General Management Plan

Olympic National Park Draft General Management Plan Needs Your Help
Comment deadline: September 15, 2006

In June, Olympic National Park released its General Management Plan draft environmental impact statement for public review. This is the first comprehensive planning effort undertaken by Olympic since 1976. When finalized, it will determine management directions for the next 15 to 20 years.

This is a rare opportunity to help insure the future integrity of one of the most ecologically intact wilderness preserves on the planet. Your help is essential.

Opportunities:

• Park boundaries could be expanded in five critical areas (Lake Crescent and Ozette Lake, and Hoh, Queets, and Quinault watersheds) to conform with watershed basins to help recovering salmon populations and protect critical elk habitat.

• Intertidal preserves could be established on the park's wilderness coast to protect biologically rich marine areas.

• River designations could insure that natural functions of coastal rivers and a wealth of wild salmon populations remain intact.

• Extirpated species like the wolf and fisher could be reintroduced to the park to complete a nearly intact ecosystem.

All of these measures are discussed in the park's 400-page document. Sadly, only two (intertidal reserves and modest boundary expansions in three areas) are included in the park's preferred alternative (Alternative D).

It will depend upon all of us who care about the future of this world-class preserve to instill a vision of a fully restored ecosystem to the park plan. Please let your voices be heard

Deadline to comment on the Draft General Management Plan is September 15, 2006. But don't wait, send your thoughts to park planners today. Tell them to protect the ecological integrity of one of the world's outstanding natural areas. Points you can make are listed below.

Comments should be addressed to:

Olympic National Park Draft General Management Plan
National Park Service
Denver Service Center
P.O. Box 25287
Denver, Colorado 80225

Fax comments to: 303-969-2736; or email comments to olym_gmp@nps.gov

Copies of the 400-page plan in CD or print format are available by calling 360-565-3004. The plan may also be viewed on the web at: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?projectId=10233&documentID=15545 A series of open house meetings will be held In Port Angeles on August 18, in Sequim on August 21, in Silverdale on August 22 and in Seattle on August 24. For a complete list of dates, times and venues, see http://parkplanning.nps.gov/meetingNotices.cfm?projectId=10233

Olympic Park Associates has done an extensive review the draft GMP. Highlights -- and shortcomings -- are listed below.

Highlights of the Preferred Alternative (D)
ONP General Management Plan Draft EIS

On the positive side, the preferred alternative:

• Establishes marine intertidal reserves along sensitive areas of the coast
• Recommends expanding the park's boundaries in the Ozette basin (12,000 acres), Lake Crescent area (1,640 acres), and the Queets River corridor (2,300 acres)
• Recommends a wilderness suitability study for Lake Ozette.
• Recommends Wild and Scenic River designation for the Elwha River.
• Expands educational and interpretive programs.
• Encourages mass transit in heavily used developed areas, and
• Proposes development of short all-accessible loop trails throughout the park's front country.

All of these proposed actions respond to recommendations made by conservationists and staff during the five-year preparation of the plan. Unfortunately, few of them go far enough to insure long-term ecosystem protection.

In contrast, several other recommendations in the preferred alternative (D) threaten the park's ecological integrity by placing developed recreation and motorized access over natural resource protection and species restoration.

On the negative side, the preferred alternative:

• Denies "river protection zone" status to the the park's rivers, many of which provide critical habitat for a number of federally listed threatened and endangered salmon stocks.
• Maintains all road access in the park, including floodplains, regardless of impacts on salmon habitat and natural river process. Continues bulldozing Finley Creek channel in the Quinault area. And recommends moving wilderness boundaries on active floodplains to maintain problem roads.
• Proposed boundary expansions do not conform to watershed boundaries and are inadequate to protect downstream fish species from destructive upstream activities like timber harvest and road building.
• Greatly expands development zones from their current size. The Sol Duc campground, for instance, can be expanded from 82 campsites to 250.
• Allows expansion of commercial concessions within the park.

In addition, several measures OPA and other organizations requested at the beginning of the planning process have not been included:

• No ecosystem study was undertaken to provide necessary groundwork for long-term decision making.
• No decision to reintroduce extirpated wolves to the Olympics despite a favorable government study of the issue, or to remove non-native wildlife.
• No Wild and Scenic River eligibility study for 12 rivers that qualify for designation.
• An overemphasis on historic preservation at the expense of natural resource and wilderness protection.
• No wilderness management plan was completed (18 years after designation of the Olympic Wilderness) yet numerous controversial decisions about wilderness -- such as maintaining and restoring between 29 and 50 historic structures in designated wilderness -- are included.

Summary

The preferred General Management Plan alternative (D) is timid, overly focused on motorized use and development, and inadequate to preserve the ecological integrity of Olympic National Park. The preferred alternative short changes ecosystem restoration and compromises wilderness character. Olympic National Park planners can and should do better.

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Your voice can make a difference.

Email park planners at olym_gmp@nps.gov today.

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