Representatives of the U. S. Navy and U. S. Forest Service faced a very tough crowd at a public meeting held in the Port Angeles City Council Chambers on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 5. People had come in droves from as far away as Oak Harbor, Port Townsend, and Sequim. There were rumors that a large contingent from Forks had not shown up only because there were trees down, blocking the highway over by Lake Crescent that stormy night. It’s probably just as well they couldn’t make it, though, because as it was, every seat in the large hall was filled, people were sitting on the floor and standing wherever they could find room at the back, and the crowd extended out into the foyer all the way to the front doors. There was no more room.
The subject of the meeting was a
Navy application for a Forest Service permit to use remote logging roads for
mobile electro-magnetic emitter trucks that Growler aircraft from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island
would seek out in cat-and mouse war games for up to 16 hours a day on as many
as 260 days a year. The nationally-sanctified "Square-inch of Silence" would be violated, as would be the peace and quiet of the Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest. But the Environmental Assessment gave no consideration to those effects.
The meeting had been requested by Sixth District Congressman Derek Kilmer when citizens contacted him to object to the lack of opportunity for public input after the Forest Service initially quietly rubber-stamped the plan in mid-September.
The meeting had been requested by Sixth District Congressman Derek Kilmer when citizens contacted him to object to the lack of opportunity for public input after the Forest Service initially quietly rubber-stamped the plan in mid-September.
The comment period was at first extended to
October 31st and a crowded public hearing was held in Forks, but so
many people requested another extension that this meeting had been scheduled,
and the comment deadline set back to November 28. And so it was that there were loud
expressions of dismay and even threats to walk out when the announcement was made that the evening's proceedings would not be made part of the public record:
The full Pacific Northwest EW Range Environmental Assessment is available by searching the web for that title. Comments should be addressed to Greg Wahl, Forest Environmental Coordinator, Olympic National Forest, 1835 Black Lake Blvd SW, Olympia, WA 98512, or can be sent by email gtwahl@fs.fed.us.
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