Expansion of North Cascades National Park

police state wilderness.

I'm going to steal that.

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.

What a wonderful post. Nailed it!

Although I can't say I'm celebrating, or even happy, about the election, I can say that the threat of expanding the park will be somewhat dampened due to Doc Hastings expanded role in the House as an upcoming Committee Chair. This means, for the next two years at least, that the likelihood of the NCNP expansion should be close to zero - providing of course that reasoned voices speak out. Since I happen to agree with Scotsman and others on the this issue of park expansion (no), I think the next several months would be a good time to alert our eastside legislators that we have skin in this game.
Gerry H

Gerry, I am relieved. Maybe the AADP is a Carl Rove front, creating a band of environmental fascists whose only purpose is to distract us from real problems closer to home, hmmm?

"police state wilderness"

I'm going to steal that.

Please do. It has entered the lexicon. I borrowed it from here, noparkexpansion.blogspot.com/2010/09/ear...national-forest.html

Mr. Burr suggests a tantalizing and enlightened compromise. He had me at ski huts…

For those interested in an alternative approach, see Conservation Northwest's approach for the Columbia Highlands in eastern Washington:

conservation northwest

that includes a mixture of National Recreation Areas, Wilderness, general use zones, etc., incorporating nearness to populations centers and historical access--not that I necessarily approve the approach in its entirety (because my research has shown that zoning can create more problems than it solves) and I am very leery of approaches that automatically exclude or preclude the possibility of muscle powered recreation. I am very leery of the AALP proposal as I like to recreate in that area.