The Wild Cascades - Fall 2015, coming to members soon!

Here's a preview of what to expect in the upcoming issue, soon to arrive in NCCC members' mailboxes:

THE WILD CASCADES  Fall 2015

Lawsuit prompts Forest Service pullback on allowing ATVs on roads
Helicopter assault
Granite Falls motocross project halted — maybe defeated
NCCC’s Millers’ pioneering work to save Big Beaver Valley gets international attention
A bad idea gets worse
Is transplanting grizzly bears to the Cascades really a good idea?
In Memoriam:  Betty Manning
Cascade Rambles: Into the North Fork Canyon
Patrick Millegan’s bequest honors Harvey and Betty Manning
North Cascades Glacier Climate Project 2015 — Lower Curtis Glacier
The corvid’s eye
Remove a racist slur from Stehekin


ALSO... please note that the comment period for the "Helicopter assault" on the Cascades proposed by the Army had been extended again - to Nov. 3rd! So you still have 10 days to send your comments. See our previous post on the topic for info on how to tell the Army to find a better place to practice.

Remove a racist slur from Stehekin

Hi,

Stehekin, in the North Cascades, is a place close to our hearts, one that our founders fought to protect for all to enjoy.  Let's remove a racist slur from its maps and trail signs and make it a more welcoming place for all.

I signed a petition to Sen. Patty Murray (WA-1), Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA-2), and President Barack Obama which says:

"In 2008, Washington State officially changed the name of Coon Lake in the North Cascades mountain range to Howard Lake, to honor the African-American miner, Wilson Howard, who staked claims there 125 years ago.


But the National Park Service and the federal government have refused to agree to the state's name change, insisting on maintaining a name that is universally recognized as pejorative.


We urge Sens. Murray and Cantwell, the White House and the U.S. Department of the Interior to right this wrong - stop maintaining a racist name and align the federal government with Washington State's decision to honor Wilson Howard."

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/coon-lake-tell-obama?source=s.icn.em.mt&r_by=1628667

Thanks!

NCCC board

We regret to inform you of the passing of Betty Manning

Betty Manning passed away September 1st. She was the editor of The Wild Cascades for many years, and a staunch advocate for northwest wilderness. Her presence will be sorely missed.

Claudia Manning said,  "My mother ... almost died from pneumonia as a child and it left her with the use of only one lung, yet still she climbed, hiked, traveled, was an amazing artist, editor and went back to school when she was 45 to get her masters degree in librarianship."

Here are some photos of Betty, courtesy of Claudia.

Betty and one of the Manning children playing recorders in the alpine Cascades, ca. 1965

One of the last photos of Betty before her passing.

NCI and NCCC featured in Seattle Times

Ron Judd writes about NCI and NCCC in the Seattle Times:

"The first thing students do after unpacking their bags as the learning center is to take a stroll over to the top of massive Diablo Dam, where a shaky-kneed glance over the side is all it takes to be impressed by the immensity the canyon in which they stand - and the similar scale of what man has wrought here.

"We want to teach them about their role as human animals/ how they affect ecosystems," says Chris Kiser, the Mountain School's program coordinator.

"Some of that ethic can be traced to the group's roots: Among the early cheerleaders of NCI were members of the North Cascades Conservation Council, the prime pushers for establishment of North Cascades National Park in 1968.  These were not fringe, lawsuit-happy environmentalists.  They were old-school, Northwest greenies who supported the Harvey Manning/Mountaineers notion that wild. public lands are best saved by getting people into them -- preferably by a means no more complicated than a Vibram sole, mind you.  the idea was to build multi-generational-constitutencies to protect them.

"This legacy has, in many ways, been passed to NCI where it shines brightly from its Diablo Lake treed cathedral."

http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/mountain-school-makes-the-magic-of-the-wilderness-real-for-kids/!

The WILD Cascades - Spring-Summer 2015 issue is online now!

         The WILD Cascades

        Spring-Summer 2015 issue is online now!

http://www.northcascades.org/wordpress/the-wild-cascades

        Monte Cristo count down 
Overpopulation here at home 
Letter to NPS director regarding Stehekin Valley road
Park Service helicopters confirmed in Mather Wilderness this summer 
Chris Morgan: Yes, please, grizzly bears
Return to Del Campo 
American Alps update: Why establlish a National Preserve in the North Cascades?
Cascade Rambles: Green River and Charley Creek 
The Corvid’s eye
Remembering Bonnie Phillips 
A scientist’s emotional evaluation of the “winter” past 

Here's an excerpt from this issue's "Corvid's Eye" column:

By the time the corvid first met Bonnie Phillips in the waning years of the 20th century, her days of rugged exploration through the Northwest wilds and beyond were already long past. Bonnie’s younger years, as she related, were not without their considerable montane accomplishments. Her travels through the thick of enveloping forests and thin of rarified alpine air changed her, shaped her as they have done to so many of us. Bonnie continued to draw from these early experiences for the remainder of her recently completed life – the great majority of which was devoted to a hyper-charged conservation ethic and corresponding, relentless activism on behalf of our public forests...

Block Military Helicopters from Alpine Lakes Wilderness and vicinity of PCT

Scoping Comments Needed by July 30! 

The Department of the Army has a Scoping Document out now for public comment that proposes a number of high-altitude sites on the east side of the North Cascades for helicopter landing training. One of the sites is within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, even though the 1964 Wilderness Act prohibits aircraft landings in Wilderness! Another site is adjacent to the PCT!

Army plans to use North Cascades for dangerous helicopter training. Source: THC News

Please send a quick email to the Army opposing these sites. Use your own words, but try to include the following points:

1. Site MTA 1-4 (the proposed site within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness) must be removed from further consideration, since it lies within a designated Wilderness. The Wilderness Act prohibits the landing of aircraft in Wilderness.

2. Azurite (Pk) site MTA 1-6: if it’s adopted the chances of the Liberty Bell/Sawtooth Roadless Areas gaining park or wilderness status dwindle. Furthermore it is critical mountain goat habitat.  Finally, it's proximity to the Pacific Crest Trail would eliminate the character of the area and compromise the visits/experiences of citizens at this highly utilized resource.

3. Further environmental review for this project must thoroughly analyze noise and other impacts on any Wildernesses or National Parks near the other proposed helicopter landings.

4. Any military training exercise – by air, on land, installing instrumentation, etc. – within designated Wilderness is inappropriate and should be prohibited.

5. The Army should follow FAA guidelines to protect Wilderness by keeping overflights at least 2,000-feet above ground level.

Here's how to submit your comments:

Put “JBLM Off-base Helicopter Training” in the subject line and email your comments by July 30 to:

usarmy.jblm.imcom.list.dpw-eis@mail.mil

Also send a copy to the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Supervisor Mike Williams: mrwilliams01@fs.fed.us

Here are links to some recent news articles about this:

http://seattlebackpackersmagazine.com/pacific-crest-trail-could-be-impacted-by-proposed-u-s-army-training-area/

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/army-eyes-north-cascades-for-helicopter-training/

And Here's the link to the Scoping Document:

http://www.lewis-mcchord.army.mil/publicworks/docs/envir/EIA/HTA/Final%20Scoping%20Document%20-%20JBLM%20HTA%20Submittal%2025Jun15.pdf

Help Stop the Disastrous Mountain Loop Highway Clearcut!

Help Stop the Disastrous Mountain Loop Highway Clearcut!

The 13 mile dirt road segment of the Mountain Loop Highway between Barlow Pass and the White Chuck Road (south of Darrington) is an iconic drive through old growth and “near old growth” forest. There is nothing like it elsewhere in the North Cascade Mountains, perhaps not in the rest of the US.

Forest slated for clearcutting alongside Mountain Loop Hwy 

The US Forest Service now proposes a virtual clearcut along that road segment, removing over a million board feet of trees, allegedly to create better views of the surrounding mountains. All deciduous trees within 30 feet of either side of the ditch line along the road would be removed, along with all conifer trees less than 26 inches in diameter. The proposal, if implemented, would decimate that unique forest experience, replacing it with an 80 feet wide clearcut, with a few large trees dotted within the gutted forest.  

That forest was once old growth throughout its length. It is now slowly returning to what it was before logging removed most of it a century ago, with much of it already almost indistinguishable from old growth forest. If left alone, it will fully return to its former majesty. 

Your letters are needed to US Forest Service ranger Phyllis Reed at plreed@fs.fed.us to express your opposition. Please send your letters as soon as possible.

In today’s world, the USFS must be at the forefront of fighting human caused global warming. Research shows that preserving trees, not removing them, is one of the best ways to accomplish that goal via carbon sequestration of trees. The plan must be stopped immediately. And if the Forest Service continues to pursue this bad idea, please tell Ms. Reed in your letter that it must issue a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) rather than a glossed-over Environmental Assessment (EA) to fully reveal all aspects of this project, including the carbon impacts of the tree removal.

Again, Please write to plreed@fs.fed.us to express your opposition to tree removal along the dirt road section of the Mountain Loop Highway. 

Official information released by the Forest Service on the project can be found on their web site under Mountain Loop Vegetation and Road Management at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=46955