The Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, managed by the U.S. Forest Service instead of the National Park Service, appears to be a failed experiment. While the Park Service exists to operate parks and monuments, the Forest Service has never had the funding or the skill set necessary to do so, by design.
I am one of many citizens who have asked Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, to begin a study to evaluate the monument’s national park potential.
When these studies have been conducted elsewhere, regional public input has been crucial; several recent park additions in Alaska have preserved public hunting as a “traditional use,” and there is no reason to assume that could not happen here.
The monument is a neglected national treasure, and this study may demonstrate that there are alternative models for management that can turn things around.
