The National Park Service staff working up on Mount Rainier should be applauded for their efforts to make visitor trips to the park as safe as possible. However, education, technology, and search and rescue staff can only go so far.

Having worked on the mountain, and taken more than 100 trips to the summit, I’ve always wondered why the park has not implemented a simple solution that certainly would have prevented many fatalities in the past.

When driving up to Paradise in the winter, the road is lined with 8-foot bamboo poles that are covered in orange and black tape. These are used by plow drivers to mark the edges of the road. They are highly visible and tough. These poles, if placed in 50- to 75-yard intervals on the route up to Camp Muir, would provide landmarks for people to safety return to Paradise.

Many fatalities have occurred over the years as a result of people simply getting lost in bad weather. Interestingly, the park uses similar, but much smaller wands, in the spring to make sure visitors stay on the trails as the snow is melting out. I believe adding such markers higher up on the mountain would prevent some future tragedies from occurring.

At the memorial, leaders offered remembrances of a woman whose passion was to care for nature and keep it safe for us and for generations to come. Many people do not realize how dangerous the job of a park ranger can be.

I remember nights wondering about my father’s search-and-rescue operations, extreme weather or conflicts between park visitors. It makes me proud of our National Park Service and our nation’s unique and radical idea to preserve and protect the Earth’s last great treasure: our wilderness.

It was fitting that the service was held in an academic setting, because imagine how many of us discovered a love for learning and exploring nature while visiting a national park? I found my love for astronomy while gazing at velvet-black night skies in those remote wilderness areas, a love that would lead me to my career.

The National Park Service honors PLU by holding Anderson’s memorial here. We Pacific Northwesterners notice the work they do, and we thank them for their service.

(Hay teaches physics at PLU.)

The response to the call by personnel from the park service, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI and the Tacoma Police Department showed tremendous skill, courage and compassion. The community can be proud of the talent, the heart and the close working relationship shown by deputies, police officers and federal law enforcement personnel.

We honor Anderson for her strength and sense of duty and obligation. We continue to keep her family, her colleagues and her friends in our thoughts and prayers.

(Pastor is the Pierce County sheriff.)

I represent the family of the man killed by the 350-pound goat. It is sad but so prevalent that people make judgments about situations and cases with no knowledge of the facts. Here are some facts in this case:

• This goat was unusually large and very aggressive.
• National park policies require that aggressive animals that regularly come near humans be removed or killed, before someone gets hurt.
• The National Park Service knew for four years that this animal regularly and aggressively encountered human beings.
• The park service shot and killed an aggressive female elk that had not hurt any human at the park. Its offense was damaging a tent and charging a car. The shooting followed procedure. Why was it not followed with the goat?
• If this goat had been a bear or cougar, we probably would not be having this conversation.

There is more, but I choose not to fully try this case against uninformed opinions in the media. I felt I had to say something.

We are familiar with the saying, “What are you waiting for? Someone to be killed?” Sadly, that is what happened in this case.

I defend the right of people to speak their minds. They should, in turn, respect the right of my clients to ask a court of law to judge their claims based on the evidence and the law, not on bias or prejudice.

As quoted in the article, Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga made this very difficult decision after careful consideration of the options before him and what makes the most sense for the Park Service, the public and the park itself.

Since 1977, damage to the Carbon River Road from flooding has occurred an average of every 2.4 years; a road here is no longer feasible due to continual flooding. The Park Service’s decision to convert the road to a trail provides appropriate public access while also protecting endangered species such as bull trout and essential habitat for Chinook and coho salmon, by preventing sections of the road eroding and disturbing their spawning grounds during floods. The installation of engineered log jams will prevent further erosion of the road.

This decision is financially responsible because it does not use limited park financial resources to construct a road that would likely wash out again in the future.

The National Parks Conservation Association applauds the superintendent and the National Park Service for making a difficult decision that is forward-looking and will be best for Mount Rainier National Park and its visitors in the long term.

(Graves is the Northwest program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.)