Lance Dickie / Seattle Times editorial columnist
It's in our nature to go with Kerry

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Forget those polls that showed Washington as a swing state in the presidential race, suspended indecisively between Republican George Bush and Democrat John Kerry.

This state is going to vote its Granny Smith-green soul and send its electoral votes racing toward regional core values — healthy streams and forests, recovering fish runs, and clean air and water.

So far, this campaign is distinguished by what is not being talked about. The environment is another instance of the president being absent without leave.

One cannot live in the Northwest without a keen sense of place and a strong connection to the great, green outdoors. Voters with the slightest sensibilities in those directions will not cast a ballot for another four sooty years of Bush-Cheney.

Administration statements about its environmental record or intentions have as much credibility as a White House deficit forecast or Vice President Dick Cheney on terrorism, corporate ethics or any topic.

The depth of the environmental vote was made clear to me a week ago in a standing-room-only crowd at the Shoreline Conference Center. The packed house turned out on a midweek summer night to talk about Bush's assault on national-forest roadless rules and his presiding over the shameful decline of the national park system, including our beloved Mount Rainier and Olympics.

The headliners were Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, and Amit Ronen, a legislative aide for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Ron Shultz, a natural-resources adviser for Gov. Gary Locke.

Ronen neatly summed up the administration's order of battle on the roadless rule: sweetheart judicial settlements, failure to defend the roadless rules in federal court and a sham petition process to have state governors seek harvest exemptions on federal land.

The real stars of the night were audience members who had traveled from as far as Sequim to have their say. Environmental stewardship is an active, instinctive part of their Northwest lives.

The healthy reminder for me was how these people came to this from so many different points of interest.

This was a crowd that defied the easy tree-hugging stereotypes employed to belittle such groups. The speakers included anglers and hunters — the hook and bullet folks — alongside retired forest rangers who were seeing a life's work erode from neglect in the national parks.

OK, and a few sounded as though holy communion with nature was achieved at the base of a 180-year-old fir. Equally passionate views were sounded by fiscal conservatives, deficit hawks deeply offended by taxpayer rip-offs to build more roads as others decay in disrepair.

The roughly 250 people in the room represented ideas, values and — most pointedly — a lot of active voters around the state.

Trout Unlimited has 30 chapters in Washington. Add in the bird watchers at the Audubon Society and other outdoor clubs and the numbers soar. The Washington Environmental Council alone is made up of more than 70 organizations from Tonasket to Vancouver, from Spokane to Montesano.

A striking feature of the state's environmental awareness is a strong sense of place. Fly fishermen and duck hunters know the value of Washington's wetlands and what needs protection.

The Bush administration communicates no sense of the outdoors beyond potential timber sales, oil and gas leases, and mining deposits.

A recent visit to The Seattle Times by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton conveyed the administration's view that there is no intrinsic value to wild, unspoiled settings for their own sake.

Ask her why the president persists in trying to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and she provides a smiling dissertation on modern drilling techniques.

The attitude leaves Jim DiPeso more than a little exasperated. He is national policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection, an organization with chapters in 10 states. He knows more than a few members of the GOP "who will hold their noses and vote for John Kerry."

DiPeso believes the race in Washington could be closer if the national party articulated an environmental ethic closer to former Gov. Dan Evans or even the elder George Bush. Instead, DiPeso says, there is only polarizing rhetoric such as talk of aggressive coal-bed development, which makes Western farmers worry about harm to water supplies.

Nationally, the environment ranks down on the list of priority items, but Washington is a state that bucks the trend.

Think this stuff doesn't matter? Wednesday the Bush administration announced its pending decision on the roadless rule would be postponed until after the election.

Interesting timing. And transparent and insincere.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com