A year after flooding ravaged Mount Rainier National Park, park officials are bracing for another storm.
This time they could face a flood of public discontent as they ponder permanently closing Carbon River Road, an unpaved five-mile artery that accesses the most popular trails and campground in the park’s northwest corner.
Not only does the road give visitors access to Carbon Glacier, but the corridor is also home to bull trout, spotted owls and marble murrelets, all threatened species. The road was damaged Nov. 6-7 last year when 17.9 inches of rain fell in 36 hours.
The fate of the heavily damaged road is the biggest remaining flood recovery project and is destined to be controversial, said park superintendent Dave Uberuaga.
The road’s future will be determined by several factors: environmental impact, recreational access and sustainability.
Park officials are analyzing the road and preparing an environmental impact study in hopes of having a plan by the end of the year. The estimated cost is more than $927,420.
By January, Uberuaga hopes to start holding community meetings to hear public feedback. And he hopes to finalize the plan early next year.
Carbon River Road has been closed to vehicle traffic since the flood, making access to the popular Carbon Glacier Trail and Ipsut Creek Campground difficult.
“Whoever the twits are who want to close the road really don’t understand what’s going on,” said Bob Arnold of Puyallup. “At 70 to 80 years old, the people I hike with can do the seven-mile (Carbon Glacier) hike, but if they extend it to 15 miles it’s not realistic.”
AN INEVITABILITY
Park officials have long known Carbon River Road would become unusable at some point. The 2002 general management plan states, “Private vehicles and shuttles would be permitted on the road until a major washout occurred. At that time, the road would be dedicated to non-motorized uses (hiking and biking).”
As the Carbon River deposits debris on its riverbed, it rises. Carbon River Road, however, is stationary. Today, the river is higher than the road, leaving it susceptible to washouts. The road has washed out regularly over the past 20 years even though the park has added berms to the river bank and tried diverting the river.
“I would like to have it (the road) open,” Uberuaga said. “But it may not be sustainable.”
When park officials first saw the ravaged road after last year’s storm, they figured it was the major washout they’d feared. That’s not necessarily the case now.
“Is this the major event?” Uberuaga said. “Some say yes, and some say we could get it open. That’s where we are at right now.”
CARBON GLACIER TRAIL
From Ipsut Creek Campground at the end of Carbon River Road, it’s a 3.5-mile hike to the Carbon Glacier, the lowest glacier in the continental United States.
“It is an incredible day trip to the snout of the glacier,” Uberuaga said.
Closing the road turns this seven-mile hike into a 17-mile trip, beyond the range of most day hikers.
“For me, the road closure makes the hike less appealing,” said Andrea Wagner, a manager of South Tacoma Way’s Backpackers Supply. “I love hiking to the glacier. But walking on the road is not my ideal hike.”
George Penfield, a 63-year-old Puyallup resident, said a hike to the glacier likely would require an overnight stay for him, but he’s OK with that.
“In a perfect world, I’d like to see them repair the road,” Penfield said. “Unfortunately, there is no practical, sensible and affordable way to fix the road. It’s a geological inevitability that the road will just wash out again. I don’t think we should be throwing money away.”
PROTECTING NATURE
When biologists explored the damaged sections of the road last spring, they found bull trout swimming in a new tributary of the Carbon River that flowed where there was once road.
Because bull trout are listed as threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, their presence means crews can work on sections of the road shared by the river only from July 15 to Aug. 30, said park biologist Barbara Samora.
Marbled murrelets and northern spotted owls, also threatened species, have been recorded in the road corridor. Jim Schaberl, the park’s wildlife ecologist, said the road can be repaired with minimal impact to the birds.
The bull trout are a different story.
“I think if we try to rebuild the road, it will be very difficult to do without an adverse effect to bull trout,” Samora said.
But that doesn’t mean the park won’t choose to rebuild anyway.
“It is my job to advise him (Uberuaga) on what would be best for the bull trout,” Samora said. “It would be best for the bull trout to leave the road alone, but that’s not the only factor he has to consider.”
PRESSURE FOR THE REST OF THE PARK
Clint Kieffer, a 33-year-old Puyallup resident, is one of the some 100,000 people who use Carbon River Road each year. He’s hiked in the area since he was a boy.
“If it wasn’t for that road, I might have never hiked that area,” Kieffer said.
What he likes most about the corridor is that it isn’t as busy as other areas of the park.
It will stay that way if the road closes, but Kieffer believes the rest of the park will suffer.
“If it’s harder to get to the trails, I think a lot of people will start going to other parts of the park that are already overcrowded,” Kieffer said.
The loss of the road to Ipsut Creek Campground also means the loss of year-round car camping in the park. Access to the only other year-round campground, Sunshine Point, washed away during the same storm.
“We see more and more people on fewer trails and in fewer places when we have to close areas like this,” said Michael Franich, a 59-year-old Tacoma resident. “I’d like to see them find a way to not limit access.”
Park officials hope the public doesn’t get caught up in the idea that the road will either completely reopen or close. The solution could be somewhere in between. Officials will consider opening part of the road or repairing it enough to offer shuttle service. However, it’s unlikely the final mile of the road can be rebuilt, Uberuaga said.
THE FUTURE
Even if Carbon River Road is repaired next year, park officials say count on it washing out again.
This is why the Park Service is working to change the boundaries of the northwest corner of the park.
The park has acquired almost half of the 800 acres it needs outside the northwest corner. The land is expected to cost $6 million. Uberuaga said this area of the park could be in place in six years.
“There is a lot of competition (among national parks) for federal land acquisition, but we are in the top five nationally and the number one priority in the Pacific Northwest,” Uberuaga said.
The flood damage to Carbon River Road helps keep the park near the top of the priority list, he said. “Maybe there was a little silver lining in the storm.”
The new part of the park would have trails, a ranger station and a campground.
“That’s great, and it’s something a lot of us have wanted to see the park do for a long time,” Kieffer said. “But if the Carbon River Road is closed, it won’t change the fact that it is still a 17-mile hike to the glacier.”
While the new park boundary wouldn’t solve all the problems, it would solve the most basic issue: giving people a place to recreate in the park’s northwest corner.
“We’re going to have to make a decision and live it,” Uberuaga said, “but public access to that corner of the park will be maintained.”
Craig Hill: 253-597-8497
1. Carbon Glacier Trail
Damage: About 1,500 feet of trail, just over two miles from the Ipsut Campground, was damaged.
Repairs done: Crews rerouted hikers from the Wonderland Trail to a stretch of the Northern Loop Trail.
Work to be done: Crews will have to contend with steep terrain, brush and scree hillsides. A 200-foot stretch that crosses a rock face will require blasting, said Carl Fabiani, park trails supervisor.
2. Fire lookouts
Damage: The Gobblers Knob and Mount Fremont lookouts had their roofs blown off and some walls knocked down.
Repairs done: The roofs have been replaced and the walls repaired.
Work to be done: Finish work remains, but they should be open in 2008.
3. Glacier Basin Trail
Damage: A 1 1/4-mile stretch of trail, beginning just outside the White River Campground, was nearly destroyed. “It was the greatest damage done to one trail,” Fabiani said. Also lost was the junction with, and part of, the Emmons Moraine Trail.
Repairs done: A temporary trail was built. A trail was designed to go along the hillside to the north of the White River. It follows the valley for a mile, then ties in with the trail above the damaged area.
Work to be done: This will be a priority in 2008. There may be a temporary reroute or short trail closures during the work. A number of small bridges and culverts and some foot logs will have to be replaced.
4. Kautz Creek area
Damage: Debris piles forced Kautz Creek to leave its channel and flow across the road to Longmire about a fourth of a mile east of the bridge.
Repairs done: Park crews installed two 12-foot culverts and three 30-inch culverts to allow the creek to flow under the road.
Work to be done: Crews will bury the power lines now strung along temporary poles. Crews also are watching conditions at the park helibase and maintenance area. Further erosion could force those facilities to be moved.
5. Stevens Canyon Road
Damage: The road was washed out in three spots. The worst slide happened at Backbone Ridge. Debris slid for thousands of feet into the Ohanapecosh River at the campground.
Repairs done: Two of the washouts were repaired this summer.
Work to be done: Crews have been blasting and rebuilding the roadway at the location of the worst slide. Work should be done by the end of the month.
6. Sunshine Point Campground
Damage: The Nisqually River washed away five acres and seven of the 18 campsites. The campground has been closed since the flood.
Repairs done: None
Work to be done: Park staff will review options. It could become a picnic area.
7. Tahoma Creek Bridge
Damage: Debris has filled in the space under the bridge.
Repairs done: None
Work to be done: Crews last week began removing the debris to allow space for future flooding. Currently, there’s just 4 feet of room between the bridge and the creek, and at least 10 feet is needed.
8. Westside Road
Damage: Tahoma Creek damaged the lower road.
Repairs done: Repairs have maintained access on the first three miles.
Work to be done: The upper reaches of the road, beyond Dry Creek, continually wash out. The plan is to rebuild it to allow access by four-wheel-drive park vehicles and maintain it as a hiking and biking trail for the public.
9. Wonderland Trail- Stevens Canyon
Damage: At the upper end of the canyon, long stretches of the trail were destroyed and bridges wiped out.
Repairs done: Volunteers and helicopters hauled in bridge materials. Some sections of the trail were rebuilt, but hikers still had to walk along the road late in the summer.
Work to be done: Crews will have to deal with the large slide in the middle of the canyon. Water under the debris washed out a 50-foot stretch of rebuilt trail.
Three threatened species have been found in the Carbon River Road corridor in the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park. Work in the area is limited to hand tools during the early breeding season for the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet. Bull trout shrink the time frame that work can be done on the portions of the road now covered by Ipsut Creek. To have no impact on these animals, heavy equipment work on the wet portions of the road can be done only from Aug. 6 to Aug. 30 each year.
BULL TROUT
Salvelinus confluentus
No water work: Aug. 31 to July 14
Listed since: 1998
These fish were found last summer swimming in streams where Carbon River Road used to be. “They are very opportunistic,” said park biologist Barbara Samora. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has designated more than 3,800 miles of streams and 143,000 acres of lakes in the Northwest as critical habitat for bull trout. Also, 985 miles of Washington marine shoreline are designated.
NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL
Strix occidentalis caurina
No heavy equipment: March 15 to July 15
Listed since: 1990
These owls are dark brown, with white spots on the head and breast. Females weigh 10 to 20 percent more than males. The owls are distributed along the West Coast, from British Columbia to Northern California.
MARBLED MURRELET
Brachyramphus marmoratus
No heavy equipment: April 1 to Aug. 5
Listed since: 1992
These chubby brown-and-white seabirds live in old-growth forests and hunt for food in the sea. Rainier’s marbled murrelets make several trips a day to Puget Sound for food, said Jim Schaberl, the park’s wildlife ecologist. Not only do they have a long commute, but they must land in trees with webbed feet. “They have huge evolutionary pressures against them,” Schaberl said.
Craig Hill, The News Tribune
$12.4 million Estimated cost of work done by Sept. 30
$12.6 million Estimated cost of repairs yet to be completed
1,724 People who volunteered to work at the park in 2007
84,038 Number of hours those volunteers contributed to the park
$1.58 million Value of those hours
12 Miles of trails damaged by the 2006 flooding
Source: Mount Rainier National Park
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