St Helens Monument No Hunting !!

[nwhunter]

Wondered if anyone else has heard the rumor that some of the higher ups in our state government may be pushing for no hunting in the Mt St Helens Monument area? I saw a flier posted at our local parts store that stated this info that government is trying to turn the monument area which can mostly all be hunted at this time, into Nat'l Park which would then be no hunting of course. It would include the margaret, toutle, and I think two other units. That is all we need is more Nat'l Park!! The flier asked for people to contact our state reps about this matter. Has anyone else seen this or heard of it? Scott

[billythekidrock]

Yes, I have heard this. I read it in the Olympian awhile back.

[bowhunterty]

They want to make it a National Park. They say they are not getting enough money to mantain the roads, outhouses, etc. It would ruin some good hunting.

[PolarBear]

I think that the areas that they would like to add to the "monument" are the Toutle, Margaret and parts of the Lewis River and Packwood.  Yep, that would suck big time!

[sisu]

Why not turn it into a federal wildlife refuge where hunting is allowed and encouraged with the benefit of viewing the mess that St. Helens created when it blew its top back in 1980. With the distinction of a Federal National Wildlife Refuge it would receive money from hunting related taxes etc.

[bowhunterty]

You can hunt in the monument, just not what is designated as the red zone,the Loowit unit.  Parts of the Lewis River and Packwood unit are currently in the monument.  When I started hunting hunting the area back in '99' I talked to a couple rangers about this.  Plus if you look at the monoment map you will see how far the boundry extends.

[Crunchy]

Yes a guy was passing out the fliers during archery elk hunt.  It would be a sad thing indeed.  I say dont maintain the roads and make everyone hike in.  Thats what we did this year as FR83 washed out ealier this year.

[nwhunter]

bowhunter, Yes you can hunt in most of the monument at this time but they are considering turning all of the monument areas into Nat'l Park which of course will mean absolutely No Hunting in any parts of the monument areas. Just want everyone to be aware of this as I would hate for those in power to push this sort of thing through without a fight. You can be sure animal rights , enviros, and anti hunting groups will support this full scale so hunters need to be aware. nwhunter

[1371Marine]

I'm curious as to where to money will come from. Other NP's are backlogged for years with maint. and other projects. St Helens is closing down one of the visitor centers for a lack of money.

[jae]

If anyone can find a petition to stop this, please post it so we can all sign before it is to late.

[Opportunist]

Is it turning into a park or is it going to be governed by the National Park service?

[TONTO]

Turned into a park.
Basicaly it comes down to the fact that the tourist dollars never came through as the pen pushers in olympia had hoped.All these visitor centers where built and then it was dumpeed into the forest service's lap.The forest service can't afford to maintain these centers(cold water ridge visitor center was just closed indefenatly this year do to lack of maintanance funds)so it has been proposed that it should become a national park.This would insure federal money to maintain these facilities.
This realy irks me,I have always hoped that the public would be allowed more recreational access to the area as the volcano gawkers finaly got bored with it,but as a national park it would be just the opposite.Some of my fondest childhood memories have been of the time I spent there,pre-eruption,and have always held on to the hope that some day I would be alowed to once again pull a nice fat rainbow from spirit lake.If this proposal goes through that will never happen,as well as lost hunting oppertunity as well.
I urge all who would like to keep the dream of increased recreational access to the area alive to contact their representatives and voice their displeasure with this push to turn it over to the National Parks system.

[Mike450r]

From what I have read the National Park Service is low on funding so hopefully this goes nowhere.  My suggestion is that all members of this site that belong to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation  shoot off some letters, we really need a powewrful lobbying group on our side with this one or it will just get crammed down our throats.