous scientific analysis of the conservation goals if Cascades. the current review does not adequately address However, our most prized photo was taken of this critical issue. WDFW is expected to release a wolf along a tributary to the Methow River. The the draft plan for public review in the coming photo was captured on a very active game months. Stay tuned for NCCC action alerts this trail about 200 feet from a popular spring and summer. hiking trail. It is likely that this Please visit the NCCC website (www.north- wolf is part of the pack dis- cascades.org) or view past editions of The Wild covered this past spring Cascades to learn more about wolf conservation in the Twisp Val- in Washington and what NCCC and other groups ley. We are happy are doing to help recover wolves in the North to have helped Cascades. If you would like to be part of our wolf document that monitoring program, please contact us at jimda- this wolf pack is [email protected]. alive and well.

Above left: coyote Left: marten

14  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 What Ever Happened To WPN-114?

Life and Death head, the dark form of eastern out at Mineral Bottom, the only road-end Nevada’s Snake Range and its among along the river. Fortuitously, we ran into a A highpoint, Wheeler Peak, loomed couple of river guides floating the upper massively against the night sky, 7,000 feet part of our route who were taking out above the desert floor. A few scattered the there too. They had a vehicle waiting and lights glimmered in the blackness of the kindly hauled us and our gear some 40 valley between us. Somewhere up in that Bristlecones miles out to Moab with them. In Durango darkness, with no trail to it and nothing I put Mike on a plane home and went on marking its location was to explore mysterious the tree — the one tree Chaco Canyon in New — I had come to find. Mexico and on to spec- I went on, across the tacular Canyon de Chelly treeless valley, into the in Arizona. two-year-old Great Basin I had long wanted National Park, up the to hike up 13,063-foot forested lower slopes to Wheeler Peak, the highest the Wheeler Peak camp- peak in the eastern Great ground and trailhead, Basin, a high isolated deserted now in October. desert peak with a rem- I stopped for the night in nant glacier or ice mass the campground, winding in its great northeast up a day that had begun cirque and its grove of sixteen hours before with ancient bristlecone pines, a sunrise walk down the modestly named by Lt. south rim of Canyon de George M. Wheeler, head Chelly in Arizona for a of the 1872 Wheeler Sur- cold bath in Chinle Wash vey, for himself. And ever beneath the White House since I’d read about what ruin, before the tourists happened to one of those got there, followed by trees, known to a few lo- over 500 miles on the cals as “Prometheus” and road, up through Monu- to a few others as “WPN- ment Valley and Mexican 114”, I had wanted to find Hat, past the Goosenecks it and see it for myself. of the San Juan River, Wheeler Peak was more across the Colorado, or less in the direction I through Capitol Reef and needed to go to get back across the wastes of west- to Seattle. So this looked ern Utah. like a good time to do it. Wheeler Peak had not Finding the bristlecone been on the original plan pine called WPN-114 for this trip in October, somewhere up on the 1988. Instead, my old flank of Wheeler Peak friend Michael Fox and I without a trail going to it had planned a week-long or anything marking its kayak trip down a hun- location wasn’t neces- dred miles of Labyrinth sarily going to be easy. and Stillwater canyons of Reportedly, it was located the Green River in Utah Bristlecone pine in the White Mountains. —La rry Ha n s o n p h o t o beyond the end of the to its confluence with the short Bristlecone Loop Colorado, deep in a road- trail on a rocky lateral less canyon at the head of moraine just beyond the the wild water of Cataract Canyon. We had mouth of the big cirque on the northeast arranged for a jet boat pickup there and a Charles Ehlert side of Wheeler Peak, at an elevation of ride back up the Colorado to Moab. After about 10,750 feet. I had only one day to a couple of days on the river Mike developed painful back spasms and we took Continued on page 16

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  15 Continued from page 15 spend there and with the short days of elevations in their range tend to grow the tree. In at least one case, though, October I doubted that I’d have enough like other pines – rapidly, with tall fairly Schulman and his assistant “hardened our daylight to find WPN-114 and also get to straight central trunks, symmetrical coni- hearts”, as he writes in his 1958 National the summit of Wheeler Peak. So I sat in the cal forms, living for several hundred years. Geographic article, and used a two-man car, studying a topog map by flashlight. The oldest Great Basin bristlecones are crosscut saw to cut down a living bristle- I decided to go and look for WPN-114, found at higher elevations with the most cone that turned out to be about 3,957 turned out the light and fell asleep in the extreme conditions and can be more than years old. car. half dead, with gnarled and smooth, wind- Edmund Schulman was an assistant to s s s polished twisted trunks, snags, branches and protégé of Andrew Ellicott Douglass and spears reaching up and thin strips of at the University of Arizona. Originally Bristlecone pines are notable for their bark covering narrow layers of cambium an astronomer, Douglass became inter- great longevity and for the extreme condi- which produce the next year’s growth, ested in tree-rings as evidence of rainfall tions they can tolerate – low rainfall, thin which may be as little as one inch per hun- variations, in order to establish a connec- soil, cold, wind, high altitude, short grow- dred years. Even dead Great Basin bristle- tion between sun spot cycles and climate ing season. They are found in high open cones, sometimes called “fossil trees”, or cycles, leading him to found the modern spaces, often in limestone and dolomite dead parts of still living trees, can last a discipline of tree-ring science – “dendro- sites in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, thousand years before they rot away. chronology”, as it is called. Relying on the Utah, Nevada, California and southern s s s tendency of trees to produce wider annual Oregon, isolated islands above the sur- growth rings in wetter years and narrower rounding valleys and basins. They are On the western rim of the Great Basin rings in drier years, tree-ring researchers found nowhere else. Bristlecone pines get in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada collect samples from both living and dead their name from fine sharp needles at the mountains, 200 miles northwest of Las trees and match identical overlapping ring tip of each cone scale. They all have five Vegas, a high arid range of mountains lies sequences to produce tree-ring records needles grouped together at the branch. a few miles on the California side of the which go back thousands of years — over Since 1970 subtle differences have led to Nevada border rising to a high point of 8,700 years for places in the Southwest recognition of three separate species — 14,252 feet at White Mountain Peak. On — and which display rainfall conditions (1) Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus a sunny day its reflective white dolomite when the rings were laid down. Since each longaeva), (2) Rocky Mountain bristle- surface gleams like new snow. It is called ring corresponds to a particular year, the cone pine (Pinus aristata), and (3) Sierra the White Mountains. Running roughly exact year an unknown piece of wood Nevada foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana). To north/south for about 60 miles east of the grew or was cut down can be determined confuse things further, the group of these Owens Valley in Inyo National Forest, its by matching its rings to an identical se- three closely related species is also called high open slopes are home to some of the quence in a master “grounded” or verified foxtail pines. Although they may be found oldest Great Basin bristlecone pines and tree-ring calendar for a particular area. growing with other five-needle pines (e.g., some of the oldest of all trees. Tree-ring records for specific areas have limber pine and whitebark pine), differ- In the summer of 1953, Edmund Schul- enabled researchers to establish dates ent species of the foxtail group are never man, a tree-ring researcher associated for a wide variety of events of interest found growing together. Each species with the University of Arizona’s Laboratory to ecologists, climatologists, geologists, tends to have its own range. All three of of Tree-Ring Research, finishing up a sum- anthropologists, historians and others. For the Foxtail pines can grow to advanced mer looking for old trees near Sun Valley, example – ages. The oldest known Rocky Mountain Idaho, drove up into the White Mountains The dates when timbers used in the bristlecone has been dated at 2,435 years to check out rumors of old bristlecones. construction of Pueblo Bonita in Chaco of age; the oldest known Sierra Nevada, at The ancient trees he found there changed Canyon and dozens of other Southwest 2,110 years. Great Basin bristlecones can his life and may have shortened it. Over pueblos grew and were felled; live to twice those ages. the next four summers in the White Moun- The dates of a severe drought at Roa- Of the three closely related species, tains Schulman discovered many bristle- noke Island in tidewater North Carolina at Great Basin bristlecones are found where cones of great age, including 17 older than the time the “Lost Colony” there disap- conditions are most extreme. They also 4,000 years and one in which he initially peared; produce the oldest individual trees — counted about 4,400 annual growth rings, many exceeding three and four thousand which he named “Methuselah”, later deter- The dates of major eruptions of San- years. They are found in the Inyo, Pana- mined to be 4,498 years old in 2007. Most torini in the Aegean Sea and of other mint and White Mountains of east central ring cores were taken using an instrument volcanos; California, and scattered throughout called a Swedish increment borer, a long The growth dates of spruce wood used Nevada and Utah at altitudes of 9,000 thin hollow metal tube 15 – 40 inches in making a famous violin called the “Mes- to 11,500 feet in dry, open stands with long, with a sharp end capable of cutting siah”, attributed to Stradavari, a factor in high evaporation and little combustible through wood and a metal rod fastened determining its provenance. undergrowth between individual trees to it at right angles which is twisted to Tree-rings have also been used to cor- where annual precipitation runs as little bore into a tree and extract a long pencil- rect errors and calibrate dates determined as 10 inches and little soil exists to retain shaped core of wood. The tree’s annual by Carbon 14 dating procedures. water and facilitate rot, and where they are growth rings can be seen in the core and exposed to harsh winters with extreme counted. The hole soon fills up with sap cold and wind. Those growing at lower and the boring procedure doesn’t harm Continued on page 18

16  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 Continued from page 16

Schulman believed that the Methuselah alive. Its dead crown was 17 feet high. A the “Prometheus” tree, which he desig- tree was the oldest known living tree. live branch reached up 11 feet. A strip of nated “WPN-114”. He determined to get a He also believed that the harshest living bark 19 inches wide kept it alive, leaving tree-ring record from this tree. conditions produced the oldest trees and over 90 per cent of its trunk bark-free and Different versions of what happened that the oldest trees would be found on polished by wind-blown ice and sand. Its next are told. One story is that Currey’s the western rim of the Great Basin in the irregular and twisted trunk was 21 feet in Swedish increment core-boring instru- rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada moun- circumference. At some time during its life ment broke. Another is that it wasn’t long tain range. He suffered from heart disease rock fall and avalanche debris had buried enough to get a complete core sample of during his years of strenuous high altitude the original ground it was rooted in to a WPN-114. Another was that the irregular field work and died of a heart attack at the depth of about two feet. cross-section of University of WPN-114 made Arizona at age it difficult to get 49, three months a complete core before an article sample from liv- he wrote about ing bark to origi- his findings, well nal core or that illustrated with Currey wasn’t photographs, familiar with the was published technique for in a 1958 issue doing so. At any of the National rate, he asked Geographic Donald E. Cox, magazine. After Forest Service Schulman’s district ranger, death Tom since the Forest Harlan, another Service admin- researcher at istered the land the Tree-Ring then, for permis- Lab, examined sion to “section” several cores WPN-114 and Schulman had for help doing collected in the so. Cox checked White Moun- with W. L. ”Slim” tains but had Hansen, his not yet finished Forest Service dating. The age supervisor in of one has been Elko, 250 miles determined to The Sierra Nevada from the slopes of the White Mountains. — La rry Ha n s o n p h o t o away, reportedly be 4,806 years telling him that as of 2007. That “No one would tree remains [walk] more unnamed. Its than a hundred location is not Into this grove, in the summer of 1964, yards to see it.” Hansen reportedly told disclosed. came Donald R. Currey, a graduate stu- him to “Cut ‘er down.” So Cox approved Two hundred and forty miles to the dent/PhD candidate from the University the plan to “section” the tree and on ENE, across the wrinkled landscape of of North Carolina studying glaciation in August 6 rounded up a crew of Forest central Nevada, in the Snake Range near the Snake range during the Little Ice Age, Service employees to accompany Currey the Utah border, a 300-acre stand of Great a four-hundred-or-so-year period from the and him to the tree with a chain saw to Basin bristlecone pines has sunk gnarled fourteenth to the early nineteenth century do the job. The chain saw crew included a roots into the rocky ground at timberline when average temperatures in the North- part-time Forest Service employee named on the east slopes of Wheeler Peak just ern Hemisphere dropped 2-3° F. Currey Milan “Mike” Drakulich, who was detailed outside the mouth of its great northeast was finishing up the second summer of to come along to help. But when the time glacial cirque. One tree, apparently older a two-summer research grant from the came, Drakulich put his hand on the trunk than the others and still living, stood at an National Science Foundation and needed of the condemned tree and said “I’m not elevation of about 10,750 feet on the slope an old tree suitably located on a moraine cutting this tree”. The next day, however, of a rocky lateral moraine. Prometheus, as to establish a reliable tree-ring record for August 7, Cox and Forest Service employ- it was called by a few local hikers, was not the area. Although time was running out ees without Drakulich’s delicate sensi- on a trail. No sign indicated its existence for him, he didn’t yet have that data, and bilities took turns cutting WPN-114 down or location. It was a massive tree, its form without it, he didn’t have what he needed with a chain saw. Slabs were removed and showing its hard life. It has been esti- to complete his research project. After sur- mated that fewer than fifty people saw it veying a number of trees, he came upon Continued on page 18

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  17 Continued from page 17 carried out by the Forest Service crew. unnamed 4,806-year-old tree (as of 2007) Wheeler Peak’s summit, not by going back Currey counted 4,844 rings in his slab. An- dated after Schulman’s death, which may to the summit trailhead, but by going up other researcher at the Tree-Ring Research now be the oldest known living tree. More to the head of the northeast cirque and up Laboratory in Arizona counted 4,862 rings. than one person has wondered whether the steep slopes beside the great northeast In an article published in 1965 in Ecology, there may be an even older tree out in face that led to the gentler upper north Currey estimated that the tree may have the White Mountain slopes somewhere, slopes, where I hoped to pick up the trail been over 4,900 years old. One writer, Mi- unmarked, unmentioned, perhaps even at 12,500 feet or so and follow it to the chael P. Cohen, the author of A Garden of undiscovered. top. After several hours of scrambling, Bristlecones, (source of the Cox, Hansen In May, 2008, when I asked the Forest including 800 or 1000 feet of very steep and Drakulich quotes) states that it was Service in Ely for a copy of the original and maddening loose scree, where a step “almost certainly over 5,100 years old. written permit authorizing Donald Currey would start a sheet of rocks moving down- Whichever, WPN-114 was apparently the to cut down WPN-114, I was told that it ward, I got to the summit. Remnants of a oldest known living tree and possibly the couldn’t be found, and that maybe there recent snowfall still covered the ground. oldest individual non-cloned living thing never had been one (other than the verbal The 360° views were breathtaking, 7,000 in the world. OK to “Cut ‘er down”). feet down to the valley below. Patches of golden aspen were splashed on slopes One slab of WPN-114 went with Currey s s s back to the University of North Carolina. thousands of feet below. Beyond, the Another found its way to the lobby of About 6:00 a.m. I woke, got my boots basin and range country of central Nevada Hotel Nevada and Casino in Ely, a few on, put a few things in a daypack and re- stretched off to the west, crossed by US miles away, between slot machines, adding gretfully turning my back on the easy trail 50, often called “the loneliest highway in to its collection of stuffed moose and elk that led about 4 ½ miles and 3,000 feet America”, fading away into the haze. By heads and western and cowboy curiosities. up to Wheeler’s summit, started out the then it was 6:30 pm or so. The sun was Another became an exhibit in an Ely Con- trail that led south a mile or two through getting low. I beat it down the trail, stop- vention Center, sponsored by the Forest subalpine forest to timberline and the larg- ping a couple of times to look back at the Service and Kennecott Copper Company, est stand of old bristlecones on Wheeler bright moon rising over Wheeler Peak’s then the largest employer in the area. Peak. It was cold. The trail was frozen. A summit, whistled my way past a couple of manly-looking free-range bulls straddling A year later, in September, 1965, a crew clear sky above promised a good day, I the trail as it crossed a meadow, and got of Forest Service employees was sent back hoped. Beyond the end of the bristlecone back to my car by headlamp after dark. I to cut another slab from the trunk of WPN- trail, I picked my way through the talus changed clothes and drove back to Seattle, 114. One of the crew, Fred Solace, a young to the top of a lateral moraine and began diving into the Snoqualmie Pass rain man of thirty-two years, suffered a heart searching for the stump of WPN-114, with curtain about 6:00 pm the next day. It had attack and died. an altimeter, crisscrossing back and forth, bracketing the 10,750-foot-elevation con- been a full day, though I would be some In time, the news about what happened tour line. After several hours, repeating years thinking about it. to WPN-114 circulated widely enough the same search pattern, with no luck, and to become the center of controversy, a s s s on the point of giving up, I sat down on scandal, which contributed to and has- a rock, ate some lunch and thought what Twenty years have passed now since tened the establishment in 1986 of Great else I might do. Donald Currey would say that memorable day – perhaps a quarter Basin National Park, a long-time goal of that it took him only five minutes after of our allotted span of years. A residue a local group of people. The boundaries getting to the crest of the moraine to find of questions remains with me, formed, of the park include Wheeler Peak and its WPN-114. Maybe my altimeter was a little like the bristlecones, slowly. What is the bristlecones. The Park Service, which now off. I decided to make one more effort, fascination with “life” about? Indeed, what administers the land, doesn’t offer any a little higher on the moraine. In only a is “life”? Is the universe set up so that “life” directions to the remains of WPN-114, to few minutes I realized I was looking at inevitably occurs? What drew me to tim- protect it from vandalism and souvenir the stump and remains of WPN-114. The berline on that windswept moraine that hunters. search was over. Here were the remains October day? Over in the White Mountains in Cali- of what may have been the oldest living For WPN-114 it’s been forty-four years fornia the Forest Service has designated thing in the world. Here was once a thread since the US Forest Service severed its a 28,000-acre Ancient Bristlecone Pine of life, toughened by adversity, which silent unbroken witness running back to Forest, containing thousands of bristle- had outlived the rise and fall of empires before Stonehenge’s stones were raised on cones over 3,000 years old and more than and civilizations. In minutes an artifact of Salisbury Plain and before the first blocks one hundred over 4,000 years old. Within technology of the last few years of its life of the Egyptian pyramids were set down it, encompassing the larger stands of old had accomplished what nearly 5,000 years at Giza. bristlecones, are areas designated as the of intense cold, hurricane winds, storms, Left to live, in that time it might have Edmund Schulman Memorial Grove and lightning, fire, exposure, insects, rot, rock grown another half an inch. the Patriarch Grove, the latter named after fall, erosion, disease and drought had not a particularly large bristlecone there, 37 been able to do. feet in circumference, called The Patri- Although it was still early in the after- arch. The Forest Service does not disclose noon, it was late in the year and darkness the location of the Methuselah Tree or the would come early. I decided to try to get to

18  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 Book Reviews by John S. Edwards

The Bridge at the Transoceanic Highway that cuts its way It is not possible in the space of a review Edge of the World like a great red scar through the continent. to cover all of Speth’s arguments for a new It is a good place to contemplate Speth’s consciousness. You just have to read it and Capitalism, the Environment, and message, here in the trammeled Amazon if you do I can assure you that you will see Crossing from Crisis to Sustain- where human population growth, and your efforts on behalf of the North Cas- ability, James Gustave Speth, Yale Uni- world trade force their onslaught on the cades, and of the earth in a new context. versity Press, 2008 land ethic. An indispensable text toward saving The Bridge to the Edge of the World Two Planks and a Passion Planet Earth from environmental concentrates earth’s challenges into 236 disaster. pages of compelling text, and 40 more of — The Dramatic History of footnotes. Skiing, Roland Huntford, Continuum Books. 436 pp. Speth has written a profoundly im- In Part 1, System Failure, Speth peers portant book. If coercion were possible into the abyss of present-day destructive Skis and skiing go back at least 20,000 I would make it compulsory reading for environmental trends. He then critiques years . . . The earliest extant ski fragment every voter, a mandatory text at every col- modern capitalism with its growth impera- is 5,200 years old . . . Skis came before lege, and put a copy in every hotel bedside tive as a system out of control. He bol- wheels . . . Skill on skis decided the race table. He addresses the crucial issue of the sters his arguments with references and for the South Pole . . . The rout of Russian deteriorating global environment. This is extensive quotations. So far the prospect invaders by Finnish ski troops in 1939 ar- the issue that must haunt all environmen- seems dim. tal activists: we win a few battles, some of guably changed the outcome of the Second But in Part 2, The Great Transforma- them glorious, but we are losing the war. World War. tion, he offers practicable solutions — Environmental organizations as a whole, transforming the market to adapt to a These are random nuggets from Roland from local to international have slowed, post-growth society that can promote Huntford’s encyclopedic but thoroughly but failed to halt, the accelerating degrada- instead the well-being of people and of readable history of skis and skiing. The de- tion of Planet Earth. The emergence of the environment. He is most persuasive finitive biographer of Nansen and Shack- forces aimed at environmental protection in advocating living with enough, not leton and the author of The Last Place have been countered by forces supporting always more and more. That will require on Earth, which devastatingly contrasts the status quo. changing the fundamental dynamics of the the amateur ineptitude of Scott with the A crucial factor, Speth argues, is the corporation, capitalism’s core. Historically professional acumen of Amundsen in the dynamic of growth capitalism that is the capitalism solved the challenge of living quest for the South Pole, Huntford worked essence of first world economics. Growth with enough; the problem now is living for many years as a journalist in Scandi- is the metric of economic vitality, but with too much. navia, and is an experienced skier with growth must have limits in a finite system. On to Part 3, Speth’s perception of the a love for his subject and a penchant for Unless growth capitalism can be trans- seeds of transformation and a new con- finding obscure material and building it formed, environmental degradation will sciousness. He quotes from a wide spec- into a vivid story. From the earliest histori- accelerate toward the abyss of no return trum of thinkers, from Aldo Leopold on, cal evidence of ski travel in the far North, — a daunting and discouraging prospect who call for a new consciousness, a value through the birth of competitive skiing in indeed, given the history and momen- system epitomized in the Preamble to the Norway, to the origins of resort skiing in tum of economic growth. But yes, Speth Earth Charter (http://earthcharterinaction. Switzerland, to the inventions that enabled claims, growth capitalism as we know it org/ec_splash/) modern downhill skiing, Huntford builds can be transformed, and he points to signs a detailed yet lively narrative. that it may already be happening. There is He calls for a new politics: ”Democracy He brings numerous facets together: ski reason to hope. in America today is in deep trouble. Weak, shallow, dangerous and corrupted it is the travel as a way of life among early north- I begin to write this review in the Peru- best democracy that money can buy. The ern peoples, the evolution of crosscountry vian Amazon beside the muddy Tambopa- ascendancy of market fundamentalism and and, later, downhill skis and bindings, the ta River, a tributary of the Madre de Dios antiregulation, antigovernment ideology origin of competitive crosscountry and and in turn the Amazon. Across the river makes the current moment particularly ski-jumping, the role of ski troops in war- scrappy expanses of second-growth open frightening. . . .” His words written a year time, the story of the Winter Olympics and up to banana plantations where tropical before the recent economic crisis are the emergence of skiing as a recreational forest once soared. Smoke from forest fires prescient. He argues convincingly that a industry. Long in gestation and massively yellows the sun. Cattle from impoverished government hooked on GDP growth, with referenced, Two Planks and a Passion will pasture come to drink at the river’s edge. powerful interests defending the status stand as the definitive history of skis and In nearby Puerto Maldonado immigrants quo cannot avoid accelerating environ- skiing, even perhaps the last word as we pour in at 200 a day, attracted by the mental impact. He ends with his percep- see our beloved ski snow steadily vanish- prospect of fortunes in alluvial gold. There tion of the signs of hope. We can continue ing under the march of climate change. also are the stark concrete foundations to take the path into the abyss, or we can for a bridge that will connect the trade take a different path, the “bridge to the of Brazil with Peru and the Pacific on the edge of the world.”

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  19 North Cascades Glacier Climate Report for 2008 Tom Hammond

The Glacier Research Project team, Mauri deadly runout of deep aquamarine lake giants of the area, about 8,500 feet), and Pelto, leader, Ben Pelto, Brad Markle, and shelved by half-submerged snow. August in informed conversations about the glacier- Tom Hammond, continued the research the North Cascades . . . mass changes we were witnessing right studies of North Cascades glaciers again I should note that throughout the field before our eyes: the Columbia (west) the this last summer. season, there were very few bugs. Saw one South Cascade (west, but on crest), and jumping spider on the Columbia Glacier the Lyman (east, removed by one range Columbia Glacier that was very active, and not soon after a from crest) are losing mass at a startling August 1-3 very active bird eating bugs. Overall, bees, rate. Since the 1950s, the Lyman has The team hiked in the Wild Sky Wilder- flies, wood bugs, all the usual were in receded some 750 meters to reveal a new, ness for the first time this year, on the evidence, but in far fewer numbers than long lake. Since 1986 alone, the glacier ascent to Virgin Lake. It was littered with past years. has receded 220 meters in length. What blowdown — including a couple of HUGE Columbia Glacier summary: 16 years that equates to in volume is a key statistic old-growth Douglas fir. All night Thursday negative mass balance, 4 years neutral, 5 here for the citizens of Washington. That it rained. Real rain. So I elected to stay years positive mass-balance, with 2008 in 22 years of mass-balance loss represents home in bed until the last minute, and the top 4 in the past 25 years. Note that 15,000,000 cubic feet of water no longer ended up catching the team at the cross- the loss years are measured in meters, flowing in the high heat of August and ing of the outlet of Blanca Lake (Friday at whereas the positive years are measures September to Lake Chelan and beyond, about 11 a.m.). We were surprised by the at about a meter, or less. 2008: +1 meter to the farms/orchards so critical to a way weather: it was clear and nice at Blanca (provisional). of life. And no longer flowing through Lake, when it was supposed to be raining. six hydroelectric projects that power our Well, it wasn’t, and in fact, it was spec- F F F modern lives. tacular like I’ve never seen Blanca. The I did not rejoin the team for any of the The roar of waterfalls near and far was lake was totally covered by snow, save the Mount Baker-Shuksan glaciers due to with us the entire trip, as it has been this outlet. Only once have I seen this much weather. As it turns out, the Easton, Sholes entire amazing summer. This glacier is dis- snow, and that was in June many years ago and Lower Curtis glaciers will see about appearing, and save for the disconnected (Mauri reports that 1999, 2002 had more a half-meter positive mass-balance, while upper icefall that resides below the sum- snow). Things cleared off to reveal tremen- the Rainbow will see closer to a meter of mit, the entire lower section will be gone dous waterfalls near and far, high fangs of positive mass balance. “soon” (90 years). More people should rock near and nearer, and the Columbia realize the changes that are happening Glacier — headwaters of the north fork Lyman Glacier in the mountains, and the waters flowing Skykomish River . August 10-12 off the North Cascades. KC asked some Where in past years there was blue ice I rejoined the team at Spider Meadows honest questions. Mauri preferred to stick everywhere but the avalanche chutes, this (Chiwawa-Entiat-Suiattle crests) on the with the science and the facts, but had to year the entire glacier is covered with a evening of August 10. It was simply glori- acknowledge some of the implications. blanket of snow three meters (10 feet) ous — I arrived about noon, and spent the When KC asked me how I “feel” about the thick. Camp, which is normally made next day reveling in the flowery, lush sub-alpine whole thing, I responded thusly: to an ever-shifting river and sandbars on meadows. There is no doubt that this “Sure it’s disturbing, and I used to fret the lakeshore (4,000 feet elevation) is portion of east side of the North Cascades and be angry about the loss of the glaciers, under two to eight feet of snow. displays some of the great characteristics as much because they are also a source By far it appears the Sauk-Stillaguamish of world-class alps: huge fangs of granite; of pride about the North Cascades. But peaks, and by extension the Monte Cristo hot, almost continental climate, but close ultimately I am so thankful to be here. It peaks, have seen the most snow of any enough to the crest to sport some cedar, is exciting to bear witness to the changes. place in the North Cascades. There is and plenty of flowers. There were more Thankful for the ability and inclination to hardly any evidence of the terminus lakes than 30 people coming and going, most seek out knowledge and continue to learn that appeared so suddenly over the past camping for at least two nights. The larg- about the planet on which we live, and in two years — we walked right over top of est was a party of seven, a father and son such a dramatic and dynamic landscape them. arrangement, hiking the North Cascades that is the North Cascades. We’re all in But alas, just as we were halfway for a week. Right on time, the team ar- this together, so we better start acting like through the longitudinal profile, the rived. This time we’d be accompanied by it. People need to recognize we are not weather set in, and that was the end of reporter KC Mehaffey and photographer apart from the world, we are a part of the that. Egress was done in a challenging Don Seabrook of the Wenatchee World. world.” fog, and an icy, barefoot ford of Blanca I must say, it was great to have the press Even with a great winter, the Lyman Lake outlet. I wish I had shot an image along, and not just for a quick photo op: Glacier has negative mass-balance of about of the descent of a steep forested chute they camped two nights in the meadow, a half-meter. and accompanied us throughout the directly above the lake. It was every bit F F F as attention-getting as any summit in the evaluation of the Lyman Glacier. Plenty of Cascades: a steep, hard, icy snow with a hiking, spectacular scenery on the north side of Chiwawa Mountain (one of the

20  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009 Mount Daniel August 12-14 While the hike out of Lyman-Spider Meadows was pleasant and easy, the hike in to Daniel was less fun. Despite the relatively cool conditions being great for hiking, my foot was complaining about two full-pack trips in one day, the second being about six miles of rocky, at times steep terrain. And bugs. Mosquitoes to be exact. For the first time all summer, bugs were an issue at camp. I’ve noted what a great summer it has been, and indeed, it has been one of the best of my life (I seem to say that more often, with 2006 also in my top five), and this is in part due to the great snowpack and paucity of bugs. Not so at Daniel. Here they were swarming — we must have hit a recent hatch, and with all of the ponds, lakes, and wander- ing meadow trickles, it’s no surprise. Still, visiting the crest glaciers of Daniels (flows east — headwaters of the Cle Elum River), Ice Worm (same), and Lynch (flows west — headwaters of the Skykomish River, and the most spectacular of the trio) is an Lyman Glacier retreat. The foreground lake measures nearly one kilometer amazing experience. long, and has been exposed since the 1950s. Half the lake was covered by the Wednesday, August 13 found us above Lyman Glacier as recently as the mid-1980s. Lower Lyman Lake is barely vis- camp and on the very difficult traverse of ible in the distant trees. Peaks that form the Cascade Crest in the background Daniel to measure the Daniels and Lynch (l-r): Plummer Mountain, Sitting Bull Mountain, Bannock Mountain, Saddle glaciers. This would be the most difficult Bow Mountain, Dome Peak-Sentinel Peak (snow), and Cloudy Peak. Note Ben day of the project — 10.5 hours of hik- Pelto at bottom right of frame. ing, kicking steps in steep snow, and the — To m Ha m m o n d p h o t o obligatory visits to termini and summits, so much up and down, down and up. I was tired, and I had only done about half the work of the rest of the team. direct ascent, so we completed the round- years. Twenty-five years! I am a moun- As with the Lyman, the atmosphere was trip evaluation via the upper Daniels. tain man by any measure, but even in my incredibly clear and clean. A quick-moving We completed the survey, and (I) healthiest I don’t think I’d have the focus upper trough swept the air, and left us limped back to camp. The team did a and dedication to see it through for every with a marine deck on the west side, and quick survey of the Ice Worm Glacier (aka year. So much work. So many rainy, cold, clear vistas with sharp clarity of surround- Hyas Creek) while I rested my sore foot long, hard days. And those are probably ing peaks in all directions. and then we headed down, briefly visiting easier than the hot days — blistering and We all felt pretty excited, for as Mauri the Prater high camp (amazing they got blinding, hot, hot days, always with an mentioned, this was one of the clearest there and then stayed). eye to safety, and always with an eye to skies in the 25 years of the project (and Daniels, Lynch glaciers: about half-meter accurate data gathering across the years, views always help the legs work). The positive mass-balance. across the range, and across the ice. We share a connection that is unusual, seeing descent of the Lynch to the terminus was Ice Worm Glacier: about a third-meter done in about three minutes of fantastic each other for only a couple of weeks a positive mass-balance. year. But every time we get together, the glissading. Every member of this team F F F carved turns as though we had skis on — similarity in thought process, enjoyment not a single fall or arrest situation — some I’m happy to say my suspicion of a huge and respect for the area, and simple joy of the finest backcountry boot-skiing left snowpack in the Stillaguamish-upper about living in the North Cascades is evi- the middle of the Lynch laced with twist- Sauk is being proven out by the science, dent. I am very thankful Mauri has shared ing patterns — awesome. especially since I experienced it from the project with me over the years. More importantly for all of us, I’m thankful The terminus of the Lynch is a place December snowfall ski trips to mid-August research. Mauri took, and is taking on the hard part of intense beauty: remote, stark, rugged, of understanding a critical element of the powerful. It is very steep, and can be very Moderate elevation, aspect of valley(s) North Cascades: after all, Cascades are all dangerous, as the glacier plummets to Pea and the topography of western Washing- about the water. Soup Lake. As I noted before, the glacier ton (see Olympics and convergence zone) mostly covered this huge lake (.5 sq km) as all contributed to this effect. recently as the mid-1970s. And now recognition of Mauri Pelto Congratulations to The top of the Lynch was a bit too and his dedication. Folks, this man has Dr. Mauri Pelto: snowy, steep with poor runout, to risk a conducted this survey for 25 consecutive 25 years and going strong!

The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  21 Conservation Up d a t e s a nd Alerts

UPDATES Hydroelectric Threats Grow Guns Will Be Allowed in National Parks NPS Planning NCCC has recently joined a number of groups led by the Hydropower Reform By Peter Fimrite The NPS is continuing with its work to Coalition in opposing efforts to have new The San Francisco Chronicle develop a Stehekin River Corridor Manage- hydroelectric developments defined as December 6, 2008 ment Plan (lower road). The flooding “renewable energy” by Washington state. that was rampant on the western slope of A veritable gold rush of new hydroelectric Campers may now pack heat along with North Cascades National Park Complex proposals may soon threaten hundreds of their sleeping bags when they travel to in January did not reach Stehekin. This creeks and streams in the Cascades. Wher- national parks. gave a respite to residents from previous ever water flows downhill, as it does in The Bush administration has struck years of flooding and did not disrupt NPs countless places in the North Cascades, down federal regulations banning loaded planning. The condition of the upper someone may be thinking of diverting it guns in most national forests, a move that Stehekin River road had not been assessed into a pipe. Look for an in-depth examina- was widely seen as a parting shot on beat the time of this writing, however it is tion of this newly revived threat, and what half of the National Rifle Association. not expected to improve given the natural needs to be done about it, in the next edi- The ruling overturned a 25-year-old hazards. tion of The Wild Cascades. federal regulation severely restricting con- High Lakes Fish Stocking. cealed firearms in national parks and wild- Pot farm causes heavy damage life refuges. The new rule, which would The NPS issued a very unusual Record in national park take effect in January, would apparently of Decision (ROD on January 9, 2009 By Tahlia Ganser, Skagit Valley Herald allow anyone who already has a concealed with respect to the Final Mountain Lakes weapons permit in his or her state to also Fishery Management Plan — Environmen- MOUNT VERNON — In mid-August, tote a gun in federal parks within state tal Impact Statement. Instead of endorsing more than 50 law enforcement officers boundaries. the “environmentally preferred” option raided the first marijuana grow site ever D to cease fish stocking and to restore discovered on national park land in the Conservation groups, park officials and the lakes impacted by this decision, the state of Washington. many politicians blasted the decision as National Park Service made the choice of Officers uprooted more than 16,000 a politically motivated slap against public Alternative B which allows fish stocking marijuana plants in the course of a day — opinion in favor of the gun lobby. to continue under a slightly less oner- then shipped them off in dump trucks to The idea behind the ruling, according to ous set of restrictions unless Congress be destroyed. Lyle Laverty, the assistant interior secre- intervenes. It is unclear to NCCC why Left behind were the scars of cultivation tary, was to foster the long-held tradition the NPS chose to issue the ROD now as and tampering with nature, along with of having states and the federal govern- the planning documents give Congress months of trash and chemicals used to ment work together on natural resource until July 1, 2009 to act. The High Lakes grow the drug. Cleaning it all up will take issues. He said similar rules were recently Management Plan ROD is built on a public a lot of time and money. adopted by the federal Bureau of Land involvement process. However, the way The growers escaped and ran free, but Management and the U.S. Forest Service. the decision is structured, it may be that without the fruits of their estimated $48 Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., joined NCCC cannot appeal the decision in a million drug operation. Investigators numerous organizations, including the normal process. We must wait until after believe a high-powered Mexican drug Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the ROD goes into effect, i.e., July 1. As has organization — using low-end growers in denouncing the move. been indicated in earlier missives on this — is responsible for the grow site in the “This unprecedented rule change wipes issue, NCCC supports a policy of ending North Cascades National Park Complex, out common-sense regulations originally fish stocking of naturally barren lakes (and east of Skagit County near Ross Lake, as enacted by the Reagan administration,” streams). The NCCC position is supported well as similar sites in other national parks Feinstein said in a statement. “There is by the scientific research conducted pursu- around the country. simply no good reason why this admin- ant to our Settlement Decree with the Na- In the past decade, illegal marijuana istration would change a rule that has tional Park Service and the National Park sites have been discovered and destroyed helped make our national parks among Service´s own national policies. NCCC is in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National the most popular and safest places in the contacting the Washington Congressional Parks, Whiskeytown National Recreation country.” delegation to explain the need to support Area, Santa Monica National Recreation The regulation was timed so it would be Alternative D and we are asking the Gov- Area and Point Reyes National Seashore. in the books by the time President-elect ernor and Washington Department of Fish Information from: Skagit Valley Herald, Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20. and Game to cooperate with the National http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com Changing it would require a long bu- Park Service and questioning the wisdom reaucratic rule-changing process possibly of spending exceptionally scarce tax dol- lasting years. Several groups, including the lars to stock non-indigenous fish in North conservation association, are considering Cascades National Park. a lawsuit. — Dave Fluharty

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The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009  23 What You Can Do To Help • Encourage your friends, neighbors, and colleagues to support American Alps. • Recruit people to participate in the Ameri- can Alps action network. Read more • Encourage your organizations to support American Alps. about the • Write an American Alps article for your organizations newsletter or your local American newspaper. • Help educate people in your community about American Alps. Alps Legacy • Meet with leaders in your community to encourage support for American Alps. Project Contact Information If you want to be part of American Alps, www.northcascades.org contact Tom Hammond at [email protected].

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24  The Wild Cascades • Winter 2008-2009