November 1, 2007

Honorable Chris Gregoire,
Office of Governor
State of Washington
P.O. Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504

Dear Governor Gregoire,
Thank you for considering the issue of reopening the Stehekin Valley Road. The road constitutes an essential access corridor into the interior of North Cascades National Park. Please agree to study and further investigate this issue and the vitality it represents to our area and the integrity we all stand to lose with road closure.

The Stehekin road was specifically mentioned in original North Cascades legislation and The Washington State Wilderness Act. Each and every piece of legislation dealing with the North Cascades speaks to the importance of maintaining an access corridor into our public national lands. The devastating flood of 2003 tore out sections of the road.

I am upset that our public land managers have made decisions declaring it "too expensive" or "impossible to fix now" or "no alternative routes are legal." This point of view ultimately empowers acts of nature to supersede acts of Congress. Are we to assume that events of nature now govern how our wilderness areas are to be managed in spite of the original purposes that formed law to create our National public lands? With this logic, any natural event that alters the land will now be considered the law. Or will it be only this road issue, in this place in time?

There is no discussion in the law stating that nature will be the governing force of this road and that events will dictate access to interior destinations set aside for the men, women and child of this state and nation.

The closure of the road due to flooding gives special interest groups wishing to keep citizens from public lands all that they have wanted. The North Cascades Conservation Council (the most active preservationist group involved) recently published writing includes the following statement. "The NCCC has always favored closing the road due to its impacts on wildlife, the Stehekin River, and other wilderness values. /We were delighted that the issue was finally put to rest by the Park Service. (http://www.northcascades.org)

Governor, what are these impacts on wildlife, the river and other wilderness values? I was not aware that a small percentage of visitors make such a large impact. Was there a STUDY of some kind that we are not aware? There is no doubt we should all be mindful of our impacts on the natural world. Without an in-depth study, we are dealing with philosophy and emotional values making the visitor the villain.

The emotional trap of these words construe the issue to be one of "saving" wilderness, rather than "maintaining" what is lawful. By conceding to a unimaginative effort of study (who conducted the EA of this road issue?) money expenditure (always a manipulative tool), and pressure from those who want no one in the park, to "protect" the National Park….we lose. We lose, and actually they lose too.

What do we lose? We lose a journey to Horseshoe Basin that affords a beautiful, sweeping view of the highest interior Cascades. We lose a journey to Cascade Pass where we can witness alpine magic growing under glacier topped peaks. We lose access to Bridge Creek campground, a family friendly area that serves as base camp for fishing, hiking, and enjoyment of the wilderness for even the very young. We lose a route that Indians first traveled and created, miners improved (with the crudest of tools), Forest Service maintained, and the Park Service took over with the legal directive that this route was permanently part of our heritage and visitation right.

We lose these experiences set aside for us due to the fact that access is now virtually shut down to those who cannot hike for five days (for that is now what it takes to reach the higher camps along with a days travel on the boat), are not strong enough or old enough to carry their supplies for that long and cannot afford to be packed into the area. We lose more than that. We lose to letting special interests govern the lands in spite of original law. I am really wondering how these kinds of decisions will stand up with integrity in history.
Today visitors to the North Cascades suffer because legislative directive has been ignored because of an act of nature.

We have natural events and special interest groups running our public lands? This is a frightening union of unlawful governing and arbitrary selection of interests (known to bring law suit against the Park). The road corridor is a legal, unobtrusive, primitive, access route to trails and campgrounds legally crafted with ALL interests represented if we delve into the history of its creation, existing LONG before the creation of the North Cascades National Park.

Please, Governor Gregoire, in all due respect to your position as one who deals with law, please support an effort to look into this issue and the legalities being buried. The road stretch to be opened may be considered only a short distance, but the ramifications of making arbitrary decisions to keep it closed represents a breakdown in government that will stretch for miles into the future. Do we want to make an inner sanctuary of our parks available only to an even more select few than it is now? The law provided that this unique and magnificent area be available to all for recreation, historical appreciation, wilderness education through experience and wonder at our beautiful mountains for all who wish to visit.

Please consider supporting the original intent and law creating our North Cascades National Park which INCLUDED an open recreational access corridor.

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Liz Courtney
PO Box 64
Stehekin, Wa 98852