Mount St. Helens panel hears from Forest Service, Parks officials
Friday, November 21, 2008 11:36 PM PST
By Barbara LaBoe
Printable version
E-mail this articleSTEVENSON — While there’s continued debate about whether the U.S. Forest Service or National Park Service should manage Mount St. Helens, there’s no question about which agency wants it more.
Despite money problems, the Forest Service passionately wants to keep managing the volcano.
The better-funded Park Service, on the other hand, is ambivalent but ready to take over if so ordered by Congress. That said, a Park Service official said Thursday night he thinks the volcano would get more visitors and federal dollars as part of his agency.
Officials from both agencies met with the Congressional Mount St. Helens Advisory Committee in the last of the committee’s fact-finding hearings. The committee is charged with recommending how the 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument should be managed, and who should manage it.
Congress established the area in 1982 to preserve the land and the effects of the eruption for scientific study and public enjoyment. Talks of changing management began in 2007 when limited finances forced the closure of the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center.
Park Service employees certainly understand the lure and possibilities of making the volcano a national park, but the agency’s position is officially neutral, said Rory Westberg, deputy regional director of the Park Service’s Pacific West Region.
He then included several examples of Park Service programs and parks similar to Mount St. Helens. All had budgets 10 times higher than the $500,000 the Forest Service’s basic budget to run the monument.
Mary Wagner, six weeks into her job as regional forester of the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Regional office in Portland, argued to keep the monument — the strongest stance from the Forest Service since the debate began in 2007.
The Forest Service has managed Mount St. Helens for 100 years as part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and has no desire to relinquish that role, Wagner said. She did agree, though, that officials must do a better job of “turning over rocks” and finding more ways to invest in the monument. She also announced that Forest Service officials have committed $1.2 million in 2010 for improvements to the monument.
“We love this mountain, it’s beautiful and it makes memories,” she told the committee. “And we want to continue to work to increase funding, because when you love something, you want the very best for it.”
Wagner also asked for the committee’s help, saying Congress must find ways to prevent forest fire-fighting costs from siphoning away half the agency’s budget.
Wagner also said public and private partnerships are the key to continuing to develop the monument. And, she hopes area leaders can brainstorm ideas for the shuttered Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center.
Westberg explained how Mount St. Helens could become part of the Park Service, including the possibility that part of the land could be declared a National Preserve, which would allow more hunting and recreation access. Even with a preserve, though, activities likely would be more limited than under Forest Service control — a key concern for many committee members.
But, national parks get direct line-item appropriations from Congress and have more money available for management and improvements. California’s 1.6 million-acre Mojave National Preserve, for example, received $810,000 its first year as a national preserve in 1996 and is budgeted for $5 million in 2008.
Westberg also compared Mount St. Helens to Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. There, the national park has 75 employees and a base budget of $4.29 million, compared to 25 employees at the monument with the $500,000 base budget. Lassen gets 401,000 visitors a year, compared to 750,000 at Mount St. Helens. Westberg said a national park designation likely would draw more visitors to Mount St. Helens.
“I can’t guarantee certain numbers, but the National Park Service does have a certain cachet in the minds of the public because it carries that moniker,” he said.
At the Congaree National Park in South Carolina, visits increased 50 percent in the five years since it became a national park, he added.
A University of Washington report commissioned by the National Parks Conservation Association — an advocacy group that supports changing management — also states that visitors and economic benefits to neighboring committees likely would increase with a national park designation.
Still, committee member Casey Roeder said it was clear the Forest Service is more committed to the monument.
“It appears the Forest Service is passionate about the monument and would like to continue managing it and the Park Service would take it if Congress made them,” she said. “Am I hearing this right?”
“I think you’re hearing it right,” Westberg said.
When prompted by committee member Jim Adams, though, Westberg said that privately Park Service employees are excited about the opportunities at Mount St. Helens. Officially, though, the agency has no opinion and is not advocating a change.
With the fact-finding meetings done, the committee now plans to spend a day and a half in January drafting recommendations to lawmakers. The date of the meeting hasn’t been set but likely will be the third week of the month. The meeting will be open to the public, members said Thursday.
Committee members said from the outset the didn’t have preconceived notions of who should manage the monument and several said Thursday that they still were conflicted.
“I fear dropping the bone we have to grab the bone we don’t have, thinking it will be bigger and better,” said committee member Mary Kay Nelson. “But it could end up being very similar.”
After the draft recommendation is written, the committee plans to hold at least three public meetings to take comment on the document before it is finalized and sent to members of the Washington Congressional delegation: U.S. Reps. Brian Baird and Norm Dicks and U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.
dogshead wrote on Nov 22, 2008 8:11 AM:
questionman wrote on Nov 22, 2008 8:30 AM:
$500,000. Mount Lassen National Park a comparable Park Service Unit is $5,300,000.
The total US Forest Service budget for Region 6 is $457,000,000. It would seem that if the new regional forester really feels passionately about Mount St. Helens, she would stand up to her line officers and to Washington DC, and commit 1% of her total budget to a base budget at Mount St. Helens of $4,500,000. This action would make a statement of commitment by the Forest Service to the worlds special place Mount St. Helens! "
northender wrote on Nov 22, 2008 9:07 AM:
Cheney119 wrote on Nov 22, 2008 9:58 AM:
snow shark wrote on Nov 22, 2008 11:22 AM:
northender wrote on Nov 22, 2008 3:08 PM:
cheney119 wrote on Nov 22, 2008 6:24 PM:
cheney119 wrote on Nov 22, 2008 6:33 PM:
bizowner wrote on Nov 22, 2008 7:09 PM:
Loowit wrote on Nov 22, 2008 7:41 PM:
rocketdad wrote on Nov 22, 2008 10:27 PM:
Also, sales of hunting and fishing gear makes up roughly 1/3 of the overall dollars spent on outdoor recreation in the state of Washington. Personally I think it would be better to let the hunters hunt the elk on the mountain than to have 20% of them starve to death over the winter..thats right..20%. "
loowit wrote on Nov 23, 2008 7:46 AM:
northender wrote on Nov 23, 2008 10:02 AM:
cheney119 wrote on Nov 23, 2008 10:10 AM:
northender wrote on Nov 23, 2008 2:40 PM:
Cheney119 wrote on Nov 23, 2008 5:26 PM:
dogshead wrote on Nov 23, 2008 8:50 PM:
loowit wrote on Nov 25, 2008 8:03 AM:
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