Dear HCN,
Andy Wiessner needs no
defense from me or any other conservationist to support his
environmental credentials over many years. However, I do want to
correct the erroneous and libelous comments in Ben Twight’s letter
(HCN, 5/24/99) about the Mountaineers and my role in the Forest
Service-Plum Creek land exchange.
I have been a
member of the Mountaineers Conservation Division since the early
1970s. I was president in 1976, when the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
bill passed and actively lobbied for that milestone legislation. I
was also active in lobbying for the 1984 Washington wilderness
bill. I have participated in many other wilderness activities,
including planning numerous wilderness conferences in my role as
vice president of the Washington Wilderness and Parks Conference. I
have been on the board of five environmental organizations and
president of two of them. I invite comparison of my record to
Twight’s recent role as an “environmental gadfly.”
Contrary to Twight’s letter, there was no
“secret letter of commitment” supporting the exchange. I prepared a
draft comment letter on the draft EIS which was circulated to the
Mountaineers’ entire Conservation Division a week before its
regular meeting. The letter was extensively discussed at the
regular monthly meeting and was passed subject to minor changes.
That motion was made by Mike Shurgot, the co-chair of the
Mountaineers Forest Watch committee. After that official committee
action, the letter went through several more drafts, which included
comments and suggestions by various members of the Conservation
Division. At the 1998 Wilderness Conference in Seattle, the chair
of the Conservation Division, the two co-chairs of the Forest Watch
Committee, and several other members of the Forest Watch Committee
went through the letter with me line by line and agreed on a final
version. This final version was then approved unanimously by the
Mountaineers Board at its next monthly meeting and signed by the
president.
If Twight did not get a chance to
review the letter, he was just about the only one. It was only
after this letter was approved by the Mountaineers Board that the
Mountaineers officially took a position supporting the general
outlines of the land exchange. Some “secret letter of commitment’!
I invite any other group that commented on the land exchange to
document the same rigorous process that their comments went through
before their position was made public.
Certainly,
I talked to Andy Wiessner on several occasions. He was a key
source, often having information not available elsewhere. I also
talked to the Forest Service, Plum Creek, other environmental
leaders, the Council on Environmental Quality, and members of
Congress and their staffs. Talking to people is how you gather
information, come to a decision, and act on a proposal. I am proud
of the role that the Mountaineers and I played in supporting the
final land exchange proposal. As a result of the land exchange,
almost 20,000 acres of contiguous old-growth forest will be
consolidated in Forest Service ownership in the Snoqualmie Pass
area (the largest stand of old growth on the east side of the
Cascades). Many miles of streams will also be consolidated under
Forest Service ownership, and watershed protection values will be
dramatically increased. Many species of wildlife will also benefit
from the consolidation of lands in the exchange. Twight is entitled
to his opinions; your readers are entitled to an accurate portrayal
of the facts.
Norm
Winn
Seattle,
Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Mountaineers’ support was anything but secret.
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