Joel Connelly on access

It's a perennial issue -- wheeled, motorized access deep into wild country. Some argue that without plenty of it, not enough "ordinary citizens" will see the splendid scenery to want to protect it. Others say there need to be limits on wheels to keep pristine places from being overrun and "loved to death." N3C would rather err on the side of preservation, on the principle that once it's trampled it takes a very long time to "re-wild." Many of the access roads built up the Cascade river valleys over the years are tenuous at best, and when storms cut them to shreds the cost of rebuilding them alone is often enough to de-facto make it possible for these roads finally be cut back to size. But there are some tireless adocates of wheeled access by family station-wagon, often those whose childhood memories of such long drives up bumpy roads were formative. The debate will doubtless rage on. Currently the Stehekin River road is the flash-point, as it has been many times in the past. Seattle P-I commentator Joel Connelly weighed-in recently.

http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/422821_JOEL05.html?source=rss

In response, we can only wonder why he didn't more accurately title his column, "Let Our Wheels In." Closing roads that are washed-out not only saves a lot of money, it results in more level walking for those who may not be physically able to do more strenuous, steep trails that tend to start from roads like the Stehekin valley road, so in fact those who advocate for "access for the rest of us" should, we feel, welcome road closures which then yield easy valley walking.

We welcome his positive comments on the American Alps proposal:

The conservationists have a wider agenda, called the American Alps Legacy Project. The North Cascades Conservation Council and The Mountaineers want to expand the 505,000-acre national park by almost 50 percent. The North Cascades Highway; would actually travel through its namesake national park. The magnificent Cutthroat Pass-Snowy Lakes country, north of Rainy Pass on S.R. 20, would become part of the park. So would Thunder and Big Beaver Valleys, where Seattle City Light once plotted hydroelectrica [sic] projects. It's a worthy goal, given current crazy park boundaries.