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Show EJTAL'iS CONTINUED All this helps explain why conservation leaders are calling at last for a national wildlife congress to study the problem. "While we've been worrying about lakes, rivers and clean air, this mountain problem has sneaked up behind our backs," one said. The four supporting groups are the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and NatureConservancy. "It's time now to see where we are going. Do we want to see ail our famous summits our crown jewels exploited by man?" Complicating the problem is the recent conclusion by scientists, such as University of Vermont's Dr. Hubert Vogelmann, that tough-lookin- g mountains aren't really tough at all. "They're fragile," says Vogelmann. "Once damaged, they never recover. They start to crumble." Escape needed citizens decided on more drastic action: "Let's tax ourselves to buy up mountain land." Many thoright that such a plan would never gain approval. But a proposed additional .6 cent sales tax passed. Now, each year, Boulder spends $500,000 to buy up to some of that state's greatest scenic assets. When Dr. Hubert Vogelmann, a botanist from Ann Arbor, Mich., moved his family to Vermont, he was named "mountain scientist" a new job at the University of Vermont. advertisement A few helpful hints on ot what to do when youre feeling a little dragged out. concrete. The aroused Vogelmann told his classes at the university: "This can't go on. There's a lot of garbage being put up there." An angry protest Dampen a wash cloth with cool water and put the cloth over 1. Some of the worlds most beautiful cities such as San Francisco, Athens, Rome and Denver are built at the foot of majestic mountains or nts-tle- d against imposing ranges. But the people in these cities, as with people everywhere, feel the need to escape often to untouched mountain areas. The numbers seeking mountains as areas of retreat , together with vast development plans for "Alpine living," now threaten to turn remote summits everywhere into massive population centers. Meanwhile, how Americans feel about their mountains is shown by what is happening in Boulder, Colo., a cjty of 75,000. A few years ago Boulder's urban sprawl began moving up the Rocky Mountain slopes that have always provided a spectacular backdrop for the city a dramatic setting that has given Boulder a beauty all its own. Suddenly, Boulder residents decided that they were unwilling to see their mountains developed, and so they voted a "blue line ' above the 7700 foot level, no water would be piped to any projected real estate developments. (Boulder itself lies at 5500 feet.) But the developers found their way around this by digging wells, and the sprawl continued up the mountainsides. So four summers ago, Boulder your eyes. Just a few moments of this will leave you feeling cooler and ever-increasi- fresher. Take a walk. The fresh 2. air is a break from the stale air indoors. And a change of surroundings usually helps give you a new outlook. 3. Or take a Vivarin. Vivarin it is a forming caffeine tablet that will help you feel refreshed when you're feeling But little don't have a lot of out. a dragged time to do something about it. 12 The Vogelmanns found that the top of Mt. Jay (America's "Little Matterhorn") had been blasted, and a blocklike building constructed there. Part of the summit view had been totally destroyed. Slopes below were littered with bulldozed devastation. Not far away, still another peak showed a monster scar a mine that for years had spilled out its waste onto the slope. Farther south Vogelmann saw that the top of the state's proudest mountain 4400-foMansfield was by buildings, pockmarked transmitting towers, a parking lot, and even piles of broken non-hab- - more and more surrounding mountains just to keep them the way they are unspoiled. Boulder's formerMayor Robert Knecht says, "Already we own six miles of mountains and were going to buy six more. We're just not going to let anyone ruin Boulder s skyline!" But in Vermont, it took a new resident to recognize what was happening i. The Vogelmanns and their two sons, and hikers, were enraptured e Green Mountain by Vermont's range, but soon were shocked by what they found. Ski resorts were becoming real estate projects. And the Vogelmanns, like other skiers, found themselves schussing downhill past new houses and freshly bulldozed streets. all skiers 250-mil- Soon afterward, 40 schoolteachers from several Vermont communities decided to investigate. They, too, were shocked. There on the windy summit, they drafted an angry protest to the peak's owner who was making money by renting the land. And here was their ironic the mountain's discovery: owner was none other than Vogelmann's own employer the University of Vermont. A new president, Edward who had just C. Andrews taken over was startled by the charges. He accompanied a committee up the mountain to investigate. Meanwhile Vermonts Gov. Deane C. Davis was inundated with protests from others. It was brought to his attention that one developer planned 3000 houses on a single slope. The president of the corporation that owned the mountain flew to Vermont and found that unknown to him a subsidiary was turning the property overnight into a small city. The project was halted. At the same time from another part of Vermont, a town officer sent the governor photographs he had taken from an airplane of bulldozers smashing trees down tor a mountain road. d Vermont Soon, all seemed to be aware of the uncontrolled "mountain boom." Public feeling was so strong that the state legislature overrode lobbyists by voting into effect a new kind of mountain law. Henceforth in Vermont the rule would be: "Keep hands off any rock-ribbe- PARADE OCTOBER 31, 1971 |