The dilemma of Dosewallips: Road's future mired in years of controversy
Brinnon residents Joe Baisch, left, his wife, Joy, and Bud Schindler discuss options proposed for restoring Dosewallips River Road, which once entered Olympic National Park from the east. They are standing at the road's end since a 2002 washout. -- Photo by Jeff Chew/Peninsula Daily News
By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News
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"It's either/or. It's one way or the other. Either you're going to open [the road] or not open it," said Yoshina at his Quilcene office.
A public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed road restoration closes on Aug. 13.
Brinnon leaders support rerouting the road to help rebuild the Hood Canal community's flagging economy, so greatly dependent on Olympic National Park visitor traffic.
Environmental advocates argue that a new road would threaten old-growth forest land that supports critical bird and wildlife habitat, such as the marbled murrelet and northern spotted owl.
Prepared to challenge any vehicle road alternative, they prefer only foot access into the park.
"We'd like to get past this point in our planning process," said Yoshina, who describes himself as the point person in the public comment gathering process.
"We have spent many years analyzing it, and I think it's time to make a decision."
Comments will be assembled into a final environmental impact statement.
The final decision rests with Dale Hom, Olympic National Forest supervisor, Jonathan B. Jarvis, National Park Service regional director for the Pacific West Region, and Clara Conner, division engineer with the Western Federal Lands Highway Division of the Federal Highway Administration.
At decision could come late this year or early next year, Yoshina said.
"We're moving forward with the belief that it can happen," he said.
Washout in 2002
A 300-foot reach of Dosewallips River Road was ripped out during a January 2002 storm.
That severed the North Olympic Peninsula's only eastern vehicular route into the park.
The other route to the eastern Olympics, at the southern end of the park at Staircase, was closed by storm damage in 2007 so for a time, there was no road access to the eastern Olympics, Yoshina noted.
The Dosewallips washout closed access to the park's Dosewallips Campground, as well as to the 21 sites at Elkhorn Campground, accessible to those in wheelchairs.
Since then, the Dosewallips River's relentless scouring beneath the roadbed has nearly doubled the washout gap.
Sediment flowing downstream has rearranged salmon spawning grounds and threatens commercial shellfish beds at the river's mouth.
The National Forest Service has cut a temporary trail from a berm at the east end of the washout up over the ridge it created to the west side of the washout.
The new section of road, about 5 miles west of Brinnon, would restore vehicle access to both campgrounds.
Here are the options considered in the draft environmental impact study:
The road would be eight-tenths of a mile long, with turnouts, and require the clearing of 7.1 acres of future old-growth forest.
Estimated cost is $2.55 million.
Estimated cost is $3.76 million.
Estimated cost: $8.75 million.
The draft environmental impact statement includes a "no-action" alternative that would require the Elkhorn and Dosewallips campgrounds to remain closed.
Access needed
Brinnon resident Bud Schindler, a retired Boeing employee who has served on the Jefferson County Planning Commission, said that the question of access reaches far beyond recreational needs.
"What happens if a fire starts up there?" he asked. "How the hell are we going to fight it?"
He wonders how lack of access hampers rescue operations when hikers are lost or seriously injured.
He said that, shortly after the washout, a local contractor offered to rebuild the road for $134,000.
Dosewallips residents, cattle ranchers and bed-and-breakfast inn owners Joe and Joy Baisch lost 3 acres of their private riverfront campground downstream from the washout, shortly after they saw the river's waters running brown in January 2002.
"We knew there was a washout somewhere," Joy Baisch recalled.
They have since fortified the riverbank fronting their property with 40-foot logs and woody debris, and moved their cattle away from the river.
Forest Service delays in stabilizing the washout puts farms down river highly at risk, Joy Baisch said.
"At this point, they are seriously jeopardizing farmland," she said.
The Baisches managed Elkhorn Campground for the Park Service before the raging river cut off the road.
Before 2002, they said that traffic counts showed about 20,000 vehicles a year used Forest Service Road 2610, with upward of 150,000 people annually coming through from 1995 to 1997.
Blow to economy
The campground's closure to car access was a major blow to the Brinnon-area economy, said the Baisches and Schindler, whose family runs a Brinnon-based real estate business.
"When this first happened, most of the people came to the surface," Joy Baisch said of the business community.
"Now, they are weary of it. Their businesses are corrupted by it."
Adds Joe Baisch: "We're fighting for the local economy, and because the people of the U.S. own the park, we feel they should have access to it."
Schindler said he has secured letters of support to fix the road from all North Olympic Peninsula chambers of commerce, as well as the 24th District state lawmakers Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam; Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim; and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
The former Republican Jefferson County commissioners Dan Titterness, Glen Huntingford and Brinnon resident Pat Rodgers have supported fixing the road, Schindler said.
He has not secured a letter of support from the present Democratic county commissioners John Austin, David Sullivan and Phil Johnson.
Joy Baisch said that, since the washout, fish habitat along the river has never been the same.
"This was once the premier fish habitat along Hood Canal," she said. "We were never without fish until this happened."
Attempts to restock the river with steelhead have been postponed until the washout stabilizes, she said.
Joe Baisch said the washout has destroyed spawning beds and created others.
Environmental challenge
Jim Scarborough, a member of the Olympic Forest Coalition, formerly known as the Quilcene Ancient Forest Coalition, said road plans threatened old growth.
Old growth can't be seen from the temporary trail around the washout.
But to the east, he and others recently counted 46 trees that were four feet in diameter or larger, he said.
Roughly 7 acres of the area is "late successional reserve" forestland where logging is prohibited.
If the road plan is approved, Scarborough said the group, which is allied with Olympic Park Institute, will take its battle to court.
"If they decide on any of the action alternatives, we would consider appealing and looking at litigation after that," he said.
"I think the access thing really doesn't hold water.
"You could create an accessible design if you convert the road to a trail.
"You could make it a pretty attractive area to those with less mobility."
Scarborough contends that motorized access will only mean that habitat will be destroyed.
"We don't want to degrade the resource just to get into the area," he said.
To comment on the environmental impact statement, or for more information, go to www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/projects-nu/index.shtml and follow the links.
By mail, contact 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.
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Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: July 19. 2008 9:00PM