Glacier Peak Walter Siegmund

In June 22, despite an Objection filed by Wilderness Watch, the Forest Service (FS) approved four new seismic monitoring stations in the Glacier Peak Wilderness in Washington, along with upgrades to an existing station, and up to 20 helicopter trips to install the monitors (plus future helicopter trips to replace batteries). Similar to other proposals for structures in Wilderness, the FS failed to justify how these stations are necessary to protect the Wilderness and did not analyze alternatives that would preserve the wild character of the area rather than degrade it.

The Wilderness Act prohibits the installation of permanent structures—such as monitoring stations—in Wilderness, as well as the landing of helicopters or use of other motorized equipment to service the stations, for good reason—to preserve the qualities that set Wilderness apart from everywhere else. The FS has unfortunately abdicated its responsibility to preserve the wild character of the Glacier Peak Wilderness by simply dismissing the project’s impacts to Wilderness. We offered several alternatives in our Objection that the FS failed to adopt. We urged the agency to determine whether monitoring stations near or just outside the Wilderness could provide useful monitoring data, and we suggested that temporary facilities could be packed in, and that newer technologies—like satellites or LIDAR—could do the same monitoring without violating the Wilderness.

Read our comments:
August 2018 (EA)
• July 2018 (scoping)
• April 2016  scoping)
• June 2015 (scoping)

In the Glacier Bay Wilderness in Alaska, Wilderness Watch is opposing a proposed Climate Monitoring Program. The proposal includes structures, installations, and helicopter landings in the Wilderness, all of which would degrade the area’s wilderness character. The project fails to benefit the Glacier Bay Wilderness in any way, and the National Park Service failed to analyze a range of alternatives, including choosing monitoring sites outside of Wilderness.

• Read our comments