OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The “preferred alternative” of Olympic National Park’s draft general management plan calls for adding about 16,000 acres to the park in the Lake Crescent, Lake Ozette and Queets River areas.
The lands eyed for the boundary adjustments consist of a combination of parcels from the state Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service and private owners.
They include 1,640 acres in the Lake Crescent area, 12,000 acres in the Lake Ozette area and 2,300 acres in the Queets River area.
An additional 44,000 acres in the Lake Ozette watershed would be acquired outside the park boundaries and exchanged with the state Department of Natural Resources, to be managed under the “Legacy Forest” concept.
The proposed boundary changes and purchase of land outside the park for land exchanges would require congressional legislation.
Peninsula Daily News on Thursday obtained an advance copy of the draft management plan, which is 1 inches thick, includes numerous maps and charts, and proposes to outline park development and management for the next two decades.
The document’s 90-day comment period will begin Friday after a “notice of availability” is published in the Federal Register.
The estimated cost of the expansions and other land protection measures in the plan’s Alternative D are between $18 million and $24 million, measured in 2005 dollars.
