I enjoyed your story, “The Coyote Caucus takes the
West to Washington” (HCN, 10/11/04: The Coyota Caucus takes the
West to Washington). The question to me is, will Mark Udall step up
and be a conservation leader?
I have concerns, owing to
an issue in a federal enclave largely in Mark’s district,
Rocky Mountain National Park. Many of us, including climbing
organizations, worked through Mark’s office throughout 2003
to get Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker to admit in writing that
the park had dropped its expert climber/paramedic coverage on Longs
Peak, probably the most often climbed high peak in the world. When
the superintendent finally admitted the facts, Mark’s office
not only dropped out short of any action to remedy the situation,
it adopted a reactionary stance against improving alpine trauma
care, aligning itself with existing teams and the park and
marginalizing our spokesperson. To this day, the park has no expert
climber/paramedic.
I believe Mark put personal
friendships and the mountain-rescue fraternity over principle and
policy. That’s not what a conservation leader does;
it’s what someone does who thinks he’s entitled to act
as he wishes, based on belonging to (as Pat Schroeder put it) the
“lucky sperm club.”
Mike
Kiley
Longmont, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Mark Udall should step up.
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