Obama creates Pacific Northwest Trail - San Jose Mercury News

[WhiteBlaze]

Obama creates Pacific Northwest Trail San Jose Mercury News The Appalachian Trail is the best known. While the trail is well-marked and well-used in portions of western Washington state, mostly in state parks, ...

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[MOWGLI]

In all fairness, if this piece of legislation hadn't languished in the US Senate, Bush 43 would have signed it.

[Jack Tarlin]

And in truth, Presidents don't "create" National Scenic Trails. They might sign legislation that Congress has deliberated and voted on, but the true creation of a Trail takes place thanks to years of effort by thousands of individuals, most of them anonymous volunteers.

[Skyline]

The hard work—much of it volunteerism—that it took to make the Pacific Northwest Trail a reality is detailed in the Mercury-News link.

Hats off to Ron Strickland, Jon Knechtel, the other volunteers, Lyndon Johnson, Mo Udahl, and of course President Obama and the current Congress for all they did to advance the National Scenic Trail designation. They each have a rightful place in the history of this important new trail.

[Jack Tarlin]

Skyline:

I don't want this to become a political dispute. I'm not questioning the realities that were "detailed" in the text of the article.

I was merely questioning the wording of the headline, which subsequently became the title of the thread on Whiteblaze.

Both the headline and the thread title are, at best, misleading and incomplete statements. Politicians of every sort, from every political affiliation, are all too often given credit for things that were largely performed by others.

This is a simple truth and is not meant to be a controversial statement.

[MOWGLI]

Semantics. When the bill was signed by the President and it became the law of the land, the NST was officially created. How it got to that point (Congressional process) is left out. Of course, the bill could have been vetoed by a sitting President. And then Congress could have overridden tthe veto and taken claim for creating the NST - start to finish. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

[Skyline]

Skyline:

I don't want this to become a political dispute. I'm not questioning the realities that were "detailed" in the text of the article.

I was merely questioning the wording of the headline, which subsequently became the title of the thread on Whiteblaze.

Both the headline and the thread title are, at best, misleading and incomplete statements. Politicians of every sort, from every political affiliation, are all too often given credit for things that were largely performed by others.

This is a simple truth and is not meant to be a controversial statement.

Agreed. The current Congress headed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and President Obama, did not create the Pacific Northwest Trail.

They merely passed and signed the legislation making it a National Scenic Trail—which bodes well for its future support and funding. That it took a Democratic Congress and White House to finally get this done is a fact, as is the reality that a Republican Senator held it up in 2008. This year's good news is not controversial. It's what many observers expected might happen after November 4, 2008. It would have been somewhat controversial if they had not done this.

The real "creators" of the Pacific Northwest Trail are the volunteers who first dreamed it, and made it happen. We don't even know their political affiliations. Whatever those affiliations are, it makes little difference, and they aren't controversial either.

[MOWGLI]

Agreed. The current Congress headed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, with President Obama, did not create the Pacific Northwest Trail.

They merely passed and signed the legislation making it a National Scenic Trail—which bodes well for its future support and funding. That it took a Democratic Congress and White House to finally get this done is a fact. It's not controversial. It's what many observers expected might happen after November 4, 2008. It would have been somewhat controversial if they had not done this.

The real "creators" of the Pacific Northwest Trail are the volunteers who first dreamed it, and made it happen. We don't even know their political affiliations. Whatever those affiliations are, it makes little difference, and they aren't controversial either.

The bill was part of the 2009 Omnibus Public Lands Act, and had broad bipartisan support. Senator Coburn from OK put a hold on the bill - as Senators are permitted to do. It would have passed a Senate floor vote in 2008 if Coburn had released it last year. He didn't until enormous pressure was put upon him by members of both parties.