Reintroduction of wolves to Olympic National Park got a jump start in January when U.S. Representative Norm Dicks announced his support for a feasibility study.
"We have an opportunity to correct a historic mistake," Dicks said.
Earlier that month, Dicks accompanied Defenders of Wildlife president Rodger Schlickeisen to Algonquin Park in Ontario, where the congressman howled with wolves. "I howled and the wolves responded," he told a reporter for the Seattle Times. "I think they were saying, 'We want to get back to the Olympics."'
Wolves were hunted, trapped, and poisoned to extinction on the Olympic Peninsula by ranchers and government trappers in the early decades of this century. The last documented wolf in the Olympics was trapped in the Elwha Valley in 1920.
As early as 1935, noted wildlife biologist Adolf Murie recommended that wolves be reintroduced to the Olympics, but it wasn't until 1975 that the first feasibility study was undertaken. The study, conducted by students at the Evergreen State College, determined wolves could thrive in the Olympics because there were nearly two million acres of public lands, ample prey (elk and deer), low road densities, and a relatively low human population. Today, the Olympic National Park elk population remains stable at about 5,000 animals, and nearly a third of the park's acreage supports year-round elk and deer range.
To get the process rolling, Dicks and the Defenders of Wildlife have organized a "wolf summit" on the peninsula on April 18. The summit brings biologists and officials responsible for the recent successful wolf reintroductions in Yellowstone and central Idaho together with local land managers, public officials and interested members of the public -- including conservationists and local opponents of wolf reintroduction.
Objections to reintroduction voiced thus far range from concern over loss of livestock to visions of wolves terrorizing children at school bus stops. Other opponents have questioned the cost of reintroduction and the promise of increased tourism. The Defenders of Wildlife have offered to compensate area ranchers for any stock lost to wolf predation, and reintroduced wolves are classified as a nonessential, experimental population under the Endangered Species Act, allowing problem wolves to be controlled.
Nonetheless, a considerable amount of public education still needs to be done. Toward that end, OPA is cooperating with Wolf Haven International of Tenino to bring science-based wolf education to school children on the north Olympic Peninsula, and OPA will be participating in the wolf summit.
Supporters of wolf reintroduction can help the process by writing Congressman Dicks expressing your support for returning the top-feeding predator to the Olympic ecosystem.
Write to:
The Honorable Norm Dicks U.S. Congress Washington, D.C. 20515
The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, L. David Mech, University of Minnesota Press.
The Wolves of Mount McKinley, Adolph Murie, University of Washington Press.
A Society of Wolves: National Parks and the Battle Over the Wolf, Rick Mclntyre, Voyageur Press, Inc.
The Return of the Wolf, Steve Grooms, NorthWord Press, Inc.
Wolf Wars, Hank Fischer, Falcon Press.
War Against the Wolf: America's Campaign to Exterminate the Wolf, Rick McIntyre, ed., Voyageur Press, Inc.
Reprinted with permission from the Port Townsend-Jefferson County Leader
Whether you think the remaining goats in Olympic National Park should be shot or not, the bullying of park officials into delaying a final EIS management plan by Norm Dicks and other members of the Washington Congressional delegation should ring alarm bells for anyone who cares about the Olympics.
Indeed, the inescapable conclusion to be reached by from this whole tawdry episode is clear: Norm Dicks, well- funded animal rights groups and a coterie of Olympic Peninsula residents with a long history of antipathy towards the National Park Service intend to micro-manage the park on a wide range of issues.
"We have maintained for nearly a decade that a handful of park officials have engaged in a campaign designed to mislead the public about the Olympic mountain goat issue," Cathy Sue Anunsen, regional coordinator of the New York- based Fund for Animals told the Bremerton Sun after Dicks began to pressure the park in December. "We have believed all along that the park was immoral and that their science was corrupt."
I don't have anywhere near the space that would be necessary to document all the slanders, inaccuracies, and hare- brained nonsense contained in Olympic Monarchs, the lavishly prepared pamphlet in which the Fund for Animals (FFA) makes its case against the park's goat research. So I'll examine the premise that all of the rest of the FFA's argument rests upon_their claim that goats are native to the Olympics.
"Game is plentiful..." the Fund for Animals pamphlet quotes Samuel C. Gilman from an article he published on the Olympics in the National Geographic in 1896. ''...[I]n addition to elk...are mountain goat."
There are a host of problems with citing this identification as authoritative. For one, the quote is entirely without quantification as to where, how or when the goat was observed or if Gilman had ever seen a goat previously. Moreover, the time Gilman spent in mountain goat habitat was extremely limited.
"Aside from their journey up the East Fork Quinault, however, "Olympics' historian Robert L. Wood wrote in Men, Mules, and Mountains, "the Gilmans did not explore the mountains."
Further undermining the scientific usefulness of the Gilman sightings is the fact that he included "partridge" in the same species list with the goat, "grouse, quail, and pelican." There are not now, nor have there ever been, partridge on the Olympic Peninsula. Gilman could simply have referred to a different species of bird -- a band-tailed pigeon, say, or a blue grouse -- as a partridge, but then that raises accuracy problems for all of his identifications.
The second eyewitness account cited by the FFA -- an observation made by Press Expedition member Charles Barnes in a Seattle Press newspaper feature -- is even more suspect.
"One goat was seen by the party..," Barnes wrote. That's it.
Anyone who has spent any time reading about the 1889/90 Press Expedition takes their observations with considerably more than a grain of salt. Indeed, these are the people who mistook the drumming of grouse for geysers. Moreover, in the same article quoted by the FFA, Barnes also describes seeing pheasants and chickens on the expedition.
Believe it or not, these two sentences -- utterly unsubstantiated and with misidentification of other creatures within their very midst -- comprise the entire visual record that the FFA and, presumably, Dicks cite to argue that goats are native.
Now let's take a look at three other late 19th and early 20th Century hikers who spent considerably more time in the high country than either the Gilman or Press parties.
In 1885 Lt. Joseph P. O'Neil led the first exploration into the Olympic backcountry, climbing the steep north face of the Olympics to Mount Angeles, Klahanie Ridge, and reaching east to the Dungeness headwaters. Four years later he commanded a scientific and trail building expedition that spent five months in the southern and central Olympic high country.
West End pioneer homesteader Chris Morgenroth hiked up the Bogachiel Valley to High Divide and Seven Lakes Basin in 19892. During his subsequent quarter-century career as a Forest Service ranger, Morgenroth built dozens of high country trails and cries-crossed virtually every inch of the Olympic backcountry.
E.B. Webster, co-founder of the Klahanie hiking club and the author of King of the Olympics, an early natural history of Olympic Peninsula wildlife, spent hundreds of days among the crags and aeries of the Olympics during the early decades of the century in search of mountain wildflowers. He was also instrumental in the planting of the goats on Mt. Storm King in 1925.
O'Neil, Morgenroth, and Webster spent thousands of hours in prime goat habitat, and they all describe the wildlife they encountered in writing. Yet not one of these experienced high country travelers reported seeing mountain goats.
"While the fauna of the Olympic Mountains has, for some peculiar reason, never included Mountain Goat..," Webster wrote in King of the Olympics.
I don't know about you, but I would come down on these men's side of the issue any day.
There's no question about what Congressman Norm Dicks wants to be when he grows up. It's superintendent of Olympic National Park.
Over the past winter, the Bremerton Democrat has made more calls on park management issues than the current superintendent, David Morris.
Unfortunately, that's the way the system fails to work.
The oft delayed release of the Mountain Goat Final EIS has been delayed yet again. The anticipated end-of-year (1996) release of this woefully overdue document was put on hold at the final hour due to political strong- arming by Congressman Norm Dicks (D- Bremerton).
It appears, from statements issued by Dicks in area newspapers, that the [goat] wool has been pulled over his eyes by the animal rightists. He fell for their flimsy argument, and in the process has ignored the volumes of scientific evidence documenting the substantial impacts that non-native goats have had, and continue to have, on our beloved park.
Now Congressman Dicks is entertaining a second inane notion: that the mountain goat problem will magically be solved by reintroducing wolves into the park.
As Doug Rose clearly articulates in the accompanying article (see Goats as Olympic Naturals Is All Bull, p. 3), less than 4 dubious sentences comprise the "evidence" offered by the Fund for Animals as "proof" that mountain goats are native to the Peninsula. (There is far more evidence for Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.) Meanwhile, the anti-park crowd completely dismisses the testimony of Native Americans and early Peninsula settlers, who lived, worked, and hunted in the Olympic Mountains, and who clearly never once spotted these supposedly "abundant" animals.
The Park Service continues to review their options. The Final EIS (hopefully available sometime this millennium) is in grave danger of being politically influenced, rather than based on science, to cater to Congressman Dicks' recent discovery of a national park in his district. In the meantime, park resources continue to be compromised by the presence of the invading goat population.
While the high country still lies buried safely in snow, please consider firing off a letter of support to Superintendent Morris and a letter of disgust to Congressman Dicks.
And stay tuned...
Send letters of support to: Sup't David Morris Olympic Nat'l Park 600 E. Park Avenue Port Angeles, WA 98362
Send letters of disgust to: The Hon. Norm Dicks U. S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515
A major backlog of park maintenance tasks, postponed for lack of funds, can be tackled as a result of new national park recreation fees. "Government funding has not kept pace with park needs," said Superintendent Morris. "Proceeds from the new fees ... will be channeled directly into projects that benefit our resources and visitors."
On the shopping list for Olympic National Park are: new picnic tables and fire grates at park campgrounds; parkwide trail maintenance; upgraded RV sewage dump pits; and replacement of the drain field at the Hoh Visitor Center.
Fees collected at national parks traditionally have not been returned to the parks, but have been put back into the general fund and reappropriated by Congress. However, the National Park Service will be able to keep 100% of the new fees, and 80% will be returned to Olympic National Park to support visitor use, maintenance, and resource management. The remaining 20% will be distributed among other national parks that do not collect entrance or recreation fees.
In the table to the right are some examples of the new fee structure.
| Old | New | |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance | $5/car | $10/car |
| ONP Annual Pass | $15 | $20 |
| Golden Eagle | $25 | $50 |
| Kalaloch and Sol Duc Campgrounds | $10 | $12 |
| Altair, Elwha, Fairholm, Graves, Heart O'Hills, Hoh, July Creek, Mora, Staircase | $10 | $10 |
| Dosewallips | $8 | $10 |
| Deer Park, Queets, South Beach | 0 | $8 |
| Ozette Campground | 0 | $10 |
| Ozette parking | 0 | $1/day |
| Sewage dump sites | 0 | $3 |
| Backcountry overnight camping | 0 | $5/permit, $2/per person per night |
The Valor Award, the highest honor granted by the Department of Interior, was awarded to Rangers Keith Flanery and Dan Mason in December, 1996, for heroism and courage involving personal risk in the face of danger.
Flanery rescued a l 2-year-old boy from the 38-degree floodwaters Queets River. The boy had been swept under, and Flanery enttered the river, located him, and pulled him to safety.
Mason successfully negotiated with an armed, intoxicated, suicidal man along busy Highway 101, preventing harm to bystanders, convincing the man to give up two loaded weapons, and helping him to seek medical and mental health assistance.
The gold medal was presented by Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
"On-the-Spot" Awards went to 18 ONP employees in January for outstanding extra effort in clearing city, county, and state roads and reopening the park following an unprecedented winter storm. Superintendent David Morris presented the awards to five road crew members, ten maintenance employees, two park rangers, and a park dispatcher.
Originally our national parks were set aside with an expressed purpose of protecting the outstanding and peculiar values found within them. They were essentially in primitive state and the primitive was to be cherished and preserved. At the same time limited development was to be undertaken, so that visitors might come in reasonable ease to see, learn and enjoy. But always the scientific significance, the primitive character, the ideal of sanctuary for native life, both plant and animal, and the aesthetic appeal were to fashion park policy and operation. Any departure from these standards is to be regarded as unhealthful intrusion in the parks.
Within the past few years, numbers of visitors to national park areas have mounted to staggering figures,... and with these crowds come the many who understand not, neither do they love. Theirs is not a visit for inspiration, study, and appreciation of the natural phenomena. Theirs is not respect for cleanliness and order, for propriety and fitness and decorum, for consideration of the fellow who follows, let alone for generations unborn.... With decreasing park revenues and man-power, park efforts have been futile to check and to minimize the devastation....
Drastic possible measures have been proposed to curb impairment of the parks from overuse and inflated development. One hears of limitation of numbers admitted....
It seems that greatest consideration should be given to that which is charged by law as proper use of the parks. My contention is that if we restrict attractions to the enjoyment and interpretation of the features for which the park has been set aside, the overwhelming tide of visitors will be stemmed and controlled, and the destruction of the primitive will be checkmated....
We offer skiing, fishing, and similar diversions, but only as they may be the means by which one enjoys in fuller measure the natural wonders of the park. The Park Service welcomes the man who revels in wetting a fly in the singing streams of our parks while noting the exuberance of the companion ouzel, the sparkle of dancing waters, the caress of mountain breezes, the flowers nodding and dipping in the ripples, the diamond dew-drops on web and branchlet. Such a fisherman can have successful day fishing and still not catch a single fish. The Park Service beckons to the skier who delights in the wintery grandeur while gliding on langlauf through the somber forests on the mountains.
In the face of all the serious impairment of the primitive in every national park, how can there be any question about the inadvisability of a "Come one, come all" program? Wilderness character is fragile and easily dissipated, and once lost, seems irrevocable despite our best efforts. The need for correction is urgent and delay is costly. Control what is offered to the visitor in a national park, and there will quickly be natural control of the visitor and visitor use of the park.
Expand your horizons this year with one of Olympic Park Institute's 1997 Field Seminars.
The courses are taught by a superb line-up. Of instructors. Dozens of intriguing topics range from the intertidal zone with Eugene Kozloff to glaciers with Glenn Thackray, from prose with Robert Pyle to poetry with OPA board member Tim McNulty, from basketmaking with Leilani Jones to photography with Natalie Fobes, and much more.
For a catalog, contact Olympic Park Institute at 111 Barnes Point Road, Port Angeles, WA 98363, phone 800-775-3720, e-mail opi@olympus.net.
Assaults Within National Parks
Jet ski activity in national parks is incompatible with the purposes of protecting these natural areas, their wildlife, and the unimpaired enjoyment of the parks by the public. Impairment of national parks includes tree cutting, harassing indigenous wildlife, bringing in non-native species of wildlife and plants, polluting park waters, road building, mineral extraction, etc. Impairment also includes violating the national parks' quiet peacefulness, a part of each park units original ambiance.
The National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) is conducting extensive research into assaults by jet skis (aka personal watercraft, PWC) throughout the National Park System and elsewhere. NPCAs Northwest Representative, Phil Pearl, and Intern Sean Smith, learned that Glacier National Park, currently preparing an overall park management plan, has placed a moratorium on jet ski activity.
Everglades National Park prohibits these one-person, high-speed, high-noise machines. They are a danger to marine wildlife and to wading and shore birds, and they bring pollution to Everglades waters from the motors' fuel and exhaust. Jet skis' earsplitting noise affects all wildlife, birds, and humans.
Assaults In Non-Park Waters
NPCA also has data on Lake Tahoe. Although not in a national park, this well known, popular mountain lake astride the California-Nevada border also experiences jet ski conflicts. Lake Tahoe has been famed for its beautiful, clear waters and its peace and quiet. Humans seeking out this lovely lake for serene contemplation are also deeply affected by jet ski assaults. Designated an Outstanding National Resource Water (one of only two in California), Lake Tahoe's mandate is to be protected and to "have zero tolerance for degradation." Recently the regional governing body, the Tahoe Regional Planning Authority (TRPA), held public hearings about jet skis on Lake Tahoe. Scientifically significant data were documented including impacts on aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, as well as noise and water pollution. The TRPA voted unanimously to ban jet skis from the lake, effective June 1, 1999. The phase-out period allows current jet ski concessionaires to amortize their investments.
Olympic Park Associates (OPA), Washington Environmental Council (WEC), and the Center for Environmental Law and Policy have been granted leave to file as Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) before the Washington . State Supreme Court. This is in support of San Juan County's appeal of a county court overturning the county's temporary ban on jet skis in the marine waters of the San Juan Islands.
The Board of Trustees of OPA authorized participation in this legal action at its January meeting. OPA points out that the waters in the vicinity of the San Juans and the Strait of Juan de Fuca have been studied by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . (NOAA) and are proposed as a National Marine Sanctuary, supported by OPA.
As stated in the Motion for Leave to File Amicus Curiae Brief permission is sought "to address the scope of the Public Trust Doctrine and its application to protect and promote public interests in the Puget Sound Straits of Juan de . Fuca basin and other water resources of this state."
The motion included the following language:
"The maneuverability and shallow draft of . jetskis allow them access to a wider range of highly sensitive habitat than other motorized boats.... This access, coupled with the speed . and noise of the personal watercraft, pose a . substantial threat to nesting colonies of birds and to other wildlife highly valued by the public."
The Public Trust doctrine "...offers protection to recreational activities (including fishing, bird watching, swimming, scuba diving, kayaking, enjoyment of tidal resources, etc.) that are likely to be impaired by the presence of high-powered personal water craft".
Attorneys will file Amicus Curiae briefs on April 4, 1997. Representing WEC and OPA is John Arum of Zionts, Chestnut, Varness, Berley & Slonim; representing the Center for Environmental Law and Policy are Rachel Paschal and Michele Lechak.
Thus Far -- Federal Level
President Clinton's budget includes a total of $24,900,000 for the Elwha River. Of this, $21,800,000 is for acquisition of the Glines Canyon and Lower Elwha Dams from their owner, James River Corp., and operator, Daishowa America. The remaining $3,100,000 in the Elwha budget is designated for engineering design.
To date, $8,000,000 for purchase of the . dams was appropriated by previous Congresses, but not spent, as a result of U.S. Senator Slade Gorton asking for only $4,000,000 in each of those sessions. Quoted in Northwest news releases, Senator Gorton says $4 million at a time is the maximum he is willing to propose toward the $29,500,000 that the 1992 legislation promised the companies when the U.S. finally buys the dams.
As a stop-gap measure to, hopefully, prevent extinction of one threatened spawning species of Elwha salmon, last year Mr. Gorton did allow appropriation and expenditure of $275,000.
Congressman Rick White (R, WA 1st District) continues to do what he can in the House of Representatives in support of restoring the Elwha River and its watershed.
At the State Level
Washington State has shown no interest in taking over the Elwha River dams, as provided in legislation sponsored in the U.S. Congress by Senator Gorton. However, acknowledging the desirability of reestablishing some of the eliminated native salmon species above the Lower Elwha Dam, Olympic Peninsula state legislators sponsored bills in the 1997 Washington legislature for introduction of genetically indigenous salmon eggs into tributaries of the Elwha between the two dams. Some $500,000 was designated for this proposal. However, biologists testified against these bills before House and Senate committees, pointing out that the proposal would not be feasible for a number of reasons. For example, the tributaries are few in that stretch of the Elwha, and water passing through Glines Canyon Dam is too warm for cold water salmon, resulting in a debilitating disease in the fish. The bills were not reported out of the committees, and are "dead".
Your Role: Keep in touch with your U.S. senators and representatives. Tell them that Elwha River restoration will build back major historical salmon runs of the Elwha River, and give them access to their essential spawning areas in Olympic National Park.
President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan, adopted in 1994, allocated national forest lands as Late Successional Areas, Riparian (streamside) Reserves, Matix (multiple use) Lands, and Adaptive Management Areas (AMAs) were designated in the Northwest to develop and test new management approaches to achieve a mix of ecological and economic health. The AMA on the Olympic National Forest comprises 125,000 acres; about half of it is also riparian reserve.
An expressed goal of AMAs is to restore structural complexity to second-growth forests (i.e. create openings, snags, and down logs for habitat purposes0, and to develop more diversity in managed forests through various experimental forestry techniques such as partial retention of trees and long rotations between harvests. Marbled murrelet nest sites will be protected in the AMA and ecologically significant stands will be manage as Late Successional Reserves.
Because Olympic's AMA is dominated by younger stands, the Forest Service sees it as an opportunity "to investigate a variety of approaches to managing younger stands in ways that balance ecosystem management goals with social and economic goals." The AMA also provides opportunities to explore alternative forest products, watershed restoration, fish habitat improvement, and recreation.
Olympic National Forest is currently developing its AMA Guide, which will reflect the desires of local communities. Since the Forest Service's previous experiment with community control resulted in the disastrous Shelton Cooperative Sustained Yield Agreement, conservationists are understandably concerned. The Quilcene Ancient Forest Coalition and OPA will work with Forest Service officials to make sure that ecologic goals are given high priority in the plan.
Land Exchange
About thirty acres of park land at the head of Lake Cushman now belongs to the City of Tacoma, operator of the Cushman Dams on the North Fork Skokomish River. To relieve a long-standing trespass by flooding, the boundary of Olympic National Park (ONP) has been adjusted in exchange for the titles to two WA State DNR inholdings (one at Strawberry Creek by the Quillayute, the other along the Soleduck Road).
The Park Service and Tacoma are now discussing management and patrol of the Cushman lands, most likely to be done by the Park and reimbursed by the City.
Time will tell how the new ownership will affect this valuable wetland resource and habitat for elk and anadromous fish. The elk that rely on this land are again facing difficult conditions this year. Elk hunting throughout the Skokomish River drainage is suspended under a conservation closure. Two dozen Roosevelt elk have been moved from near Elma to the Skokomish to supplement the declining South Fork herd.
Federal Licensing
With the impediment of the trespass removed, Tacoma can proceed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licensing process.
Despite minor changes, FERCs final EIS for the Cushman Dams licensing, issued last November, retains the most serious flaws of the draft. Using current operating conditions to define the baseline for measuring cumulative environmental impacts, and lacking quantification of non-power-generating resources, the EIS obviates consideration of these natural resources in choices made from among poorly constructed alternatives. The resulting preferred alternative contains both insufficient mitigation of environmental impacts and a higher price tag than Tacoma feels the project can pay, so it has managed to satisfy no one.
To allow time for the parties to explore a negotiated settlement, referral of the EIS to the Council on Environmental Equality for review has been postponed. The Skokomish Tribe has offered one proposal which would provide water flow on the lower North Fork, generate revenue from hydropower, and fund mitigation measures. In December Congressman Norm Dicks convened a briefing to examine workable settlement possibilities.
State Jurisdiction
The Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) requires an applicant for a federal license in a coastal area to certify compliance with the state's coastal management plan. In Washington, that includes the Shorelines Management Act, SEPA and state and federal clean water laws. WA State Dept. of Ecology accepted public comment in March on whether to concur with or object to Tacoma's certification for the Cushman Dams. FERC affirmed last summer that CZMA certification is required; however, Tacoma now claims that its own interpretation of procedural requirements will, in effect, excuse the Cushman project from state scrutiny under these laws.
Few developments could have as much impact upon a coastal area as a dam diverting the entire flow of half a river for several decades. Future operations as envisioned in the FERC EIS would continue to divert 70% of the North Fork's flow. After 70 years of use for the single purpose of hydropower generation, the North Fork Skokomish still retains potential for providing further resources in public interest, such as anadromous fisheries, along with economical electricity.
The period for public comment on the Coastal Zone Management Act certification ended March 28. However, if you are still interested in obtaining a copy of the CZMA certification documents, contact:
Bonnie Shorin
Dept. of Ecology, Central Programs
P.O.Box 47600
Olympic, WA 98504-7600
Phone (360) 407-7297