Navy Plans Electromagnetic War Games in Coastal Rainforest and Olympic Nat'l Park (Bellingham: military, to move)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Olympian2

I was concerned at first too. There were a lot of mushroom spores loose until our first freeze,
but reading and thinking alleviated my concerns.


This is old news which became something for the news media to latch onto and generate articles.

This story first showed up on my radar on the Electronic Warfare coming to a neighborhood near you - Forks Forum in September when someone noticed a notice in the Forks post office.


The Peninsula Daily News picked up on the story soon after: For war games next year, Navy wants to post trucks with electromagnetic radiation equipment on West End -- Port Angeles Port Townsend Sequim Forks Jefferson County Clallam County Olympic Peninsula Daily NEWS


No people, large animals to be harmed in electronic warfare training, Navy says — but it has its risks -- Port Angeles Port Townsend Sequim Forks Jefferson County Clallam County Olympic Peninsula Daily NEWS.


The Pulitzer Prize winning Seattle Times took several weeks to take over coverage: Navy’s electronic-warfare training plan not flying in Forks | Local News | The Seattle Times

What the Navy wants to do is to test out the Growlers' "equipment" over the Peninsula. States the Seattle Times: "They proposed — without really, really explaining what it means — testing “electronic warfare” over the pristine public land." There would be trucks with microwave transmitters pointed upwards to test the Growlers' "electronic warfare sensors." The Navy wants to have vehicles with microwave transmitters pointed upwards positioned on logging roads while Growlers fly over. The plan is to test Boeing's Growlers' "electronic warfare" detection systems with actual microwave radiation. Why would Growlers be concerned about microwave radiation? Directed-energy weapon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is a 96 page article encompassing the subject which a Seattle Times employee on a salary might bother to read: 404 Not Found - Federation Of American Scientists (Ignore the 404 error. CDF isn't perfect. The URL works for me.)

In summary, the Growler pilots going supersonic are much more of an issue for some of us.

Good post. People are concerned with both the supersonic flights of the Growlers, and also the risk to health for people and wildlife in the games area that the microwave technology presents. For example, how would they keep kids from accidentally wandering too close to the mobile towers, and how do they know how close is "too close"?

I couldn't access the article, though I got the Fed. of American Scientists page. Is there a way to access the article from the menu along the top of the page?

It's "old news" because the Navy was supposed to notify people in Forks, but all they did is post a notice in the Post Office, so a lot of people didn't find out. So once they found out, the stuff hit the fan, and a ripple effect spread across the Peninsula to Seattle. People have had meetings with local authorities and legislators, but they've been told it's inevitable.

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Take a look at the map in the PDN's 10/15/2014 article "West End residents line up to express worries to Navy over warfare range proposal"...those are beautiful woods, filled with wildlife. Spouse & I spend every free moment out there & we are not alone. There is life of all kinds out there. Not a place to practice warfare.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by thisplacesucks

Take a look at the map in the PDN's 10/15/2014 article "West End residents line up to express worries to Navy over warfare range proposal"...those are beautiful woods, filled with wildlife. Spouse & I spend every free moment out there & we are not alone. There is life of all kinds out there. Not a place to practice warfare.

Yes, lots of people love to visit the rainforest. And there are Native American communities in the area, where presumably, kids are used to exploring the woods freely. In fact, I'm surprised the issue of sacred sites hasn't come up. That so often happens in wilderness areas.

[Olympian2]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I couldn't access the article, though I got the Fed. of American Scientists page. Is there a way to access the article from the menu along the top of the page?

Which article were you unable to access? The Seattle Times does try to limit the number of articles that a non-subscriber can read, but ... well, they try. I would suggest trying the Peninsula Daily News or Daily World for less frothy "news reporting" anyway.

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It's "old news" because the Navy was supposed to notify people in Forks, but all they did is post a notice in the Post Office, so a lot of people didn't find out. So once they found out, the stuff hit the fan, and a ripple effect spread across the Peninsula to Seattle. People have had meetings with local authorities and legislators, but they've been told it's inevitable.

After I read the post on the Forks Forum, it took me about-to-less than an hour to generally suss out what is being proposed. The Navy would want to avoid a controversy, but they seem to have unintentionally created one.

I do understand why Olympic Peninsulans would want to know what is going on above and around them, but I haven't been concerned about this matter for two months now. There was a mention of a 10% increase of Growler flights. OK, just keep them subsonic. (I genuinely thought that a jet had accidentally dropped a payload of bombs the last time they went supersonic near me.)

[Olympian2]

Originally Posted by thisplacesucks

those are beautiful woods, filled with wildlife. Spouse & I spend every free moment out there & we are not alone. There is life of all kinds out there. Not a place to practice warfare.

As Google Maps will show you, most of the beautiful woods west of the Olympics were destroyed by loggers long ago, and that continues. I once climbed this former tree:



I have many more graphic off-topic logging photos that I won't share. I will share that the timber family that did that also illegally logged the Olympic National Park and the Olympic National Forest a while ago.

Back to the topic, I've already explained that all the Navy wants to do is have trucks with microwave transmitters pointed UPWARDS so that the Growler pilots can detect the microwave radiation. If you read the fine print, "No humans or large animals will be harmed." Well before the Seattle Times reported "Navy officials did not know the impact of the emissions on small animals.", I pondered that a Douglas squirrel might be exposed to radiation. As much as I like feisty Douglas squirrels, I concluded that it wasn't an important issue. During the dry season, tourists in rental cars take out more garter snakes, squirrels, and banana slugs in one day on the Olympic Peninsula than the Navy would ever harm with their "electronic warfare" tests.

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Then why are ppl in Forks & PA upset?? BTW, I grew up in Mojave Desert, the military & the govt. in general considered it to be just a big dump, a place to conduct war games. Sad to see it happening here.

[Olympian2]

I feel that I should augment (i.e., complete) my previous post. The Navy is already flying over the Olympic Peninsula (including the Olympic National Park.) Their plan is to have two stationary microwave transmitters near Pacific Beach and three portable transmitters. The trucks with microwave transmitters would be operating in remote areas of US Forest Service land and not in the ONP or a designated Wilderness. The USFS generally allows any type of firearm target practice (just not at trees or glass), hunting, and with a permit, cutting firewood. So the transmitters wouldn't be in an untouched pristine rainforest.

Even after last night's meeting, it seems that opposition is increasing : Navy defends electronic warfare training to skeptical crowd | The Daily World

At least there is now a number to call if the pilots are flying too fast.

[Pretzelogik]

Will someone please tell poor Mick about this. The Legend of Mick Dodge | National Geographic Channel

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Phone number is simply a general comments line to placate the masses.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Olympian2

As Google Maps will show you, most of the beautiful woods west of the Olympics were destroyed by loggers long ago, and that continues. I once climbed this former tree:



I have many more graphic off-topic logging photos that I won't share. I will share that the timber family that did that also illegally logged the Olympic National Park and the Olympic National Forest a while ago.

Was there proof? Did anyone sue? I wish people couldn't get away with this sort of thing.

The logging companies basically own the School of Forestry at the UW, so for 30 or 40 years, now, the School has been teaching that clear-cutting is OK. They used to teach that clear-cutting damaged the forest, so a variety of methods were taught, that allowed the forest to regenerate faster and didn't leave ugly clear cuts. But those methods over time became too expensive, so now clear-cutting is the norm.