- National Forest now encompasses 156 forests, for over 192 million acres
- There has been a permit for geothermal development on Mount Baker for over 15 years. The permit still has not been approved
- Puget Sound Energy runs a truck that carries fish from Baker lake, around the dam to release into the lower Baker river... I wonder what their carbon footprint is?
- The North Cascades National Park was created in 1968 and only encompasses a fraction of what i actually thought was park land.
- there currently is a lobby group forming to expand the park to include Washington Pass, Cutthroat, golden horn, tower mountain and etc. However, there is opposition from a local heli ski operation and a mountain bike contingent.
- The antiquities act of 1907 allows the President of the United States to designate any public land as a monument, affording it the same protection as the parks.
I could go on and on and on and on, but i'll stop there.... except one thing. I love the snow, and i love being on trails, and i truly believe that the park should expand it's usage restrictions to include mountain biking in the parks... however, I believe that withholding amazing and beautiful land from the park service to sustain North Cascades Helis operation up at Windy Pass, and the ability for people to access Cut Throat pass via mountain bike is ridiculous. The Forest Service is currently in charge of those lands, and they are not designated wilderness, meaning that at any point, the forest service can turn those lands over for contract services resulting in mining, clear cut or etc. More information on the expansion project can be found here or here. In all fairness, here's the other-side of the story from some people over at Turns All Year.
Here are some pictures of the area marked for expansion.
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