LAPUSH – Visitors have been traipsing down to Second Beach this week after the Quileute tribe reopened on Sunday the parking lot and trailhead that it had closed in 2005.
Meetings have been ongoing during the week to resolve a land dispute between the tribe and the Olympic National Park that prompted the tribe to close the entrance to the Second Beach trail.
Agreement has not yet been reached, said James Jaime, executive director of the tribe, on Wednesday.
“We are still in discussions, and there has not been any agreement,” he said.
Jaime said that opening access to Second Beach was not connected to the land negotiations.
“What we have done is in anticipation of tourism season,” Jaime said.
But an agreement is close, said George Behan, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair.
“They are very close to a solution,” said Behan, who also said that representatives of Dicks office have participated in this week’s negotiations.
“We have been in contact with the tribal legal representatives and with our staff members who have been out there,” Behan said.
