Dear HCN,
I am very disappointed
that High Country News, just as many other newspapers, has fallen
for the news releases of Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., regarding rock
“painting” on national forest lands along Stevens Pass Scenic
Byway, as portrayed in your Barb (HCN, 8/21/95). You need to check
the facts.
The rocks were to be stained with a
water-based spray of Permeon, not painted. The rocks were to be so
treated because of “scaling” of unstable rocks on the mountainside
would create unnatural new scarring along a Scenic Byway. The
Washington State Transportation Department and the U.S. Forest
Service had mutually agreed to do this rock staining on the state’s
project affecting about 1 acre of national forest lands. The Forest
Service is obligated by its forest plans to maintain a certain
level of scenic quality. NEPA also requires mitigation of
environmental impacts.
The Forest Service makes
mistakes, but this is one case where they did not and they should
be supported by media concerned about the environment – not
ridiculed and chastised. The practice of rock staining, or rock
color restoration, has been going on since at least 1930, when the
National Park Service developed a stain to subdue the horrible
scarring of freshly blasted granite spilled over the canyon walls
from Wawona Tunnel construction. The scenic majesty of the canyon
walls was restored. It has been used on many private land
developments throughout the West, as well as award-winning Glenwood
Canyon Highway and Vail Pass in Colorado.
The
American Society of Landscape Architects, Scenic America and others
are deeply concerned that Congress has, as a result of Rep.
Metcalf’s assault, initiated legislation to ban an economical,
effective and inexpensive tool to reduce visual impacts in
scenically sensitive areas of national forests.
Congress should not be micromanaging federal
agencies by prohibiting the proven technological tools that federal
agencies utilize in carrying out their mandated stewardship of
public lands.
Wayne D.
Iverson
Sedona,
Arizona
The
writer is a former regional landscape architect for the Forest
Service.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Some rocks need a makeover.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
