Wilderness Watch Wilderness Watch HomeAbout Wilderness WatchOur ProgramsWild IssuesResourcesNewsroomSupport Our Work
Menu
line
SIGN UP
for The Guardian,
our free monthly
e-newsletter
Name:

Email:

line


April 2012 Wilderness Watch Guardian:
Court Sides with Wilderness Watch on Illegal Reconstructed Lookout


Judge Did Right by Wilderness with Green Mountain Lookout
by Kevin Proescholdt
http://www.seattlepi.com/forums/?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a8282dad1-ccb8-488c-9655-d44671a94246Forum%3a3ab049b5-9495-4e8b-acd1-5f10405cb0acDiscussion%3acf4f0d42-3766-47b9-a2e1-55c015731689
April 4, 2012

Joel Connelly’s bombastic diatribe against Judge John Coughenour’s March 27th ruling ordering the removal of the reconstructed Green Mountain Lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness overlooked many things, including one very important one: the U.S. Forest Service broke the law. Actually, by helicoptering out the remains of the previously reconstructed lookout, reconstructing the structure yet again off-site with more new materials, and helicoptering it back to Green Mountain for a total of 67 helicopter flights, the Forest Service had violated two bedrock environmental laws: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires environmental review and public comment, and the 1964 Wilderness Act, the landmark law governing all Wildernesses in the nation.

At issue is the Green Mountain Lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Originally built in the 1930s as a fire lookout, the Green Mountain Lookout had been reconstructed so many times that by 1977 even the Forest Service itself had ruled that it was no longer eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The agency wrote that the lookout “is associated with important historical events, but it’s a reconstruction and is not the last remaining survivor with such an association.” The State Historic Preservation Officer agreed, finding that the Green Mountain Lookout “does not meet National Register Criteria.”

Yet the Forest Service would later flip-flop on its finding. In 1986, the agency included this lookout with seven others for listing on the National Register, not because of its own historic value but as part of a “thematic group.” In 2002, the agency disassembled the deteriorated lookout and helicoptered it off-site, to be reconstructed once more using yet more new materials. Then seven years later, without following the environmental review and public notice requirements of NEPA, the Forest Service flew dozens of helicopter flights into the Wilderness bringing the components back, and reassembled the structure on a new foundation.

Clearly, the structure now is not the same lookout that existed in the 1930s. By bringing in the mostly-new structure, the Forest Service violated the Wilderness Act’s prohibitions on structures and installations. Judge Coughenour appropriately ruled that the Forest Service broke both laws, and ordered the new building removed from Green Mountain.

This ruling does NOT mean that all historic structures in Wilderness must be dismantled and removed, nor does it mean that hikers can no longer visit the Glacier Peak Wilderness, as Mr. Connelly wrote. Historic structures may remain in Wilderness; the questions surround how they are administered and what affect that administration has on the area’s wilderness character. For instance, when the Forest Service proposed to reconstruct 12 long-abandoned dams in the Emigrant Wilderness, the court ruled the reconstruction would be illegal, but didn’t order the dams removed. They were left to continue to naturally degrade while the Wilderness worked its will. Other historic structures are sometimes moved to locations outside Wilderness, where their historic significance can be preserved and interpreted for the public. The Forest Service has done this with other fire lookouts in the Wenatchee National Forest, for example. Still other historic structures in Wilderness are allowed to deteriorate, such as the lookout in the Norse Creek Wilderness, but its historic values were first carefully documented and preserved in exhibits outside Wilderness.

So Wilderness still has a place for genuinely historic structures. The new Green Mountain Lookout, however, is not one of them. Thanks to a good decision by Judge Coughenour, the refabricated lookout on Green Mountain will be removed and the wilderness character of Green Mountain will be restored in accordance with federal law.
----
Kevin Proescholdt is the conservation director for Wilderness Watch, a national nonprofit wilderness conservation organization (www.wildernesswatch.org). Wilderness Watch believes, unlike Mr. Connelly’s assertions, that U.S. citizens all across the nation own and can have an interest in the protection of our federal public lands.

Home / About Us / Our Programs / Wild Issues / Resources / Newsroom / Support Our Work / Site Map
©2009 Wilderness Watch / PO Box 9175 / Missoula, MT 59807 / 406.542.2048 / wild@wildernesswatch.org / Site by Small Dog Solutions