By Jake Courtney
As my wife and I sit in a Ronald McDonald house in Seattle waiting for the birth of our new baby, who will be needing surgery and a lengthy stay in Seattle Children’s Hospital after he is born, I have received word that an environmental group has filed suit and gotten a restraining order issued to attempt to keep the public road that we use to get to our home closed. This is the road that washed out on December 10th of last year. Since December 10th our family, and all of our neighbors, have not had one single normal drive into our property. This time includes months of needing to hike over a mile and a half cross country through brush and bluffs just to reach a vehicle so that my kids and wife could go to school and work. Or, anytime we wanted to go to church or to a social event we would have to decide if the hour and a half of round trip hiking was worth it. Many times, especially in poor weather or later in the day, we would decide to stay home. We missed out on a lot in those months. In February we found out that Dawn was pregnant (and yes we’ve heard all the jokes!) this added extra stress. Dawn hiked to and from work 5 days a week through the first trimester of her pregnancy.
As spring approached, work was begun on a temporary road at the lower end of the washout. We could gradually start driving closer to home. Finally, on June 19th, Dawn was able to drive all the way to our house. The route was rough, but at last the days of walking were over. For the time being. There is still a 300 foot section of road that is gone. We are forced to drive across our neighbor’s property on what is essentially the dry river bottom. Dry for now. As we begin to get rains this fall and the river levels begin to rise, it will no longer be a dry river bottom, if we get close to an average amount of rain this fall, we will be back to walking.
Through all of this time many discussions were had as to what the proper and appropriate course of action should be to facilitate the rebuilding of a good road into the upper Company creek road properties. A road that provided good and fair access to everyone above the washout, and also provided a measure of protection to the properties down valley of the washout. There was much talk of locals getting machinery and fixing the road themselves. This would have been justified. It was a legitimate threat to life and property. Our county commissioners declared the situation to be an emergency. For various reasons though, we decided to stand down and let the slow wheels of bureaucracy turn, with the hope that there could be a solution to the problem that could be funded and sanctioned by the proper agencies.
As this process dragged on through late spring and all summer, there were a lot of good relationships built. High ranking officials of multiple agencies, politicians and politicians aides visited the washout site. This was not a politically partisan issue. Both sides of the aisle seemed to be working together, as they should when there is a problem that is directly impacting the constituents who elect them. Washington governor Bob Fergusson visited. Representatives of our senators, Cantwell and Murray, visited. Our congressional representative Kim Schrier reached out multiple times to offer help, and sent staff to visit the site multiple times. All three of the Chelan County commissioners spent a lot of time and energy working on this problem, and visited Stehekin multiple times to survey the problem and offer updates on the status of the project to repair the Company Creek road. As did state representatives Steele and Burnett.
Finally, in the last part of the summer, through more bipartisan cooperation, funding was allocated through a state emergency fund to fix the washout, and restore normal access to upper Company Creek road. Work was finally to begin on the project the week of the 21st of September. Just two days before the work was to start, the environmental group North Cascade Conservation Council, or N3C, announced on their social media that they were filing a lawsuit to stop the project. Their justification for the lawsuit was that the work in and around the Stehekin river would disturb the spawning Kokanee salmon. Just to clarify, Kokanee are not native to the Stehekin river. The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife trap the Kokanee in the Stehekin river to harvest the eggs every fall. They then raise the spawn in a fish hatchery and release many thousands back into the Chelan/Stehekin fishery every year. Included in the press release that N3C put out regarding their potential lawsuit, they shared other inaccuracies and outright lies. They stated that there are alternatives to the rebuilding road route that would be less impactful. To be clear, this is a road that has followed this route for multiple generations. The only other option would be to condemn private property and build a public road across multiple pieces of the little bit of private property that remains in Stehekin. Or, build a road along the mile and a half route that our family and neighbors had to hike all winter to get from our property out to a vehicle. This route is through one of the most untouched parts of the Stehekin valley. It has never been logged. There are multiple stands of old growth Douglas fir, as well as White pine. At one time the tallest White fir in Washington State grew in this part of the valley. Building a road through this area would obviously involve cutting down numerous old growth trees.
The river, if left untouched and allowed to continue to cut through the area that took out the road in December, will cut through this old growth forest. It will also destroy many pieces of private property. These are the properties of over 30 percent of the population of Stehekin. Residents who live in Stehekin year round. People who keep the valley running. These people provide virtually all of the services that visitors to Stehekin enjoy. If the river is allowed to rampage through that part of the Stehekin valley, the community of Stehekin that everyone who lives in Stehekin, and everyone who visits gets to experience a little bit of and loves, will cease to exist. This is not hyperbole. It is a fact. I challenge anyone to refute it.
After last winter, and walking the route many times, I am more familiar with that area than anyone, except for maybe our neighbors who had to walk it many times as well. It would be the most impactful option for a road that there could possibly be. I do not understand how a group that calls themselves environmentalists, is based out of Seattle and has not seen the routes proposed could possibly determine that is the best, least impactful route for a road. It seems to fly in the face of what they claim to stand for. I have hesitated to call myself an environmentalist for years, because I do not want to be affiliated with groups that stand for what the N3C stands for and pushes to implement, or what they fight to stop.
My wife and I have 6 children, soon to be 7, and passing on a love of the Stehekin valley and the surrounding areas to my children is one of the most important things in my life. I am a member of the 5th generation of my family to live in Stehekin. I know what it means to take care of the beauty of creation that surrounds us in Stehekin. I have camped in places with my children that are camping spots their great grandfather discovered. We know what it means to leave a place as we found it. Other than possibly old fire stained rocks you would not be able to tell that generations of our family have camped in the same spot for decades. I wonder what I tell my kids environmentalism means now? To a group like N3C it apparently means that we have to stand by while our neighbor’s properties are destroyed and the only reliably safe and easy access to our property is completely washed away. To the N3C it means to use lawsuits and restraining orders to keep neighbors from attempting to keep river water from washing through homes, septic systems, vehicles, fuel tanks, barns and other sources of water contaminants. Is that what we want to teach the next generation environmentalism is? That is not what we will be teaching our children. We will be teaching them that the area we live in is sacred. We were blessed to get to live where we do. Our responsibility is to leave it better than we found it. That does not mean we leave it untouched. It means that they will be taught that there are ways that we can influence rivers and forests in a way that is not only beneficial to us as humans but will benefit the fish, wildlife and other living organisms that share this part of creation with us. The current project that the N3C is attempting to stop is an example of a project that will be beneficial to the people that live in Stehekin, as well as making a healthier river for fish and protecting an old growth forest. Is it perfect? Nope. Nothing is. It is much better than the N3C alternatives though!
As I get to the end of my writing I feel I need to share something that does give me pause. Through this whole saga of flooding and road building, I have attempted to live according to two scriptures. “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “When possible, live peaceably with all men”. I think that anyone who has talked to me for any length of time through the last 10 months knows that I have struggled to know how to do that at times. The reason this has been hard is that 3 pieces of property just up valley from my family’s property are owned by members of the N3C. These are people that do not live in Stehekin, but I do consider them my neighbors. I have lived peaceably with them, and in fact have enjoyed visits with them and would have considered some of them friends. I have always known that I disagree with them on many things. That is something I have always said was unique about Stehekin. Some of my best friends are people that I know I disagree with. Either politically, religiously, morally or all three. And that is how it should be. The problem has arisen now in that this is more than a disagreement.
People that have been friendly to me, and who I have welcomed into my home, now are actively working to destroy my way of life. These are people that live in Seattle and California. They do not live in Stehekin. They visit, and spend weeks at a time in the nicest part of the year, but when times get tough or inconvenient, they leave. I do not doubt at all that they love Stehekin in their own way. I do not resent them at all for being able to afford a vacation home in Stehekin. I do resent that they are actively working to destroy the way of life that Stehekin has allowed me and my family to live.
My family lives on 2.2 acres of land that was part of the homestead that my great grandfather was able to prove up on through his, his wife and children’s sweat. Because of those older generations back breaking work, I am reaping the benefits. We have beautiful land for huge gardens. We have cows. We have chickens. We have fruit trees. We only have this one home. One piece of property. We don’t have a second home in California or Seattle that we can move to when times get a little tough. This is it. And it’s enough. In fact, it’s just right.
Lord willing, in a couple months I will be bringing home a new baby. This baby is likely to have special needs. Will I be able to drive in and out of my house this winter to get him to a doctor if that’s needed? If the N3C gets their way, the answer to that will be no. Because my great grandparents made sacrifices and worked themselves to death to give their offspring a chance to live in the amazing spot that is Stehekin, I am blessed to have a chance to raise my kids in a place that, in my opinion, cannot be beaten by anywhere in the world.
Bringing a special needs baby home to a community like Stehekin is much less intimidating than anywhere else I could imagine. My great grandparents committed their lives to providing a place for their descendants to call home. I have had an easy life because of their sacrifices. I now have a different type of challenge than they did. I am as committed as they had to be though. The N3C, and other groups like them, can not win! I am not sure where this will lead exactly. I don’t have resources to file lawsuits. I can’t afford to hire lawyers to help influence legislation. Maybe my only tool is to try to educate people. I hope that if you read this you were intrigued and want to dig deeper into this situation, or influenced to reach out to people that might be able to help. Or, have suggestions that could help in the fight. It is a fight for the community of Stehekin.
