Green has no party

Some in the environmental movement may not have welcomed former Gov. Dan Evans' recent warning against excessive political zeal. Politics is moving in a green direction. Why not hold out for big, fundamental changes? But, there is wisdom in caution, even when you're ahead.

Evans spoke at a recent dinner of the Washington Wilderness Coalition, a group that has generally followed his approach. Some others have not. Evans mentioned the Sierra Club, which opposed the Nov. 6 roads-and-transit ballot measure because it included new highway lanes. The Sierra Club's position was that there be no more freeway lanes because roads promote global warming. Evans, who was a civil engineer before he was governor, disagreed with this position.

"Highways don't promote global warming," he told The Times. "Automobiles do. We ought to be working on new, nonpolluting automobiles." The nonpolluting car will be no easy achievement, but it is more realistic than a campaign against driving.

Another example of excessive zeal Evans cited is the urge not to rebuild washed-out roads that provided access to wilderness areas. Such arguments have been raised along the Dosewallips River in Jefferson County and near Stehekin in Chelan County.

Some conservationists have argued that the washouts should stand, to keep people out of the backcountry. "But be careful," Evans said, "As you narrow access, you narrow the coalition."

Evans argued, "You need to broaden your coalition," especially as preservation efforts move to areas with more competing uses.

Evans is a lifelong Republican, a party that many environmentalists don't want in their coalition. Often times, especially in recent decades, the GOP has opposed them. Other times, individual Republicans have weighed in on behalf of environmental interests and received no credit because they were in the wrong party.

"I never saw a Democratic mountain or a Republican glacier," Evans said.

That's a message that needs to be heard by environmentalists — and also by party partisans.