[RodF]

'A fitting tribute' - great story & photos by Linda Mapes, Seattle Times "Asked what he loves about the Olympics, Evans got an enchanted, faraway look. And said: 'The first thing I want to do when I am hiking in the Olympics is just get off- trail. And just be out there. And there is no visible sign that anybody has ever been there. There is something about that.'" Ceremony - Peninsula Daily News Daniel J. Evans Olympic National Park Wilderness Act of 2016

[DIYSteve]

Dan Evans is a good man and a champion of the environment. I would love to see more politicians with his rational moderate approach. No disrespect to Dan Evans and his family (one of whom was a friend for awhile) but do we really need to name another wild place after a powerful white guy? IMO, just as McKinley > Denali was a good move, Olympic to Dan Evans Olympic is a bad move.

[trestle]

Considering all that he has done and all that he stands for, his race doesn't and shouldn't matter. While I don't care for the mouthful of the new name, it's an appropriate memorial. The comparison with Denali is a little thin; McKinley (the man) had nothing to do with Denali National Park nor Alaska whereas Dan Evans was very active in ONP and in Washington.

[DIYSteve]

My point is that wilderness is wilderness because of the lack of human development and other human impacts. Naming wild places after powerful elite white guys seems antithetical to that. But don't worry. Your side will win and the powerful elite will continue to name wild places after fellow members of the powerful elite. Again, no disrespect to Dan Evans nor his family.

[Ski]

Steve, you gotta damn good point there, and personally I never thought a hell of a lot of Evans as far as his overall political views, but he was a hell of a finagler and deal-maker, right up there almost on a par level with Lyndon Johnson - and he definitely was a champion for wilderness. And stop and consider that our largest National Forest is named for one of the quintessential "elite white guys", Gifford Pinchot. Just par for the course, maybe.

[trestle]

Without powerful elite white guys like Evans and Pinchot, there likely wouldn't be any designated national wilderness. Jest sayin. Of course they were the only ones in office when the designations were made but those are just facts after all There are plenty of wilderness areas, in fact a wide majority of them, that aren't named after elite people of any sort.

[Ski]

^ quite true.... probably the whitest and most elite out of the whole bunch of them did more for wilderness than all the rest: Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

[jinx'sboy]

I'm opposed to naming individual Wilderness areas after any persons - living or dead. I remember cringing in '84 when the central ID "River of no Return Wilderness' got re-named the "Frank Church River of....". Likewise, 1988 saw the Stephen Mather wilderness in NCNP. By now there are probably others? What's next? The Ryan Zinke Wilderness? The James Watt Wilderness? The Earl Butz Wilderness? The Sonny Perdue Chicken Feedlot Wilderness? After all, they all held top positions in the Interior/Agriculture Departments, right? There used to be a regulation/policy/convention in the USFS that W areas could NOT be named after people. But of course, Congress can do as they like....

[DIYSteve]

[Ski]

[trestle]

[DIYSteve]

[Ski]

okay.

[treeswarper]

Please tell me how the above timberline areas would have been completely "raped". I also don't care for you to be using that term, although you aren't throwing it around like Slugman was. There are areas of "old growth" that still exist in the non-wilderness simply because it was and is too expensive to reach. Economic reality has "protected"areas and would also protect the high elevations, unless there were minerals that could be removed economically. To imply that everywhere would be destroyed if it weren't for a politician is exaggeration. In fact, by creating wilderness areas, you create a magnet that attracts all those hordes of people that are complained about. I like remembering the Dan Evans days. We had a much smaller population, good roads and the state seemed prosperous, but I was a kid so maybe it wasn't really that way. I also don't like naming areas and bridges after politicians.

[Ski]