- Mount Hood is in trouble. The Portland region, alone, has grown by some 800,000 residents since the 1984 wilderness act expanded the Mount Hood Wilderness, and created the Badger Creek, Salmon Huckleberry and Hatfield wilderness areas. Yet in the face of this unprecedented growth, the Forest Service continued a decades-long trend of closing more trails and campgrounds.
- The Forest Service mission is fundamentally flawed. "Non-revenue” interests like recreation and environmental stewardship will always serving as stepchildren to commercial enterprises that the agency has become entwined with. We need to act now to prevent the Forest Service from further damaging the landscape we pay them to protect. Stewardship of Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge can be no longer be entrusted to the U.S. Forest Service.
- The National Park Service has a proven track record. There are countless examples of the Park Service restoring damaged landscapes, and acting as a responsible steward for the nation's most precious places. Mount Hood needs and deserves this level of protection. Creating a new park built on the ethics of stewardship, restoration and empowerment for local communities would be the "Oregon way".
- A Mount Hood National Park would be an economic boon. Creating a national park that encompasses Mount Hood and the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge would be a major economic stimulus to the many small towns along the loop highway that are struggling to adapt to the new tourism economy. Towns like Cascade Locks would not have to court casinos to find their way to prosperity, and the traditional mountain towns like Sandy, Estacada, Rhododendron, Zigzag and Welches would see a crucial jump in out-of-town visitors, who stay for the night and patronize local businesses, instead of driving back home to Portland. Farm towns like Odell, Parkdale and Dufur would also benefit by diversifying their economies to include a substantial tourism component.
- A national park would also create direct jobs. The Park Service would put Oregonians to work building new park facilities, and restoring areas that have been damaged from overdevelopment by the Forest Service. Forest Service employees, many of whom are critical of current management practices, could also be transferred to new park staff roles.
- Funding levels are no excuse for bad management. The Forest Service has long complained of lack of funds when justifying their weak efforts to accommodate tourism and recreation. In fact, their budget is larger than that of many national parks, including Yellowstone, which covers twice the area and serves more visitors. Managing Mount Hood and the Gorge as a national park, purely for recreation benefits and environmental sustainability would actually be less costly in the long run than the confused, ineffective effort that the Forest Service puts forth.
- We can do things differently in Oregon. Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge were once a proving ground for new thinking how to manage a public forest for recreation, with the first national forest campground and recreation trail built at Eagle Creek in the Columbia Gorge, and the historic Mount Hood Loop highway establishing the national standard for how to design for both nature and tourism. We can reclaim this tradition of progressive thinking, with new practices for environmental restoration and park planning that could be pioneered as part of restoring Mount Hood.
- It would be our greatest legacy. Realizing this dream would also be the most profound legacy that we could give to our children and grandchildren. They will live in an even more populous Oregon, where the jewel that is Mount Hood will be even more precious, and our foresight in finally taking the long view will be infinitely appreciated.
- Important! We need a feasiblity study! Congress needs to direct the National Park Service to conduct a feasibility study of making Mount Hood a National Park. This is a critical first step that can only come from Congress!
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