Dear HCN,
I doubt if you will print
this, but I must object strongly to Scott Stouder’s story on the
Hells Canyon Rim, a terribly distorted and prejudiced piece (HCN,
4/14/97).
The truth of the matter is easy to
discern if one merely reads the act creating the Hells Canyon
National Recreation Area and Wilderness in 1975 or the 1978
Comprehensive Management Plan, both of which make it obvious that
Congress intended for all existing rim roads and viewpoints to
remain open. Through a mapping error, 6.5 miles of the rim road –
the most scenic portion by far – was placed within the wilderness
by just a few feet, an error uncovered in 1989, 14 years after the
NRA was established.
The primitive one-lane dirt
road has been present at least since the early “50s. It has been a
commercial trail since the turn of the century, provides the best
views of Hells Canyon, gives access to several important trails,
and deserves to be visited by anyone willing to make a long drive
over unimproved roads.
Stouder quotes Dave
Bishop, retired Forest Service ranger. This person apparently
resigned from the Forest Service in the “60s, was not assigned to
the Rim area, and is now chairman of a La Grande-based
environmentalist organization. I find his comment about “giving it
up” if you can’t walk or ride there to be totally infuriating and
totally discriminatory against the aged, infirm and
disabled.
Even with the road open there remains a
five-mile section of the rim which shall always remain roadless, a
fact I’m sure Stouder and the state biologist are well aware of.
Elk numbers are actually increasing over all of this area and are
controlled by game management, number of tags, length of season,
etc., not by the presence or absence of primitive dirt
roads.
Virtually everyone in this area shares the
view that the Rim Road should be reopened. The Committee to Reopen
the Rim Road enjoys the support of the local county courts, the
chambers of commerce, the nearby city governments, all local senior
groups, service organizations, sportsmen’s organizations, etc. It
would appear that our opposition represents a small group of
hunters and packers who simply want this magnificent area to be
available only to the young and hardy. Since all of us are
environmentalists and hunters, I can assure you that none in our
group would want the road reopened if that action would cause harm
to any game species.
George M.
Burns
Baker City,
Oregon
Dr. Burns is
co-chairman of the Committee to Reopen the Rim
Road.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wanted: More road on the rim.
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