The Olympic National Park, on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, is visited by millions of people annually. The economic boom such visitors bring to our tourism economy is acknowledged by anyone in business on the peninsula, including the chambers of commerce. Visitors walk its old growth forested trails, hike its stunning mountains, swim and paddle in its pristine rivers. The Park was accepted as a biosphere reserve in June 1976, and as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981 because of its:
spectacular coastline, scenic lakes, majestic mountains and glaciers, and magnificent temperate rainforest. It is the lowest latitude in the world in which glaciers form at relatively low elevation. Its relative isolation and highly varied rainfall have produced complex and varied life zones.
So what’s this all about a woman walking for the Park? Why should this interest anyone? Well, because that biosphere reserve is being threatened by no other than our own U.S. Navy.
Sallie Spirit Harrison, a gutsy and determined 63-year-old woman who volunteers with her husband to gather wildlife data for the Park because she loves and recognizes the importance of our magnificent national treasure, embarked on a month-long trek walking 200 miles around the Olympic Peninsula to bring attention to a disturbing situation that, if carried out, will end up affecting the blissful peace and quiet all of us have enjoyed in the Park at one time or another.
Last fall, residents of the peninsula found out – by sheer accident – that the U.S. Navy has a proposal to introduce war games on and over the Olympic National Forest and the Olympic National Park. These war games consist of a 2-prongue strategy:
1. Drive trucks on Olympic National Forest roads with emitters to optimize and vary training scenarios…
2. So that Electronic Warfare aircrews using Growler jets can “…rehearse and develop real-world tactics, techniques, and procedures under scenarios where stationary emitter signals are emanating, for example, from Pacific Beach and other potential sites and pop-up mobile emitter signals are received from varied geographic locations within realistic range-ring distances.” (quotations taken from a 2012 email by the Navy to the Forest Service obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request)
For these exercises to be conducted, the Navy proposes flying over 200 days annually, up to 16 hours per day, with sorties of 3 Growler jets flying in unison at varying altitudes – over the Forest and Park.
Unfortunately, documentation shows that the correct regulations process has not been followed by the Navy;
thus, there are many concerns with such plans, chief among them the health risks to human population, the detrimental effects to birds and wildlife, and the potential to seriously undermine and damage the recovery of the local economy – which has been struggling for years to switch from a primary timber-based economy to a recreation-based industry economy - and we are succeeding. In addition, it would result in the obliteration of the quietest place in the continental United States.
These are some of the messages that brave folks like Sallie Spirit Harrison are attempting to convey to others who may not realize the extent of the circumstances and consequences of the Navy proposal. During her trip, Sallie has encountered people from all walks of life who are equally concerned about the impact such planned activities by the Navy will have on all of us.
Does this mean that folks are against military training? I think not. Anyone who has lived in an oppressive society, such as I have in a communist country, can appreciate the fact that even with all of our faults and problems, there is no better place to live than in the United States. We are far from perfect, but we owe the luxury of being able to move about freely (to-date, anyway) to our type of government and the protection offered by our military. I personally want military personnel well-trained to handle any possibilities. The world has changed – we no longer live in an innocent era.
However, for all the reasons I support our military and its training, it is equally important for the military to recognize that they have an obligation to protect more than the population of the country – they also must protect our lands, our natural resources, our national treasures (and if the Navy does not agree with such premise, then there is something seriously wrong up the food-chain of command).
Training with emitters that pose harmful health hazards and overly loud aircraft exceeding the decibel levels that cause hearing damage to humans, and affecting the migratory birds magnetic receptors (like the GPS system in our vehicles) is a direct attack on our population, our public lands, birds and wildlife. The last time I checked, protection and training does not mean disregarding our country’s laws and regulations. If the Navy attempts to circumvent those laws and regulations, then our nation is in major trouble already. And we, the people, need to speak up and be heard.
I applaud Sallie Spirit Harrison for her 200-mile Walk for the Park, which ends today. She may be one person physically demonstrating the need to protect the national treasure of our Olympic National Park, but she has millions of people behind her.