A personal view of Mount Rainier and climate change

Cleve Pinnix chats with visitors at the
Grove of the Patriarchs in 2008.

Cleve Pinnix has been associated with Mount Rainier for a long time. He's served as a park ranger, a volunteer, and a board member for Washington's National Park Fund. He's hiked and backpacked all over the Mountain.

The Mountain is the thread that runs through the course of our lives. We’ve never lost that sense of awe, looking from tidewater to see the summit shining nearly three vertical miles into the sky.

Recently, he wrote an Op Ed for The Bellingham Herald, responding to the recent special report in The Olympian and The News Tribune called "Losing Paradise." His personal perspective, over half a century of experience with Mount Rainier, is unique and thought-provoking. Among other things, he answers the question "what can I do?"

The question since reading the newspaper’s report has been: “What can we do?” Mourn the loss of access to the most precious place in our lives? Accept that the changes in the park are irreversible? We think not. We believe there are ways to work for positive change.

Read more in The Bellingham Herald at http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015/01/28/4099513/a-personal-view-of-mt-rainier.html.

Keep Wildlife Wild Weekend Reminder

This Saturday Keep Wildlife Wild Volunteers will be patrolling areas and handing out information from kiosks informing visitors of the dangers of feeding animals in the park.

Volunteers will receive a T-shirt to wear with the park’s new Keep Wildlife Wild logo and be stationed at kiosks located at Jackson Visitor Center, Narada Falls picnic area, Paradise picnic area, and Cougar Rock picnic area. Volunteer times are 11:00am - 1:00pm and 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Come out to join campaign to Keep Wildlife Wild and enjoy the festivities!

Anyone interested in participating as a volunteer should contact Alyssa Herr at (360) 569-2211 Ext: 3318

Check out the article on KWW Weekend recently featured in the Bellingham Herald at

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/07/25/1540820/leave-cuddly-creatures-alone-in.html.

VIP Program in the News

Our recent volunteer video has gotten some attention from the media at The News Tribune and Bellingham Herald.

Our own Kevin Bacher was quoted; "These videos, donated to us as a labor of love for Mount Rainier, allow us to spread those messages more widely and more effectively than we could with our own resources. We expected that we’d end up with something worthy of putting on YouTube, but what we actually got was this amazing production in high definition that is suitable for television broadcast. Having these videos means we have an opportunity to convey our message to a larger audience, to share the story of the amazing work that volunteers are doing every day to help us protect our resources and serve our visitors.”

Read the full article at http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/06/06/1215179/videos-promote-volunteer-work.html

Volunteers Hit the Trail: Park Maintenance Backlog Worsens Each Year

….Washington Trails Association volunteers will rack up more than 80,000 hours of brushing, clearing, repairing and extending trails by the end of the year — breaking the record of 74,941 hours set in 2006, according to Lauren Braden, spokeswoman for the Seattle-based nonprofit. “There’s quite a bit of damage out there,” Braden said. “Hikers want to do what they can to help.” Many of those helping hands have gone to Mount Rainier National Park, which suffered particularly heavy damage….

Read the whole article, about volunteer efforts on National Forest land as well as in the National Parks, in an article by Kie Relyea on the website of The Bellingham Herald.