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The North Cascades Institutes environmental learning center is on the banks of Diablo
Lake and they're dedicated to teaching both children and adults about the ecology of the
Cascade mountains. Seattle City Light as part of its commitment to maintain this high altitude
water resource helped to build this environmental laboratory.
North Cascades National Park is one of the largest wilderness areas in the Lower 48.
Wolves, grizzlies and 25% of the nation's glaciers
lie within this rugged park's boundaries.
"This is one of the gems of the National Park System."
It is also one of the most unique partnerships anywhere. Long before it became a national
park, Seattle City Light built a hydroelectric system
in the middle of this wilderness. Then in 1968, the
North Cascades National Park was formed... and then just a few years ago, the North Cascades
Institute built an environmental learning center here.
"There's this really interesting juxtaposition between some of the most wild lands in the
United States and meeting the demands of modern society
in Seattle."
By that, he means City Light's Skagit Hydroelectric Project, which provides about 17% of Seattle's
energy needs.
"In the middle of it is this industrial complex that generates kilowatts that flow to Seattle."
Environmental stewardship is paramount to City Light, and that's why the national park
and the North Cascades Institute's Learning Center
are not competing interests with the utility- but rather
partners.
Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco:
Carrasco - 15:49 "This project and I think that the work that
all three organizations are involved with is a symbol of
how you can complement the important role that the environment plays as well as the
important value that our community gets from the facilities
that we operate up here in this area."
Saul Weisberg is the Executive Director of the North Cascades Institute:
"As far as I know, there's no other partnership like that in the country that's designed to
do education..."
The North Cascades Institute's Learning Center was holding a celebration...
( applause)
- the facility just earned Silver LEED certification. That stands for Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design. This facility truly earned it.
From the roofs of the buildings that are the same color of the gneiss granite found in
the surrounding mountains to the wood floors recycled
from old schools to the actual footprint of the
Learning Center. In fact, from the water, it's hard to tell this facility is even here.
21:53 "What was here on this site were a bunch of
abandoned old structures that had been moved here but had been used as construction quarters
for when they were building Ross Dam."
Asphalt roads were removed and, where they could, they even built in the same location
as the cabins so as to disturb the land even less.
The restaurant from an old lodge here was also recycled, remodeling it instead of building
new. Thousands of tons of construction debris were reclaimed. gutter systems were built
to reclaim water and the materials used to build the center were sustainable.
A lot of forest council certified wood in the exteriors.. cedar siding right here a
lot of it came from Canada first nations sustainable logging operation. A lot of the cement has
a lot of fly ash in it which is a bulking agent
"Park Service staff grew over 22,000 plants in our greenhouse....worked with North Cascades
instate staff and volunteers and replanted these native indigenous plants around on the
site and they are now growing up effectively creating the
impression this is sited in an area that was relatively undisturbed."
"I think for us LEED certification is recognition that we're trying to do the right thing and
the partnership with the city and the park we were all committed to doing this from the
beginning. We didn't need to do it, the decision was this is the
right way to go when we're building in a national park."
"We have this LEED-certified place... that is a focal point for bringing kids, families,
people to come and be connected to the Cascades, to come and be
connected to their national park, come and be connected to their public lands but also
serves as place for generating a significant portion of Seattle's power."
-- Sound up of the students taking the canoe class --
And the learning opportunities abound in the North Cascades now. Before the Environmental
Learning Center was built, teaching kids and families about the environment was limited
by weather and seasons. People can now stay in
this beautiful facility year-round vs. trying to deal
with fickle weather conditions in a campground.
"Particularly when you're here in the mountains, and if you start to move through the school
year.... when you're moving into November or you're
trying to do things in February or March, weather can start to take away from the opportunity
to learn."
SaulWeisberg of the North Cascades Institute and Chip Jenkins from the national park have
one thing to say to Seattleites: Come visit!
"...we have this incredible facility with great food, great lodging, access to trails.
And what we do here in the spring and the fall is have school
programs... we have really extensive programs for
families, for adults and teachers... and using this a s a doorway to walk into the wild lands
of the park we have programs in the summer that takes kids from Seattle and High School
kids from all over the country out on Ross Lake for two weeks of camping and canoes or
a one month study of climate change and glaciers a great doorway into what's really in our
backyard."
So there you have it, a great vacation stop this summer. And speaking of summer, why not
visit the Skagit Hydroelectric Project. Its less than 3 hours from Seattle and you have
all these recreational opportunities. For more information go to Skagit Tours dot com
Thank you for catching up[ for al;l the news from Seattle City Light. I'm Kelly Guenther,
have yourself a great summer.