MRNP updates on repairs and trails

[Webmaster]

Thanks to Wendy S. for attending the presentation and forewording this info!

3/10/07 Presentation Update on Mt. Rainier National Park by
Lee Taylor, Information Park Ranger Officer

Repair Cost:
36 million estimated to repair park roads. This does not include trails or campgrounds. Due to snow pack they are sure this figure will go up when there is access to damaged areas.

Roads:
Nisqually Road - Longmire to Paradise targeted opening May 2007
3 serious road repairs, no hikers or bikers allowed

Stevens Canyon - Targeted opening August 2007
1 major mud / rock slide washout, snow needs to melt before they can realistically plan repair
2 minor road section washouts

Hwy 123 Cayuse Pass - No target on opening yet.
1 major section of road out about 1 mile from summit

Hwy 410 - Not severely damaged

Sunrise Road - Not severely damaged

Trails:
Wonderland Trail - Estimating every back country bridge is out. Two sections of trail seriously damaged that will require re-routing of trail. One section is in Stevens Canyon which now has a severe rock slide area.

[Webmaster]

WASHINGTON – The Nisqually Road, severely damaged by flooding in November, will be open to the public from the entrance of Mount Rainier National Park to Paradise by May 1, the head of the National Park Service said Tuesday.
Previous estimates put damage to the park at $36 million. But Mary Bomar, the park service director, told the House interior appropriations subcommittee the total price tag could approach $100 million.

The extent of the “unprecedented” damage might not be known until the snow melts, according to a park service briefing memo delivered to the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, during a hearing.

“We have been working diligently to make repairs,” Bomar told the panel.

More than 18 inches of rain fell in the park in less than 36 hours in early November, touching off floods that swept away roads, campgrounds, trails and other facilities. The park was closed for weeks, the first closure since World War II.

Most of the park remains closed, though there is limited foot access to Longmire and along the Carbon River Road. But the hike can be dangerous. Two people drowned in the park last week as they tried to cross a creek.

“It’s a natural disaster and you have to fix this stuff,” Dicks said after the hearing. “I feel good the way the park service has responded.”

The park service memo said possible delays caused by winter conditions have been factored into the May 1 date for opening the Nisqually Road, the park’s main year-round corridor. At least four sections of the road were damaged or obliterated in the floods.

Highway 123, part of the main north-south corridor on the park’s east side, is not expected to open to the public until October at the earliest. And Stevens Canyon Road, the only road connecting the east and west sides of the park, might not open to the public until August, the memo said.

Some road repairs elsewhere in the park might be delayed until August because of concerns for threatened and endangered species, including the spotted owl, the marbled murrelet and bull trout.

In order to help make up for economic losses caused by the park’s closure, the memo said additional services or longer operating seasons will be utilized in some areas. One example: The Sunrise visitor center on the park’s east side will open in June, two weeks earlier than normal.

“I have assurances they will do whatever needs to be done to fix the problems,” Dicks said. “I trust them.”

During the hearing, Dicks said he was pleased that the Bush the administration is proposing a 12 percent, or $206 million, increase in operating funds for the 390 parks, monuments, historic sites and other park service units. That follows several years in which funding was trimmed, forcing layoffs and reducing the number of seasonal employees hired.

But Dicks and others said that increase and other proposed increases in the park service budget came at the expense of other federal programs under his subcommittee’s jurisdiction. Among others, the administration has proposed a $400 million cut in the Clean Water program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and a $174 million cut in the Forest Service budget.

“It is unfortunate that the badly needed increases for the parks come at the expense of other domestic priorities funded in the bill,” Dicks said.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., a member of the subcommittee and the chairman of the full House Appropriations Committee, said the increased park service funding was a “mirage” and was based on unacceptable cuts in other priority programs.

Bomar didn’t respond to the criticism. But she noted that the centennial of the park service is approaching in 2016, and the budget includes $3 billion in new funds for the parks over the next 10 years. That includes $1 billion in federal funding, $1 billion in private funding and $1 billion in matching federal funds.

Dicks said he didn’t have any problems with private funding, but Obey differed.

“There is significant concern about the potential for over-commercialization of the parks,” he said.

Under questioning, Bomar said the park service still has a backlog of delayed maintenance projects that would cost nearly $8 billion to eliminate, including $1.1 billion in immediate needs. The budget proposal includes almost $1 billion for maintenance projects.

source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/6435500p-5734738c.html