A hiker’s orientation to the Suiattle River region

By Kim Brown, Public Lands Intern



Sulphur Mtn. fire lookout site and the true summit beyond

 A generation of hikers have never seen what lies beyond milepost 12.0 of the 23 mile-long Suiattle River Road – and many who have seen it, have missed out on all the Suiattle region has to offer since a series of washouts in 2003, 2006, and 2007 have steadily gnawed away at the road. An important portal to the west side of the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area, the Suiattle River Road, which runs along the Suiattle River northwest of Darrington, has been missed by many Northwesterners. Nearly a decade later, the road is still not repaired. To some, this blog post is a reminder to what we’ve been missing – to others, it’s a primer.

Initially a Native American route used for hunting and trading across the Glacier Peak region, then later a logging railroad grade, the present-day Suiattle Road was built in phases, completed around 1931. Generations of people have enjoyed the wild places of the Suiattle River, including renowned guidebook author and conservationist Harvey Manning, who received his advocacy epiphany high on the flanks of the mountains above the Suiattle River (see pg 62 of linked article).

Trails wind through old growth forests, popping out at high mountain lakes and meadow- laden ridges that lead to glaciers and thick walls of volcanic ash deposited by Glacier Peak, Washington’s most remote volcano. Destinations accessed by the Suiattle River Road include the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), the Suiattle River Trail, Miner’s Ridge Fire Lookout, the Milk Creek trail, Lime Ridge, Sulphur Mountain trail, Bath Lakes High Route, Sulphur Hot Springs, Green Mountain Lookout, Huckleberry Mountain trail, Downey Creek trail, the Ptarmigan Traverse and Dome Peak. Popular drive-in campgrounds near the roads end include Sulphur Creek, Buck Creek and Downey Creek.

On October 21, 2003, nearly 10 inches of rain fell in the Suiattle watershed. Floodwaters swept away multiple bridges, including the 265 foot-long Skyline Bridge, as well as a steel -beam bridge that led to the Milk Creek trail, and Boundary Bridge, the automobile bridge that spanned the river at Forest Road 25.

The Suiattle Road suffered a washout at milepost 14.4, and further down the road, the river scoured the bank away from the foot of the Downey Creek Bridge. The Sulphur Creek Bridge at milepost 22.9 was also damaged. A helicopter rescued hikers caught on the wrong side of the damage, and later the Forest Service constructed a temporary ramp to get the trapped vehicle across Downey Creek.

Over the years, undaunted hikers constructed various styles of ladders to clamber onto the Downey Creek Bridge and beyond.

In 2006, more floods added damage to the ailing Suiattle Road. This flood was especially devastating, because now the road ends at milepost 12, making each trailhead that much farther away.

And so time goes by. In 2007, milepost 6.0 was severely damaged and the Forest Service built a temporary re-route. The Boundary Bridge was repaired in 2010, and a new bridge spanning the Suiattle at the PCT was completed in 2011, marking the official re-opening of the PCT on the west side of Glacier Peak, administratively closed since 2003.

So – What’s taking so long to fix the road? Stay tuned!

In the meantime, pull out your Green Trails maps and peruse 112 Glacier Peak, 79 Snowking, 80 Cascade Pass, and 144 Benchmark….

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Ross Lake National Rec Area's new Plan

By Kim Brown, Public Lands Intern

The turquoise of Ross Lake & green mosses and trees

Here’s more information to impress your friends with:  North Cascades National Park (NCNP) and Ross Lake National Recreation Area (Ross Lake NRA) are both managed by the National Parks Service (NPS), but the Park and the NRA are managed for different objectives.

The primary purpose of a NRA is to provide for outdoor recreation, rather than the focus of the National Park System on conservation and historic preservation. The management plan of an NRA is consistent with the management plan of its land manager, in this case, Ross Lake NRA is managed by North Cascades National Park. 

OK now for the business at hand: It's time to update the management guidance for Ross Lake NRA, which historically has been a part of the North Cascades National Park General Management Plan (GMP). The separate Ross Lake GMP will guide management of the Ross Lake NRA for the next 15-20 years.

NPS has completed the Environmental Impact Statement detailing the various Alternative management plans for Ross Lake NRA, the Preferred plan being Alternative B (see Chapter 4, Alternatives, at bottom of the page of this link ). The public comment period ends January 17.

Since the last GMP was implemented in 1988, campgrounds have been severely damaged by storms and visitation has increased, so a facelift is needed for Ross NRA.

Alternative B allows for the management of future storm damage with as little interruption to recreation as possible.  Visitors may have more front-country and better backcountry trails, more front- and backcountry campsites, better campground amenities, more educational opportunities and new viewpoints. Sport climbing in the gorge between Newhalem and Diablo will be better managed through four Climbing Management Areas.

Wild places will be kept wild, continued efforts for the preservation of grizzly bear habitat, and nearly 5,000 acres of previously proposed Wilderness at Big Beaver Natural Preservation Area and Thunder Creek will be officially added to the Stephen Mather Wilderness Area. Goodell and Newhalem Creeks and a portion of the Skagit will be recommended for Wild & Scenic River status.

With the new GMP, we may see an on-line reservation system for backpacking permits, which will benefit National Park visitors as well.  You’ll still have to pick up the permits in person, however. The last mile of the road to Thornton Lakes (within the Wilderness boundary), will be officially decommissioned and a better trailhead built.

A second water taxi for Ross Lake Resort will better serve backpackers and resort visitors, its footprint on the lake being tempered by more restrictions on types of motors allowed on the lake.

Currently a National Forest Byway and a Washington State Scenic Highway, the North Cascades Highway will be nominated as a designated National Scenic Byway.

An immediate change will be the name -- to better associate the Ross Lake NRA with North Cascades National Park, it will be re-named “North Cascades National Recreation Area.”

Ross Lake, the Skagit River, the Seattle City Light dams and the North Cascades Highway corridor compose a special destination for recreationists, and the proposed Alternative B for the GMP will continue to provide a range of opportunities at the re-named North Cascades NRA, while providing an appropriate gateway to the grandeur of North Cascades National Park.

 

State DNR to kick off recreation planning for the Snoqualmie corridor

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is planning for the future of recreation on 53,000 acres of state trust lands, natural areas, and other lands managed by DNR along the Snoqualmie corridor in eastern King County. DNR is inviting the public to an open house on January 18 in the City of Snoqualmie to kick off the planning process and get feedback from citizens.

Who: DNR Recreation Program

What: Snoqualmie Corridor Recreation Plan Open House

When: 7 to 9 p.m., Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Where: Snoqualmie Middle School, Commons Room
9200 Railroad Ave. S.E.
Snoqualmie, WA 98065
Directions

Why: The Snoqualmie corridor, located in eastern King County,
offers tremendous opportunities for outdoor recreation near the ever-growing Seattle metropolitan area. In the past 20 years, DNR has increased the amount of land it manages in the corridor. Some are state trust lands-working forests; other lands form the largest network of natural areas in the state. As a major provider of recreation opportunities in this landscape, DNR understands the need for a comprehensive and strategic approach to recreation management.

Meeting Format: The first part of the open house will be a brief presentation by DNR staff on the planning process. Following the introductory presentation, the public will have the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas about recreation in a "listening station" format.

Snoqualmie corridor planning area
The 53,000-acre planning area includes two newer DNR-managed properties:
the Raging River State Forest, purchased in 2009 to replace state trust lands previously transferred out of trust status, and the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Natural Resources Conservation Area (NRCA), which was designated in 2009 by Peter Goldmark, Commissioner of Public Lands.

While the main focus of this effort is to develop recreation management plans for Raging River and Middle Fork Snoqualmie, the planning process also involves DNR-managed lands with existing management plans, such as Tiger Mountain State Forest, West Tiger Mountain NRCA, Mount Si NRCA, and Rattlesnake Mountain Scenic Area.

The corridor also includes recreation lands managed by federal, state, and local entities. Although planning will not include activities on those lands, this strategic planning process will look at ways to improve coordination with managers of many of these lands.

During the last few months, DNR has been gathering information related to recreation in the Snoqualmie corridor. This information will help to guide planning for future recreation opportunities. In addition to the open house, the public will have numerous other ways to be involved throughout this process.

More information about the Snoqualmie Corridor Recreation Plan.

Workshop Explores Climate Change and Access to Public Lands

By Kim Brown, Public Lands Programs Intern

Huge gouges from roads. Trails little more than dotted lines of tread on a slumping slope. Piles of old growth trees ripped from the forest, now horizontally huddled against broken bridge pilings, still other bridges twisted and tossed about like toys (and one that was swept away and never found). Scenes from a Mad Max movie? Nope – just another day at the office from our public lands managers.

Western Washington’s devastating floods of 2003, 2006 and 2007, termed “100 year floods,” were a wake-up call to public land managers and the public. Eight years after the 2003 floods, the Forest Service is still dealing with that flood damage, and National Parks are still dealing with damage caused by the 2006 and 2007 floods. Careers have been launched – and bailed – as a result of the nebulous flood repair processes. Due to climate change, we can expect flood damage to become more frequent.

On November 30 and December 1, 2011, the North Cascadia Adaption Partnership (NCAP) - a collaboration of the US Forest Service (USFS) and National Park Service (NPS) - hosted a Climate Change and Human Access workshop to explore changing hydrology and its impact to access on public lands - including roads, trails, campgrounds and infrastructure.

Presentations by the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group, Western Federal Lands Highways Division, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Olympic National Forests, Mt. Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades National Parks showed climate change trends, road repair specifications, costs, and predictions.

NPS and USFS gave presentations about their flood issues - these presentations were dubbed “The Battle of the Floods” – with each agency outdoing the other with their devastation photos.
Climate scientists and land managers anticipate more frequent and larger storms due to changing precipitation patterns and the rising snow levels. We can expect more volumes of water roaring down our watersheds in winter, creating more swift-moving, or “flashier” floods capable of undermining roadbeds and scouring away riverbanks so that bridges no longer lead anywhere, their far ends jutting out into thin air and looking like ancient Roman ruins, their purpose long-gone.

The lack of rain in extended summers will dry out the forest vegetation and soils, meaning more fires and less vegetation to absorb the frequent and heavier fall and winter rains, resulting in - you guessed it – flashier floods.

Thousands of miles of secondary, un-used logging and spur-roads remain in Washington’s National Forests. There is no funding to upgrade every road to standards that will withstand 100 year floods. Factors to consider are geologic hazard, how much sediment enters fish habitat and how often, how many streams a road crosses per mile, and riparian zone buffers. In the future, those roads that are kept open will need upgrading to meet the newer standards needed withstand the impacts of climate change.

There are a lot of things we can do now to prepare ourselves for change, before the impacts of climate change become bigger. Check out some of the resources below; consider participating during public comment periods for road repairs, and advocate for appropriate federal funding for public land agencies.

More information about road issues & climate change :
US Fish & Wildlife, on Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest

Olympic National Forest Climate Change publication, August, 2011 (144 pages). The USFS Pacific Northwest Research station just completed the 2nd of a 2-part study on climate change and how it might affect roads, vegetation, wildlife and hydrology in Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park. These studies will be a tremendously useful resource to all land managers when determining a course of action regarding the management of their lands for climate change.
The Way In - a study by National Parks Conservation Association after the 2006 floods at MRNP

Way-cool technical dork stuff:

Engineered log jams (ELJ’s). Placing woody debris in strategic locations can slow down the pace of water, which helps in preventing disastrous undermining of roadbeds (as a bonus, ELJ’s create aquatic habitat and resting places for fish).
Fish passage culverts . Used for fish-bearing streams, these culverts are now termed Aquatic Organism Passage culverts, or AOP’s (I am not making this up!). Larger AOP’s are being used more routinely. It’s not uncommon nowadays to see AOPs that are designed to accommodate 100 year floods, plus 20%, for added debris to move through them (to impress friends and family: this is written as a Q100 + 20% AOP - how you say it is up to you). This is quite a change from the old standard of a 25-year flood standard (Q25, of course).

Federal Court Upholds the Roadless Area Conservation Rule

Thanks to our friends at Washington Wilderness Coalition for breaking the news with the following press release!

SEATTLE, WA – Today, the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the legality of the Roadless Rule, affirming protections for nearly two million acres of wild national forests in Washington and nearly 60 million acres around the country. The Court upheld the Rule’s provisions protecting Roadless Areas from road building and associated logging and development. This rule has been under attack for almost a decade but this influential decision ensures that the roadless rule is now unequivocally national policy.

“This is a great victory for the people of Washington and America who have spoken out, time and again and in record number, in support of protecting these wild backcountry lands,” said Tom Uniack, Conservation Director for Washington Wilderness Coalition. “Today’s decision was a home run for roadless forests and clears up any legal ambiguity about the Roadless Rule nationwide.”

The ruling upholds one of the most popular land conservation policies in Washington and the nation and will preserve protections for special places like the Dark Divide near Mt St. Helens and the Kettle Range in northeastern Washington and South Quinault Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula.

“I welcome the news that this court has rejected essentially every legal argument against protecting pristine forests,” said Senator Maria Cantwell. “Today’s ruling affirms the 2001 Roadless Rule was a well-crafted, balanced policy which continues to enjoy strong public support. The Roadless Rule is not just good environmental policy, but it protects outdoor industry jobs and helps stem the growth of the Forest Service’s road maintenance backlog. We now have the wind at our backs as we continue working to codify the Roadless Rule into law to ensure future generations of Americans will continue to benefit from these last remaining wild forestlands.”

The rule has been the subject of conflicting court decisions over the past decade. In August 2009, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling to reinstate the roadless rule, leaving the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision still pending. Today’s decision dismissed all of the legal arguments made against the Roadless Rule in the lower court and affirmed that the Rule did not violate the Wilderness Act and that the two-year public process was consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act.

“This decision makes the Roadless Rule the law of the land.” said Rep. Jay Inslee (WA-01). “For years, the public has voiced its overwhelming support for the Roadless Rule. Now, the court has settled the debate and 49 million acres of public lands will be protected. This decision confirms our efforts in Congress to permanently protect pristine roadlesss areas, preserving our natural legacy for generations to come.”

Roadless areas are often referred to as “backyard wildlands” because of their proximity to population centers and the multi-season recreational opportunities they provide for youth, families and outdoor enthusiasts. Over the past several years hundreds of elected officials, local businesses and diverse stakeholders throughout Washington State have voiced their support for the roadless areas, which are a large part of the quality of life we all enjoy here in the Pacific Northwest.

Background

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is a popular and balanced policy that protects nearly 60 million acres of undeveloped national forests from road-building and other industrial activity. It was issued by the Clinton Administration in early 2001 after the most extensive public involvement process in the history of federal rulemaking and enjoys the support of hundreds of local elected officials, conservation and recreation groups, religious leaders and local businesses throughout Washington State. With more than one-half of America's national forests already open to logging, mining and drilling, the rule was intended to preserve the last third of undeveloped forests as a home for fish & wildlife, a haven for recreation and a heritage for future generations.

The values of protecting roadless forests include:

• Sixty million Americans rely on clean and safe drinking water from the national forests. Roadless areas provide the purest source of that water due to their pristine and road-free condition. In the Northwest Forest Service Region, which includes Washington and Oregon, drinking water on national forest land is worth approximately $941 million annually, which is more than any other region or state in the country except California.

• Outdoor recreation has become more and more popular over time as Americans participate in everything from hike and camping to hunting and fishing in roadless areas. Approximately 2.5 million Washington residents took part in hunting, fishing, and wildlife-watching in 2001, contributing $2.4 billion to the state economy.

• A majority of the unspoiled habitat for hundreds of threatened, endangered, and declining species is found in roadless areas. In Washington, 25 at-risk species, including bald eagles, steelhead and bull trout and chinook salmon are found in national forests and could be harmed by the building of new roads and the ensuing destruction of roadless areas.

• Protecting roadless areas would be fiscally responsible, by saving taxpayers the cost of adding subsidized logging roads to the existing network of nearly 400,000 miles of national forest roads, which have an unfunded maintenance backlog of nearly $10 billion.

The 10^th Circuit decision can be read at: http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/09/09-8075.pdf