Re: “Paradise Lost? Snow lovers, businesses feel impact of limited access at Mount Rainier” [Dec. 8, A1]:
The National Park Service’s mission is straightforward: preserve resources and foster visitor enjoyment. The arbitrary midweek closure of winter access to Mount Rainier is not only an unforgivable loss to all of us but utterly fails the park’s own mission.
As a retired long-term employee at the park, I have nothing but love for Mount Rainier and complete respect for the hard working staff. However, blaming the unprecedented, winter-long closures on a handful of job vacancies does not pass the sniff test. Mount Rainier generates more than $68 million in economic benefits and has an annual visitation of more than 2 million people — if hiring a snowplow operator were a high priority, it would get done.
Relatively new Superintendent Greg Dudgeon is an Alaskan transplant and surely familiar with snow logistics. I truly hope he corrects this misstep and dedicates the park to re-establishing midweek access to Paradise — just like his predecessors have done for almost 125 years.
Paul Kennard, Seattle