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OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A proposed addition of 240 acres near Lake Ozette would change the boundary of the North Olympic Peninsula’s national park for the first time in at least 20 years.
Olympic National Park, which covers 922,650 acres, is accepting public comment on the proposal until March 22.
The deal would not be completed for perhaps another year.
The park plans to buy land just north of Lake Ozette’s Umbrella Bay, between the lake and Hoko-Ozette Road, from the Cascade Land Conservancy, Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman, said Friday.
The park is prepared to purchase it for about $663,000, which is the amount the conservancy paid for it, Maynes said.
The conservancy, which is based in Seattle, bought the property when it was advertised for sale in March 2008 with the idea of adding it to the park, Maynes said.
Maynes said the land was sold by Rayonier, Inc.
Gene Duvernoy, president of the Cascade Land Conservancy, did not return a request for comment Friday.
“It has been discussed, and a lot of people in Ozette area are already aware of it,” Maynes said, adding that about 100 notification letters had been mailed.
“The whole point of this comment period [and the notification letters] is to reach out and make sure people are aware, and gather up any comments and input people might have,” she said.
The last time the park expanded its boundaries was in the late 1980s or 1990, according to the UNESCO World Heritage list, when the park added a coastal strip to its boundaries.
Before then, the largest addition was the 1976 expansion of the north end of the coastal area to include Shi Shi Beach and Point of Arches.
The inclusion of the 240.74 acres would allow the park to provide added protection of sockeye salmon habitat at Umbrella Creek near Lake Ozette, Maynes said.
The transaction depends on National Park Service funding and an act of Congress — without which no national park can expand.
A few months after the public comment period ends, the park service will request action by Congress, Maynes said.
The final transaction will be “perhaps a year [from now], although it is hard to say,” she added.
Consistent with management plan
The addition is consistent with objectives in the park’s general management plan released in March 2008, Maynes said.
The plan — which was finalized with a record of decision issued by the National Park Service in November 2008 — outlines the park’s intention to expand the 922,650-acre park by 15,670 acres in the next 15 to 20 years — if it has willing sellers.
The largest addition outlined in the 2008 plan was in the Ozette area, where the park said it wanted to add 11,730 acres during the next couple of decades.
That included 2,370 acres of state land and 9,360 acres of private land.
Also in the park’s long-term plan is an addition of 1,640 acres in the Lake Crescent area — 80 acres of U.S. Forest Service land, 1,200 acres of state land and 360 acres of private land — and 2,300 acres in the Queets River area, made up of 800 acres of state land and 1,500 acres of private land.
In 2008, Merrill & Ring Inc., Green Crow and Rayonier Inc. forestry companies all objected to the idea of the park expanding its boundary into their land.
Since 2008, the park has added a small amount of acreage in the Lake Crescent area, Maynes said, but all were tracts of private property within the park and none changed the park’s overall boundary, she said.
The addition of 240 acres at Lake Ozette would change the outer boundary of the park, she said.
For more information about the proposal, phone 360-565-3004.
Written comments may be sent to the attention of Wayne Hill at National Park Service – Columbia Cascades Lands Resources Program Center, 168 South Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98104.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
