Standing Up For Silence “Silence is not the absence of something, but the presence of everything,” says Gordon Hempton, an avid soundscape researcher and advocate. Living in Port Angeles has given him the opportunity to spend time in the nearby Olympic National Park (ONP) and to learn about and appreciate its exceptionally unique soundscape. ONP is known to some as the Final Forest or the Last Corner, given that it is one of the last places in the Lower Forty-Eight that was settled by pioneers. It is home to eight tribes and is a World Heritage Site. Some of the last undeveloped coastline in the Lower Forty-Eight is found in ONP, along with some of the biggest Douglas-fir, western hemlock, yellow cedar, and subalpine fir trees in the world. Its extreme weather patterns make for a biodiversity hotspot, including many endemic plants and animals. With the Park’s natural wonders 28 fieldnotesjournal.org
comes its unique soundscape, encompassing the ocean waves, rivers, birds, bugs, bears, falling trees, and many other natural sounds. Hempton describes ONP as “the listener’s Yosemite”. In recent years, however, a newer, more piercing sound has taken flight. Coming from the nearby Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI), Boeing EA-18G Growlers fly over ONP in the Olympic Military Operation Area (MOA) to conduct pilot training (Figure 1). And as their name implies, they aren’t quiet. As transit occurs between the Whidbey Base and MOAs or training occurs within the MOAs, noise echoes in all directions across the park. Noise from Growlers can vary both in time and intensity; the weekends might not harbor any flights at all, whereas weekdays might bring either a persistent rumble, or intense roars that can prevent
conversations and sleep. The flight of a Growler can be heard for yourself here^. Lauren Kuehne, a researcher at the University of Washington, first remembers hearing the roar of Growlers over the campsite she was at on the Peninsula. It was startling to hear them at a popular camping destination in ONP, she recalls, but even more startling that it was before 8am. A few months later, a resident from Lopez Island of the San Juans emailed Kuehe’s research department inquiring about the impact of Growler noise on wildlife. Kuehne recognized the knowledge gap in this area of study and “realized how much potential this had to change a fundamental character of the region.” According to Kuehne, recording air traffic over the park is important to get a clear distinction between commercial flights and military flights to verify claims by
PHOTO UW
by Allison Phillips and Celine Tang
