It might not be everyone’s idea of a nice day in the forest, but that’s where the “multiple” in “multiple use” comes in.
A Snohomish County hearing examiner, following a second review of plans for a motocross facility along the Mountain Loop Highway, has approved the project, attaching a long list of conditions in a 157-page report that addresses noise, a threatened bird species, stormwater runoff, dust, light pollution, fire danger, traffic and more, as Herald Writer Noah Haglund reported last week. At the same time, the hearing examiner rejected a State Environmental Policy Act appeal by opponents.
MXGP proposes, over the course of 15 years, to build a complex of motocross tracks on 437 wooded acres northeast of Granite Falls between the Mountain Loop Highway and Canyon Creek near two rock quarries. The company purchased the land in 2007 after the County Council agreed to open up some of its commercial forestland for the motorcycle tracks.
The project can proceed with its application for permits, though it may still face appeals to the Snohomish County Council and Snohomish County Superior Court by the Mountain Loop Conservancy, the Pilchuck Audubon Society and the North Cascades Conservation Council.
This is not to say that the environmental groups above did not have legitimate concerns about the project’s impacts, most importantly related to noise from motorcycles and trucks used to haul them, potential pollution of runoff into the fish-bearing Canyon Creek, a tributary of the South Fork Stillaguamish River, and the habitat of marbled murrelet, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Yet the hearing examiner’s report and the conditions it will hold the project to, seem adequate to address those concerns:
Regarding noise, the din from motorbikes cannot exceed 49 decibels — a level lower than the volume of conversation — at the complex’s property lines. If the noise comes within 5 decibels of that limit, the operators must conduct continual noise monitoring for at least nine months.
Regarding stormwater runoff, the project must be designed to adhere to the county’s rules for mitigating potential impacts with additional steps enforced through the SEPA process if the county’s stormwater regulations are found inadequate.
Likewise, the examiner, citing the testimony of three wildlife experts, said that murrelets in the nearest known nest, almost a mile from the property, would not be harmed by noise from the project.
Recently we noted that supporters of an expansion of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness worked with a group of mountain bike enthusiasts to encourage passage of the expansion in Congress. Supporters, among them Washington Wild, sought Wild and Scenic River protection along the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River instead of Wilderness Act protection because it would keep open an existing bike trail that otherwise would have been closed because of the Wilderness Act’s stricter rules.
It’s compromises, like those above, that will protect the most important and fragile areas while opening up other areas — with protections in place — for a greater variety of uses.
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