3 options for Dosewallips Road restoration
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After several years of gathering comments — and rejecting arguments that restoring the road for cars would harm the environment — Olympic National Forest officials last week released a draft environmental impact statement.
It proposes three alternatives for rebuilding the road from where it was washed out in a winter storm in 2002.
The new section of road, about 10 miles west of Brinnon, would restore vehicle access to Olympic National Park's Dosewallips Campground along the Dosewallips River and Elkhorn Campground in the national forest.
Comments on the environmental impact statement will be taken for the next 60 days.
Before Dosewallips Road washed out, it was one of only two roads into the east side of Olympic National Park and one of the few roads into the park for passenger cars, RVs and vehicles pulling trailers.
Business owners in Brinnon and Quilcene, Jefferson County officials and the Brinnon-Quilcene Chamber of Commerce have argued that it is important to rebuild the road for recreation and tourism.
Environmentalists have suggested foot trails be put in place of the road — an idea rejected by national forest officials.
One environmental group worried that a new road would cut through old-growth trees and impact the habitat of northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet and chinook salmon.
Three options
Under the first alternative, a single-lane road would be built using standard construction techniques on a slope above the washout area.
The road would be eight-tenths of a mile long with turnouts and would require the clearing of 7.1 acres of future old-growth forest.
Estimated cost is $2.55 million.
The second alternative is similar to the first, except that the road construction would use retaining walls and other reinforcement to minimize clearing to 6.5 acres.
Estimated cost is $3.76 million
The third alternative would include a 700-foot-long bridge spanning the washout area.
Estimated cost is $8.75 million.
In addition to the three proposed alternatives, the environmental impact statement also includes a "no-action" alternative that would require the Elkhorn and Dosewallips campgrounds to remain closed.
Dropped alternatives
The U.S. Forest Service studied two alternatives that were later dropped.
One would build the road as close as possible to the 500-foot-long washout.
The construction would clear trees above the road, regrade the slope and place heavy rocks along the river to reduce erosion.
The other idea studied and dropped was a reinforced road along the river, where heavy flows would occasionally come over the roadway.
Alternatives considered but not studied in any detail included a new road on the opposite side of the Dosewallips River, a road that would be longer but less steep than the proposals, and a road that would bypass wetlands.
Also eliminated from further consideration was the idea favored by several environmental groups that would end the road at the washout and build a trail network to reach the campgrounds.
The impact statement says the idea does not meet the purpose of restoring the road so that motorized vehicles can reach the campgrounds.
To comment on the environmental impact statement, or for further information, click on www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/projects-nu/index.shtml and folloow the prompts..
Or contact Olympic National Forest District Ranger Dean Yoshina at P.O. Box 280, Quilcene, WA 98376; or Tim Davis, forest planner in the Olympic National Forest Supervisor's Office, 1835 Black Lake Blvd., SW, Suite A, Olympia, WA 98512; phone 360-956-2375; or e-mail tedavis@fs.fed.us.
Last modified: June 08. 2008 9:00PM