Webmaster
06-28-2008, 09:49 AM
The News Tribune
Published: June 26th, 2008 01:00 AM
Mount Rainier National Park officials will hold two public meetings next week as they develop an environmental assessment for possible repairs of the Carbon River Road.
Park staff will be on hand to discuss proposed alternatives for the road, which has been closed to vehicles since November 2006, when historic flooding and high winds caused damage throughout the park.
Access to Ipsut Creek Campground and trails in the northwest corner of the park is by foot and bicycle only.
During the flood, gullies covering approximately a mile of the road’s 5.5-mile length were formed at Falls Creek and beyond Chenuis Falls Picnic Area, according to a park news release. Another 600 feet of road was damaged when part or all of one lane washed away.
Another mile of roadway was damaged, and grading would be needed and culverts would need to be added and/or replaced if the road was stabilized or fixed.
Closure of the road has added 11 miles round-trip to what was the eight-mile trip to the snout of the Carbon Glacier, what was the most easily reached glacier in the lower 48 states. The campground is now the park’s lone year-round campground because much of Sunshine Point Campground washed away in the flood. Ipsut Creek is now a walk-in campground.
While the park’s General Management Plan, approved in 2002, calls for the eventual closure of the road, it does not establish guidelines for that to happen, the release said.
As a result, park staffers are developing an environmental assessment to analyze several alternatives for the road, including closure of all or part of the road and to have additional public participation in the decision-making process.
Meetings
Monday: 7 p.m., Enumclaw Public Library, 1700 First St., Enumclaw
Tuesday: 7 p.m., Tacoma Mountaineers Clubhouse, 2302 N. 30th St., Tacoma
To comment
Those wishing to make comments should submit them:
In writing: Superintendent, Mount Rainier National Park, 55210 238th Ave. E., Ashford, WA 98304-9751
E-mail: mora_superintendent@nps.gov
Online: parkplanning.nps.gov/mora, click on Mount Rainier link
More information
Learn about park plans at www.nps.gov/mora.
from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/adventure/story/398011.html
Published: June 26th, 2008 01:00 AM
Mount Rainier National Park officials will hold two public meetings next week as they develop an environmental assessment for possible repairs of the Carbon River Road.
Park staff will be on hand to discuss proposed alternatives for the road, which has been closed to vehicles since November 2006, when historic flooding and high winds caused damage throughout the park.
Access to Ipsut Creek Campground and trails in the northwest corner of the park is by foot and bicycle only.
During the flood, gullies covering approximately a mile of the road’s 5.5-mile length were formed at Falls Creek and beyond Chenuis Falls Picnic Area, according to a park news release. Another 600 feet of road was damaged when part or all of one lane washed away.
Another mile of roadway was damaged, and grading would be needed and culverts would need to be added and/or replaced if the road was stabilized or fixed.
Closure of the road has added 11 miles round-trip to what was the eight-mile trip to the snout of the Carbon Glacier, what was the most easily reached glacier in the lower 48 states. The campground is now the park’s lone year-round campground because much of Sunshine Point Campground washed away in the flood. Ipsut Creek is now a walk-in campground.
While the park’s General Management Plan, approved in 2002, calls for the eventual closure of the road, it does not establish guidelines for that to happen, the release said.
As a result, park staffers are developing an environmental assessment to analyze several alternatives for the road, including closure of all or part of the road and to have additional public participation in the decision-making process.
Meetings
Monday: 7 p.m., Enumclaw Public Library, 1700 First St., Enumclaw
Tuesday: 7 p.m., Tacoma Mountaineers Clubhouse, 2302 N. 30th St., Tacoma
To comment
Those wishing to make comments should submit them:
In writing: Superintendent, Mount Rainier National Park, 55210 238th Ave. E., Ashford, WA 98304-9751
E-mail: mora_superintendent@nps.gov
Online: parkplanning.nps.gov/mora, click on Mount Rainier link
More information
Learn about park plans at www.nps.gov/mora.
from: http://www.thenewstribune.com/adventure/story/398011.html