Reader Opinion
By Mrs. B Edwards
This in response to “Wild Olympics” campaigner Janet Strong’s letter to the editor last month on “Wild and Scenic Rivers.”
She described an array of photos from National Geographic magazine of national parks across the nation, lusci ous enough to, quote: “make you want to hop in your car and go there.”
She fails to take notice that the health, education and economic infrastructure in our state and country have collapsed. Who’s got money to hop in their car? Who wants our much needed tax dollars to go to supporting looky loos and a proven failed park system, when they can’t put healthy meals on their tables or supply themselves with a place to live?
Washington’s “Golden Opportunity to get our share,” as she puts it, doesn’t exist. Any opportunity for Washington state got left in the dust when the federal and state governments broke the bank, and the environmental dreamers came in behind them to kill our jobs. The truth is, our children and grandchildren (excuse the recorded enviro phrase ) will live in widespread poverty with little education and hungry bellies. But they will have a bigger park full of wildlife and wild and scenic rivers they can’t eat or fish from. That is the reality. The dreamers with closed eyes can’t see needs of others, but only their own wants and desire..
I invite Janet Strong to come down from the Quinault “cloud nine” loop trail long enough to step a little farther up the road into the wild. “Hop in the car” and examine the illegal destruction of once intact, historic wetlands, public and private property that were destroyed by the Olympic National Park bulldozing and diking up the natural watershed runoff channels and redirecting them upriver. Ignorance. Disaster. This has been going on for more than 10 years and continues to this day. Norm Dicks has known about the watershed disasters and the repercussions all along and with his legislative underdogs has continually looked the other way. Meeting with his legislative team again in 2011, they claimed no knowledge of the situation. We know better. We’ve watched it. The tribe watched it. We are living it. The Quinault salmon, unfortunately, haven’t survived it well. Thousands of fish and their habitat have vanished from these continuous actions. The whole Quinault Valley is directly in danger of being taken out by the river.
Janet failed to mention that this “extra federal protection” they so adamantly seek is what allows the park to do these things. They write their own permits. It is against the law for any other entity to do anything on federally protected land but this branch of the federal government themselves. So when Janet states “protect” and “Wild and Scenic” is no threat to public or private property, that is part of her dream. We live here in Quinault, Janet and it is our reality. There has been extensive environmental impact and so the “60 years of not impacting one acre of private land” she claims is just not true.
Janet has not done her homework. We don’t have time for dreaming. We are constantly working to protect our resource lands, watersheds and private properties from the Olympic National Park and those who come here and dream up solutions for things that are not broken. Your boasting about good for the economy? There is no economy left and nothing to build one up from. Environmental movements like this one have made sure to interfere at every opportunity to kill jobs that involve providing our state and country with much needed renewable natural resources. My advice to all who read this that do not understand the facts behind this federal land and water grab, is to enjoy — as Janet does through her magazine photos — all of nature’s wonders, because this is the only way you will ever experience the wild you will be banned from that will deteriorate around you.
We have spent a lifetime paying for these lands for all to use for physical, spiritual, sport and recreational access, not just for photographers and special interest groups such as Janet’s. The only factual truth Janet shared in her dream article was her statement that: “Fixing things always costs more than saving them.”
According to the National Park Conservation Association the current National Park Service backlog of $11 billion, stretching back more then 30 years, are crucial land issues that if immediate action isn’t taken to repair these severely damaged natural areas they cannot be saved. Add an additional $350 million shortfall for the current year 2012 just to keep the backlog from growing.
Save more cause it’s cheaper Janet? Brush up on your math and educate yourself please. Learn what responsibilities come with management preservation. Leaving a once pristine area (managed by the park) an unbalanced mess from neglected issues beyond reason and moving in on clean, safely protected forest lands in danger of nothing , is not environmentally responsible or acceptable here. You have a million acres of park and vast mountains of forest lands open to enjoy. My suggestion to you Janet, is enjoy them and put your preservation efforts and environmental funding to proper use by saving what’s already going to hell, instead of asking for the food off our plates to support a nightmare, not a dream.
Mrs. B Edwards lives in the Quinault area
