Illabot Creek road #16

The Forest Service deserves a hearty slap on the back for its recent decision to decommission FSR #16, which penetrates the Illabot Creek valley above Rockport in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. This road, constructed in the 1960s to forestall Wilderness designation on the lower Illabot, saw fairly modest logging activity over the decades.

Much of the Illabot valley remains largely intact, and will be effectively rewilded with the removal of #16 and its spurs. The wildland qualities of the North Cascades' western slope will correspondingly improve, as well. The rugged and heavily forested acreage from Illabot Peaks and Betty's Pass, north to Marten and Jordan creeks, is now well-situated for future addition to the Glacier Peak Wilderness.

Bumping Lake old-growth may fall

Not since the Salvage Rider in the mid-1990s have the feds set their sights on logging old-growth forest in our fair state of Washington. In this case, the Bureau of Reclamation proposes to enlarge the dam at Bumping Lake, inundating 2,000 acres of gorgeous mesic forest adjacent to and contiguous with the William O. Douglas Wilderness, to satisfy the unquenchable thirst of Big Agriculture in the Yakima valley. As the forest falls and reservoir water encroaches, habitat for the northern spotted owl and bull trout go with them.

The Sierra Club's web site offers an easy means of commenting to oppose this noxious proposal:

https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=7592&autologin=true&311Z1100A1&JServSessionIdr004=j9ernc63r1.app220a

Comments are due by January 3.