I love Grays Harbor. I was born and raised here. As a child, I spent a lot of time on the docks of Westport where my father docked his boat. My father, Harry Harmon, a council member serving the great City of Cosmopolis for 23 years from 1952 to 1975, introduced me to just about every logging road on the Peninsula, since he sold log trucks and knew many loggers personally. So with this said, I want to express my disappointment in the Cosmopolis City Council and their recent vote against the Wild Olympics.
The vote against the protection of what ancient forests are left on the Peninsula and our wild free flowing rivers is a vote for the past, not the future. I care about the environment, our economic future and the resources which include the residents, the Harbor's greatest asset. I am so glad to see the Cosi mill up and running again, but I can't understand why the council would vote against such a forward thinking proposal. The Cosmo Mill made a statement on the current Wild Olympics Proposal, that it does not impact their industry, "with the proposal reduced to essentially federal land, our own fiber interests are not directly affected by this proposal."
The Wild Olympics Campaign secures our water, recreation and furthers protection of our great natural resources. Such protections augment what is important to our future and the residents of Grays Harbor County. In Vision 2020 for Grays Harbor, community members identified 25 strategies and 120 actions, which included "preserving and promoting our unparalleled environmental assets." Through new wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers, the Wild Olympics does just that.
The City of Cosmopolis could have played an important role in furthering this progressive vision by either supporting or continuing to pass along feedback on the draft proposal. Instead, they removed themselves from the conversation by passing a resolution that was long on fear and short on facts. Our future can include clean water, healthy salmon runs and a stunning landscape that still includes old growth forests. Or it can go the other way. I applaud Congressman Norm Dicks and Sen. Patty Murray for their leadership in recognizing this. I wish the Cosmopolis City Council had recognized this too.
Grace Stiller
A prior, long-time resident of "Cosi"
Grayland
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