My son is now navigating his way through Boy Scouts. He throughly enjoys the outdoors, as does our entire family. He has a ways to go to reach Eagle Scout (he is currently First Class) but with his enthusiasm I am sure he will be successful – like his grandpa. Someday in the future, maybe the bonds, friendships and tools that he is learning as a Scout will benefit us all as it did the citizens of the State of Washington many years ago.
In 1975 a bill creating the 390,000 acre Alpine Lakes Wilderness area in Washington state passed Congress but White House and Forest Service staff recommended a veto. Congressman Joel Pritchard from Seattle, Washington called Governor Dan Evans of Washington and implored him to fly to Washington, DC to urge President Gerald Ford to sign the measure. The president’s staff told Evans he had 15 minutes.
The Governor arrived in Washington, DC but realized he did not bring a remarkable photo essay book promoting the Alpine Lakes wilderness. He called a long time friend who lived in the Washington DC area who years before was a scout in Evans’ troop and asked him if he had a copy. He agreed to lend it the next day if the Governor would get President Ford to autograph it. Unbeknownst to Ford’s staff, President Ford and Governor Evans were both Eagle Scouts and shared a love of the outdoors greatly enhanced by their many years in Scouting. The two ended up looking through the book and talking for an hour.
Despite the request by the Forest Service to veto the bill, President Ford signed the Alpine Lakes Area Management Act into law on the afternoon of July 12, 1976, reportedly saying, “Anywhere so beautiful should be preserved.”
Governor Evans said, “I think the public has a strong desire to experience something that is not paved, polluted or crowded, for the sake of their own sanity and civilization. I have followed one rule with respect to whether or not areas should be designated as wilderness. If you preserve too much wilderness you can always change designations. If you preserve too little wilderness, you can never recreate it.”
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