Supporters of an international park said, “Nature
knows no borders,” but protesters at a recent Seattle conference
didn’t agree. Two hundred park demonstrators marched and chanted,
“What do we want? No park!” while United States and Canadian park
representatives talked about joining recreation areas and parks in
the 11 million-acre North Cascades ecosystem. Protesters fear an
international park would jeopardize the millions of acres now in
private timber and farmlands. But Dale Crane, Northwest director of
the National Parks and Conservation Association, says, “We have
repeatedly said that we would limit our proposal to federal lands.”
The new park would combine the existing North Cascades National
Park with Manning Provincial Park, expand the Skagit Recreation
Area and create special management areas for limited resource
extraction. The international park concept has received strong
support from both Assistant U.S. Interior Secretary George Frampton
and the National Park Service.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline International park draws fire.
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