Expansion of North Cascades National Park

Folks from the AALP will be giving a presentation at the Bellingham REI tonight at 6:30.
americanalps.blogspot.com/

Read the Wild Cascades newsletter attached to the blog if you have any doubt that the expansion of the NCP to include the highway 20 recreation area will not cause restriction on future access to that area for recreationalists.
There are at least three articles about shutting down existing roads  or preventing new roads that penetrate near or close to the park.
As previous stated, I personally have no objection to certain parts of the study area becoming part of a greater park but am opposed to the Highway 20 area doing so or the area in which the lower part of the Cascade river road lies.
Their primary aim is conseravation " at all costs" even to the extent on restricting currently allowed recreation pursuits.
It will be a nice museum to look at from the new concession stand at Rainy Pass.

Quote
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. End Quote . How patronizing..such arrogance. >


Quote.The additional mile added to the trail means hikers get a more realistic experience of how long it takes to hike up into the high country. End Quote  It will be good for you to walk further. HAHHAHA

Scotsman, you're preaching to this choir. I'm a little late to the party but I'm going to hear em out and if worse comes to worse maybe I can reserve my rainy pass RV spot now.

Scotsman, you're preaching to this choir. I'm a little late to the party but I'm going to hear em out and if worse comes to worse maybe I can reserve my rainy pass RV spot now.

Could you please let us know what it was like if you are attending?
Most appreciated.
Thanks

I attended the AALP presentation at REI last night and left with far more questions and concerns than I went in with. Sorry I didn’t get the name of the presenters and will have to refer to them as THEM. Or the AALP. The meeting was populated by folks who seemed sympathetic to the expansion proposal. I might have been the only skeptic in the room, if there were others they didn’t speak up. City of Subdued Excitement after all.

The AALP is not done drawing their proposal map apparently. The presenter asked the group what other areas they would like to see included in the proposal and the Nooksack Cirque and Artist Point received nods from the audience. The presenter expressed a personal desire to see better access to the Nooksack Cirque and Artist Point was touted as a possible visitor center. They also discussed moving the park boundary at Hannegan Pass to include the pass.

The speaker discussed some of the meetings he has had with the various user groups. He was unapologetic about negative outcomes for other user groups saying that a certain loss of freedom is necessary to adequately protect the natural resources of the region.

I was able to ask two questions.
Q. What percentage of the 300,000 annual visitors to the HWY 20 corridor are engaged in activities that would be prohibited if the park proposal goes through?
A. I don’t know, the park study didn’t address that.

Q. Regarding the hatch marked area of the proposed expansion(see map), what specific threat do you see to that area?
A. Small Hydroelectric development. The permits are on the books.
Q. Is that a realistic threat? Hydro in the shadow of Liberty Bell?
A. (shrug) The permits are on the books.

There was more but I have to go get a life. Have your fun with this Scotsman.

I attended the AALP presentation at REI last night and  left with far more questions and concerns than I went in with. Sorry I didn’t get the name of the presenters and will have to refer to them as THEM. Or the AALP. The meeting was populated by folks who seemed sympathetic to the expansion proposal. I might have been the only skeptic in the room, if there were others they didn’t speak up. City of Subdued Excitement after all.

The AALP is not done drawing their proposal map apparently. The presenter asked the group what other areas they would like to see included in the proposal and the Nooksack Cirque and Artist Point received nods from the audience. The presenter expressed a personal desire to see better access to the Nooksack Cirque and Artist Point was touted as a possible visitor center. They also discussed moving the park boundary at Hannegan Pass to include the pass. 

The speaker discussed some of the meetings he has had with the various user groups. He was unapologetic about negative outcomes for other user groups saying  that a certain loss of freedom is necessary to adequately protect the natural resources of the region.

I was able to ask two questions. 
Q. What percentage of the 300,000 annual visitors to the HWY 20 corridor are engaged in activities that would be prohibited if the  park proposal goes through?
A.  I don’t know, the park study didn’t address that.

Q. Regarding the hatch marked area of the proposed expansion(see map), what specific threat do you see to that area?
A. Small Hydroelectric development. The permits are on the books.
Q. Is that a realistic threat? Hydro in the shadow of Liberty Bell?
A. (shrug) The permits are on the books.

There was more but I have to go get a life. Have your fun with this Scotsman.

Don't think I need to ... your post about sums it up. A lot of people just don't understand what is going to be lost. Their shoulder shrugging regarding access and loss of recreation very telling.

Indeed, their shoulder shrugging was very telling. Some other unsettling attitudes emerged during the meeting. Any talk about accommodating the desires of affected user groups is lip service at best. A very clear anti-hunting, anti-motor, anti-dog, anti-mountain bike, anti-ski area agenda was voiced. Regarding backcountry skiers they made it clear they don’t understand the demographic, referring to , “cross country skiers who like to use snowmobiles to access the backcountry.” Huh? As someone stated earlier in the thread this appears to be an attempt to garner a wide base of support early in the game using soothing language and gauzy environmental platitudes. The people currently using the Hwy 20 corridor are exactly the people who would stand up to a legitimate environmental threat to the area. This proposal alienates nearly all of them by creating a police state wilderness.

JRD’s post on page 2 of this thread reads like a doomsday scenario. A very cynical vision of the North Cascades future. Gold mining! Logging! Hydro! Biomass extraction? Should I buy my backyard bomb shelter now?

The AALP suggestion that we should be willing to give up the freedom we currently enjoy makes me very prickly. The proposal in it’s current form is probably intentionally over reaching in anticipation of the whittling that will occur when the various interest groups catch wind of it. They are asking for a lot of territory and their sights are set on Hwy 542 to include Mt. Sefrit, Goat Mt., Larabee, Tomyhoi and low elevation wetlands along the Nooksack river.

My skin in the game? I’m an avid split boarder, dog owner, hunter/gatherer, mountain biker, Nordic skier and wannabe heli-rider. The reason I moved to Whatcom County is to have the North Cascades as a backyard. This ill-advised proposal hits home.