The News from Olympic

Park Readies for Winter Visitors, Activities

The winter schedule for Olympic National Park’s newly reopened Hurricane Ridge has been released, and includes some changes.

The road reopened Friday after $12 million in work to repair storm damage and repave the road.

New ONP Leader Speaks to Business Group

The new superintendent of Olympic National Park likes moving into the biggest restoration project in park service history.
Karen Gustin told the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce yesterday she had good reason to take the job after serving in Florida.

New Olympic National Park Leader Will Attend Open House in Sequim

People will have the chance to meet Karen Gustin, the new superintendent at Olympic National Park, at an open house Tuesday. Gustin took over the top spot at the park in April.

The event is 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Sequim Visitor Information Center, 1192 E. Washington St., Sequim.

Olympic National Park Entrance Fees to Be Waived This Weekend

Visitors to the Olympic National park will pay no entrance fees on Saturday and Sunday.

The back-to-back entrance-fee-free days are part of nationwide celebrations at national parks and other public lands.

National Public Lands Day will be celebrated on Saturday when the park will join other National Park Service areas and other federal land management agencies in waiving entrance fees.

Backpacking for the First Time

In the fall, my husband decided that our next big vacation should involve something we’d never done before.

His idea: wilderness backpacking.

Wow. OK. I am not the best at packing light or sleeping out of doors, but I try to be a happy camper. And so we signed on to an organized three-day hiking tour in the Pacific Northwest coastal area of Olympic National Park in June.

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Here the scenery features snow-capped mountains with 7,000-foot peaks as well as lush rain forests on the Pacific coast.

The Olympic circuit: Head north from Seattle to the Whidbey Island ferry. Motor up the snake-shaped island's spine, stopping for chocolate treats in Langley or Penn Cove mussels in Coupeville before boarding your second ferry from Keystone to Port Townsend. This Victorian-era town aimed to be a thriving port during the 1888-90 railroad boom but soon went bust.

Flags at half staff in honor of fallen firefighter

In honor of Andy Palmer, the wildland firefighter from Washington state who died this week fighting a fire in California, flags at National Park Service areas throughout the agency's Pacific West Region will fly at half staff.

Palmer, 18, of Port Townsend, was hired in June as a wildland firefighter at Olympic National Park. On Tuesday, Palmer's crew was dispatched to help fight a fire in California's Shasta-Trinity National Forest. On their first day on the line, Palmer was struck by a falling tree and died.

CAUSE OF FIRE NEAR STAIRCASE RELEASED

The U.S. Forest Service says the brush fire Monday night off the road to the Staircase area of Olympic National Park was human caused. According to a news release, the fire, dubbed the East Cushman Fire, was contained before it reached one-tenth of an acre in size. An abandoned campfire ring at its origin indicated that the ignition was human caused.

Got your goat? At least one billy's a bully in Olympic National Park

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Beware the aggressive billy.

He roams the Klahhane Ridge vicinity, now and again approaching people and "not backing off," Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.

There's no need to be alarmed when sighting this or any of the hundreds of mountain goats in the park.

But "we recommend that people stay clear and not approach" the goats, she added.

There have been reports of a goat in the Klahhane-Hurricane Ridge-Switchback Trail area that has refused to yield to two-legged park users, Maynes said.

"They use the trails just as people do. We tell people that if the goat is approaching them, they could throw rocks and try to scare him off."

Rabid bat in Olympic National Park puts visitor, three employees in treatment

The Olympic National Park's first possible case of rabies since 1977 has struck a woman who was in the Ozette campground late last week.

The 55-year-old woman is getting rabies prevention treatment after a bat scratched her in the Ozette campground. Three Olympic National Park employees who responded to the incident are also receiving treatment.

The bat approached the woman at her campsite. She knocked the bat to the ground and got scratched. The stunned bat remained on the ground until the next morning. Park employees removed the bat for rabies testing. The rabies virus was found in the bat.

The only other known case of rabies in Olympic National Park was recorded 33 years ago in July 1975, when a child was bitten by a bat in the Elwha Valley.

Group Gives National Park System ‘Fair’ Grade

National parks across the country, including ones in Washington, face obstacles to protecting their natural and cultural resources because of underfunding and understaffing, according to a new report by a national conservation group.

The report released Tuesday by the National Parks Conservation Association gives the National Park System only a “fair” grade. The assessment, “The State of Our National Parks: A Resources Index,” was based on studies since 2000 of 54 parks, including Washington’s Olympic National Park, San Juan Island National Historical Park and Nez Perce National Historical Park.

FDR Returns for Park’s 70th

In 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt motorcaded through Grays Harbor County, pausing to eat lunch at Lake Quinault during a fact-finding tour of the Olympic Peninsula.

It wasn’t a long stay, but long enough for FDR to be moved by the area’s stunning natural beauty and enormous stands of timber.

A year later, on June 29, 1938, Roosevelt by executive decree transformed what had been the Olympic National Monument into the Olympic National Park.

WTA Crew Reroutes Hoh River Trail

The Washington Trails Association's first Volunteer Vacation crew of the 2008 season has returned, smiling and successful, from the Hoh River Trail in Olympic National Park.  In just six days, our crew completed over 2000 feet of rerouted trail segments on the Hoh River Trail that was damaged in the December storms (whole stretches of the old trail spilled into the flood-swollen river.). They fixed 3 sections of trail from approximately 1.5 miles to 3 miles in.

"We were really moving," said Volunteer Crew Leader Janice O'Connor of the huge amount of work the crew completed in just under a week. "It was remarkable to see the devastation that the river unleashed on this trail, and also to be able to open it back up to hikers." Olympic National Park sustained $4 million in damage to roads, trails and facilities in the December 2007 storm.

New superintendent for Olympic National Park noted for work amid controversy in Florida

The top administrator of a federal preserve of cypress-laden wetlands in southern Florida will become the new superintendent of Olympic National Park in mid-July.Karen Gustin, superintendent of Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee, Fla., about 45 miles west of Miami, will replace Bill Laitner, who retired in January."I am thrilled to be coming," Gustin said in an interview on her wireless phone while tending to her daughter's horse, Sundance, at their Florida home."I have worked all over the United States, and this is a great opportunity to get to know the local folks and staff at Olympic."