PORT ANGELES — One closure included in the partial federal shutdown is the Olympic National Park’s Perspectives Winter Speaker Series.
The series, held at the Port Angeles library, will be canceled Tuesday because the national parks have been closed during the shutdown — now in its 15th day — caused by an impasse between Congress and President Donald Trump, who has said he will not sign a funding bill for the government unless it includes $5.6 billion for a wall on the border with Mexico. That isn’t going to happen, according to newly elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Kurt Jenkins, a wildlife biologist with the United States Geological Survey, was scheduled to offer a presentation on “Wolves, Elk, Rivers, and Trophic Cascades” in Olympic National Park at Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
But since national park services are closed, the 7 p.m. lecture is canceled, according to the Port Angeles Library staff.
No one is available for information at park headquarters. Employees have been furloughed.
The Perspectives Winter Speaker Series is sponsored by the park and the Friends of Olympic National Park, as well as the North Olympic Library System.
This season’s remaining topics and dates are:
• Feb. 12 — “The Edge of the Sea: Scales of Change on Olympic Coast Beaches,” by Ian Miller, coastal hazard specialist, Washington Sea Grant, who is set to discuss studies on Rialto and Kalaloch beaches, and investigations of sea level change on the Olympic Coast.
• March 12 — “Predators and Prey: Columbian Black-Tailed Deer and Cougar Research on the Olympic Peninsula,” by Kim Sager-Fradkin, wildlife biologist, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, who is scheduled to talk about the results of a four-year study examining patterns of fawn and buck mortality on the North Olympic Peninsula.
• April 9 — “A Witness to Change,” by Janis Burger, Hurricane Ridge interpreter at the park, who is set to share photos and experiences gleaned over a 37-year career as a seasonal biological technician and longtime Hurricane Ridge interpreter.
All Olympic National Park visitor centers, restrooms, contact stations and permit desks are closed because of the shutdown.
As in the Olympic National Forest, visitors can use trails, but must do so at their own risk.
Hurricane Ridge Road is closed because park employees cannot plow during the shutdown.
Closed because of December windstorm storm damage that cannot be fixed because of the shutdown are the Queets, Quinault and Hoh rain forests, the Quinault Graves Creek Road and North Fork Road and vehicle access to Rialto Beach.
Already closed before the recent storm were Deer Park Road and Sol Duc Road — which are closed for the winter season — and the Elwha Olympic Hot Springs Road.
For more about the forest, see https://www.fs.usda.gov/olympic.
For more information about the park, see https://www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm.
For more information about events at the library, visit www.nols.org or email [email protected]