[Schroder]

[Randito]

[Kim Brown]

[treeswarper]

I resent all the rules, planning and control that is done is a national park. I haven't been to many because I am traveling with a dog and national parks are in no way dog friendly. Grand Canyon did have a kennel that housed my friend's dog while we hiked, but I wonder if that still exists? You can't walk on a trail with your dog, yet you can have unleashed children running around. Hunting is not allowed in parks so wildlife becomes stupid and dangerous from being around stupid people. We have too many people coming to this state as it is. We don't need more. I had a memorable day, which would not have been possible if the blast zone of St Helens was a park. The road was gated so I could ride behind the gate on my bike with The Used Dog galloomping along. No cars, only a few movie people wandering around and doing what they do. Probably more solitude than in a wilderness that day. We have enough over regulated pieces of ground for those who like that. Leave the rest as it is.

[Bosterson]

[joker]

Yeah, this plus the need to get on the reservations site to fight for permits in the nanosecond after the reservation window opens (or gamble on walk up luck) in order to camp in the backcountry in the Park are both concerns that leave me underwhelmed by NCNP expansion notions. I'm content to leave the Mt Baker Wilderness boundaries as they are, along with the NCNP boundaries.

[jaysway]

[joker]

I have less of a take on the implications of MSHNM becoming a NP. My knee jerk reaction regarding NCNP expanding is "nope" though.

[zimmertr]

[jaysway]

[Bosterson]

[Ski]

We currently host no fewer than three world-class National Parks in Washington State, two of which are among the crown jewels of the National Park System: Olympic and Rainier, both of which are unequaled by anything on the North American continent. We do not need another National Park, and with it all that it entails. The National Monument status assigned to Mt. St. Helens is more than adequate "protection" (for all of you worrywarts about that issue.) Several times in this thread it's been made clear the reasons Mt. Baker was not included in North Cascades National Park. That ship has sailed. It's not coming back. I am really curious about the reason this thread started. Just because it's "fantastic"? Lots of things are fantastic. That doesn't necessarily mean they're candidates for National Park status. I vote NO, NO, and NO.

[Logbear]

North Cascades Conservation Council didn't include Mt Baker in their proposed North Cascades National Park boundary back in 1965. This map is in the book "The Wild Cascades: Forgotten Parkland".

[jinx'sboy]

[NacMacFeegle]

As a Mt. St. Helens local, I would only support turning it into a National Park if that included at least doubling the monument in size to include the High Lakes, Green River headwaters + several miles downstream of the monument, Vanson Peak/Goat Creek area, N. Fork Toutle Valley (including tributaries) down to Kid Valley, Toutle State Forest, Big Bull and Little Cow Mountains, Kalama River/Merrill Lake/ Lakeview Peak area, the land down to the Swift Reservoir Lower Lewis River area plus the Dark Divide, Strawberry Mountain and Quartz Creek areas of Gifford Pinchot. The undeveloped interior of the current monument should become designated wilderness, regardless of whether it stays a monument or becomes a NP. Mt. Baker would probably be better off in N. Cascades NP, though there too I'd say that acquiring NF, private, and state land for the park outside of the designated Wilderness should be the goal of such a park expansion. We should also expand Mt. Rainier NP. South to Packwood, including Skate Creek and the High Rock Area. East to the confluence of the Mowich and Puyallup Rivers, extending from this point South to SR 706 and North to Carbonado, then from Carbonado it would extend East to the White River. The idea would be to re-wild a buffer zone around three sides of the current park. Olympic NP also needs to be expanded, both along the Western edge of the mountains, and along the coastal strip. We also really need to start converting large areas of industrial timber plantation into entirely new National Parks. The Willapa Hills, Doty Hills, Kalama/Coweeman hills, The Rockies (mountains NW of Morton), Snoqualmie foothills, etc. could all be re-wilded and transformed into hiking and camping destinations. We could easily double the visitor capacity of our existing public lands in this way while simultaneously improving ecosystem health, transitioning rural areas away from extractive industry economies, sequestering carbon, and reducing regional symptoms of climate change (extreme heat, wind, drought, etc.). Oregon could also use a couple of these timber plantation to national park conversion projects. Creating new public lands and restoring them is the #1 best way of decreasing the pressure afflicting existing public lands in the Pacific Northwest.