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08-23-2007, 08:35 AM
CRAIG HILL
The News Tribune
Published: August 23rd, 2007 01:00 AM
http://media.thenewstribune.com/smedia/2007/08/23/01/124-nws0823_carbon_g.standalone.prod_affiliate.5.jpg
There are bull trout swimming in Carbon River Road, which is doubling as a riverbed for a rebellious arm of the Carbon River.
Much of the rest of this five-mile, oft-flooded route in the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park doesn’t look like a road either.
Freshly blazed trails snake around downed trees and areas where the road was washed away by the Carbon River during November’s historic flood.
Now the park must determine what to do with the Carbon River Road corridor, which draws about a 100,000 visitors to the park each year.
By spring 2008, park officials will determine if they’ll rebuild the road so it can reopen to vehicle traffic or if they’ll leave it in its current state, accessible by only foot or mountain bike. The park will also consider a partial road closure.
“It is our biggest remaining (flood recovery) project in the park,” park spokeswoman Lee Taylor said Wednesday. “And it has the most potential for controversy.”
The park made its first public presentation about the road Wednesday at Sumner City Hall at a forum organized by the Puyallup River Watershed Council.
Taylor mesmerized the small gathering with a slide show of the $36 million in damage wrought by the flood. But nothing seemed to get the group’s attention more than the fact that biologists recently found bull trout swimming in the portion of the road still covered by the Carbon River.
“That section of the road is now critical habitat,” Taylor said.
Other endangered species – spotted owls and marbled murrelets – also inhabit the corridor and require strict rules for when and how construction work can be done.
Before the meeting, 15 visitors at the forum toured a section of the damaged road.
The group saw trees that once scraped the sky now lying on their sides. They saw a 10-foot culvert stuffed full of boulders and silt. And they saw the new trail carved by the park and volunteers to allow hikers to go where SUVs traveled this time last year.
“You know, I like it better like this,” Elsie Wescott of the Puyallup Tribe said as she walked the sandy trail. “Let nature take its course. … Let people see what water can do.”
While most in the group offered the same sentiments, Bill Horn of Puyallup said he’d like to see the road repaired.
“It gives us another place to access the mountain,” Horn said. “It takes some of the pressure off of Paradise and Sunrise.”
Lorin Reinelt, Pierce County’s watershed coordinator, has seen national park access arguments like this before. When Reinelt worked in California, Yosemite National Park explored banning vehicle traffic in some areas to reduce pollution.
“It was a very interesting debate,” Reinelt said. “Most people formed their opinion on how the change would impact them, and that’s probably what will happen here.
“People’s age and health impact their perspective. If people are fit, they might be happy to leave the road as it is, because they can still access the area. But people who are older or sick or obese might prefer to rebuild the road so they can access this area.”
The park’s general management plan gives the park permission to close the road. It states, “Private vehicles and shuttles will be permitted on the road until a major washout occurs. At that time, the road will be dedicated to non-motorized uses.”
“The question is, what constitutes a major washout?” Taylor said as she addressed the forum. “We are currently discussing this.”
The general management plan also includes a plan for changing the northwest corner of the park with the addition of 800 acres of new park boundary near the Carbon Entrance.
While all of the land has not yet been acquired, park community planner Bryan Bowden said, the new property would essentially move the park entrance several miles down Carbon River Road. This would allow vehicle access to the northwest corner of the park even if the current section of damaged road remains closed.
Taylor says the park has not yet established a preferred method of dealing with Carbon River Road.
“It might not be a total closure or rebuilding,” she said. “Something in between might be the right answer.”
source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/139261.html
The News Tribune
Published: August 23rd, 2007 01:00 AM
http://media.thenewstribune.com/smedia/2007/08/23/01/124-nws0823_carbon_g.standalone.prod_affiliate.5.jpg
There are bull trout swimming in Carbon River Road, which is doubling as a riverbed for a rebellious arm of the Carbon River.
Much of the rest of this five-mile, oft-flooded route in the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park doesn’t look like a road either.
Freshly blazed trails snake around downed trees and areas where the road was washed away by the Carbon River during November’s historic flood.
Now the park must determine what to do with the Carbon River Road corridor, which draws about a 100,000 visitors to the park each year.
By spring 2008, park officials will determine if they’ll rebuild the road so it can reopen to vehicle traffic or if they’ll leave it in its current state, accessible by only foot or mountain bike. The park will also consider a partial road closure.
“It is our biggest remaining (flood recovery) project in the park,” park spokeswoman Lee Taylor said Wednesday. “And it has the most potential for controversy.”
The park made its first public presentation about the road Wednesday at Sumner City Hall at a forum organized by the Puyallup River Watershed Council.
Taylor mesmerized the small gathering with a slide show of the $36 million in damage wrought by the flood. But nothing seemed to get the group’s attention more than the fact that biologists recently found bull trout swimming in the portion of the road still covered by the Carbon River.
“That section of the road is now critical habitat,” Taylor said.
Other endangered species – spotted owls and marbled murrelets – also inhabit the corridor and require strict rules for when and how construction work can be done.
Before the meeting, 15 visitors at the forum toured a section of the damaged road.
The group saw trees that once scraped the sky now lying on their sides. They saw a 10-foot culvert stuffed full of boulders and silt. And they saw the new trail carved by the park and volunteers to allow hikers to go where SUVs traveled this time last year.
“You know, I like it better like this,” Elsie Wescott of the Puyallup Tribe said as she walked the sandy trail. “Let nature take its course. … Let people see what water can do.”
While most in the group offered the same sentiments, Bill Horn of Puyallup said he’d like to see the road repaired.
“It gives us another place to access the mountain,” Horn said. “It takes some of the pressure off of Paradise and Sunrise.”
Lorin Reinelt, Pierce County’s watershed coordinator, has seen national park access arguments like this before. When Reinelt worked in California, Yosemite National Park explored banning vehicle traffic in some areas to reduce pollution.
“It was a very interesting debate,” Reinelt said. “Most people formed their opinion on how the change would impact them, and that’s probably what will happen here.
“People’s age and health impact their perspective. If people are fit, they might be happy to leave the road as it is, because they can still access the area. But people who are older or sick or obese might prefer to rebuild the road so they can access this area.”
The park’s general management plan gives the park permission to close the road. It states, “Private vehicles and shuttles will be permitted on the road until a major washout occurs. At that time, the road will be dedicated to non-motorized uses.”
“The question is, what constitutes a major washout?” Taylor said as she addressed the forum. “We are currently discussing this.”
The general management plan also includes a plan for changing the northwest corner of the park with the addition of 800 acres of new park boundary near the Carbon Entrance.
While all of the land has not yet been acquired, park community planner Bryan Bowden said, the new property would essentially move the park entrance several miles down Carbon River Road. This would allow vehicle access to the northwest corner of the park even if the current section of damaged road remains closed.
Taylor says the park has not yet established a preferred method of dealing with Carbon River Road.
“It might not be a total closure or rebuilding,” she said. “Something in between might be the right answer.”
source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/139261.html