Three things Blanchard needs

Letter to the editor:

Protecting Blanchard Mountain will take hope, the perspective of time and a willingness to work with others.

The challenge has always been that it’s Skagit County Forest Board land. This is land owned by Skagit County and managed by the Dept. of Natural Resources. It can’t be sold, it can’t be swapped with school trust land in order to protect it under current laws and, yes, it is managed for timber revenue. The only way I know to outright protect it is for the Skagit County Commission to ask for it back as a park.

Those of us who’ve worked on figuring out how to protect it have this set of facts in our heads. We’ve looked at other options and they just aren’t there. That’s why the approach settled on by the Blanchard Strategies Group—to outright protect a portion, while making the entire land base much bigger by putting land at high risk of development into public ownership—has always seemed like a big step forward to me. Like others, I’d hoped for more land protected. But I’m glad to see development in the area stopped.

When I worked for Conservation Northwest I met with the Skagit County commissioners to gauge their willingness to set it aside as a park and heard from them loud and clear that they wanted to keep it in logging. Time and politics change many things and, in time, a new commission may change their minds. They’ve already come further on this than I expected. Most counties to the south of us would be thrilled to get 5,000 or so spectacular acres in a low-level mountain range right near their biggest city as a park for free. In time, Skagit County may see it that way.

We’re surrounded by parks that were protected by hope, time and a willingness to work with others. For example, from the time Olympic National Park was recommended as a National Park to the time it became one took around 70 years. It took time to move toward less logging and more protection.

Doubtless, at the time there were people who were angry that the land became a national park, and there were people angry that it didn’t happen fast enough. We certainly have no shortage in our country today of angry, privileged men willing to shout out ugly slurs at those who roll up their sleeves and work toward solutions.

Yes, Mitch Friedman, the Skagit Land Trust, Friends of Blanchard Mountain, the Backcountry Horsemen and others have worked with the government to protect this land. It’s public land—if it’s going to be protected, won’t the path be through the government? I’m glad the government (as the DNR) has been willing to work with people on this and I’m thankful the government (as the Legislature) has been funding the purchase of lands next door to Blanchard to make our public lands even larger. If Blanchard Mountain is to be protected further, it will take hope, time and a willingness to work with others.

Also see At loggerheads over logging and a response from Mitch Friedman.

—Lisa McShane, Bellingham