A Tuesday letter claims “pre-existing structures” are “an exception” “in conflict with wilderness.” But the Wilderness Act lists historic value as a wilderness value to be preserved alongside ecological, recreational, scenic and conservation values.
Sen. Frank Church, floor sponsor of the Wilderness Act of 1964, explained in 1977, “I believe, and many citizens agree with me, that the agencies are applying provisions of the Wilderness Act too strictly and thus misconstruing the intent of Congress as to how these areas should be managed. … perhaps most tragic of all, to the burning of historic cabins to eliminate the evidence of earlier human habitation. Such policies are misguided. If Congress had intended that wilderness be administered in so stringent a manner, we would never have written the law as we did.”
Sen. Dan Evans, sponsor of the Washington Park Wilderness Act of 1988 designating Olympic Wilderness, testified of Olympic trail shelters “designation of the park as wilderness by this act should not, in and of itself, be utilized as justification for removal of any of these structures from the park. … Repairs and stabilization may be warranted to insure the preservation of their historic integrity.”
Like Green Mountain Lookout, these trail shelters are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Wanton destruction of history, the temples in Palmyra by ISIS or the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban, is denounced across the civilized world. We cannot stand by while ideologues destroy our few surviving wilderness historic sites here in Northwest.
Rod Farlee
Sequim, Washington
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
