Daily Score Blog

One of my supreme August pleasures is eating juicy blueberries by the handful. It's those local blueberries, and the latest installment of The Tyee's series on "The 100-mile diet," that are inspiring me to cook an all-local-food dinner party next week.

As we noted here, a British Columbia couple is reporting on their experience eating only food produced within 100 miles of their home for a year. Their summer report doesn't make it sound too rough: salmon with organic sage butter, fresh fava beans, and sweet gypsy peppers anyone?

The series is a good reminder that eating locally produced food not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but puts the eater more in touch with how food is produced. As one of the writers--J.B. MacKinnon--puts it: "It is easier to make ethical decisions about sustainability and animal husbandry when you can walk onto the farm and see for yourself. Distance is the enemy of awareness."

Eating locally also supports the economy of local producers that are using organic and sustainable practices.

Since August in the Northwest is the time for enjoying hiking and eating blueberries, MacKinnon uses part three of the series to sing the praises of the flavors, variety, and cuisine within miles of his home. And he suggests (with recipes!) we all try our hand, even if just for one evening, at the 100-mile diet.

For many northwesterners, summer means an all-too-brief window to capitalize on the region's natural heritage. For a few months city-dwellers like myself become schizophrenics--living in an apartment during the week and waking up in a sleeping bag on the weekends. Northwesterners have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to trails and wilderness within a short drive of our cities. In the wild country of the Northwest's mountains, it is still possible to find solitude on high country trails, in alpine lake basins that look like Shangri La, and in ancient dark forests.

But our ability to experience those places is facing a very real threat because many of the best trails to those refuges are going extinct. In some cases, the loss of trails is an especially bitter pill to swallow because there is comparatively ample funding for the roads that lead to those vanishing trails.

In the US Northwest, the vast majority of our precious natural beauty is not managed by northwesterners, but by two federal agencies, the US Forest Service, which operates national forests, and the National Park Service. Both agencies are badly under-funded and short-handed.

In fact,the Forest Service is already beginning to sell off assets. Many national forests lack the resources necessary even to maintain their crumbling infrastructures of campgrounds, forest roads, boat launches, and trails. National forests are increasingly dependent on volunteers and private funding to make up for the severe shortfall of federal dollars.

Here's a case study that hits very close to home for an estimated 5 million northwesterners: the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest--the huge swath of federal land that blankets the west side of the Cascade Mountains from the Canadian border to Mount Rainier National Park. Right now, the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie's website says:

While it appears that repairs to roads are largely funded and most will eventually be made, the same can not yet be said for the trail system.

Here's why.