Washington's Parks and Forests Coalition

Jon Jarvis picked to lead Park Service

2009-07-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

President Obama has tapped Jon Jarvis as his choice to lead the National Park Service. Jon is a career park service employee and understands the need to protect natural and cultural resources. It's expected that Jon will make addressing climate change and its impact upon national parks a top priority of his administration. Jon is also likely to support adding new parks and sites that contain nationally significant resources currently outside system.

Way In Town Hall Meetings: A Huge Success

2009-06-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

On Thursday May 28th, NPCA completed its third and final Way In town hall at the North Cascades Institute in the heart of the Ross Lake National Recreation Area. Similar meetings had been held at Olympic and Mount Rainier national parks.The town halls were follow up meetings to a conference held last September in Seattle. The Way In series was designed to raise awareness about the threat fall flooding and storms pose to public enjoyment of and access to our national parks.

The follow up meetings were organized to get local input on how best to insure future enjoyment of these treasured lands in a way that is both ecologically and economically sustainable. NPCA will incorporate the feedback it received over the past several months into a final report, which will include suggestions on how best to maintain enjoyment.

Ken Burns Coming to Seattle

2009-03-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

World renown film maker Ken Burns will be in Seattle on April 20th. The National Parks Conservation Association, the Student Conservation Association and the Washington Trails Association in concert with local PBS station KCTS are sponsoring a night with Ken at Seattle's Benaroya Hall. Ken will be screening segments of his upcoming 12 part documentary, National Parks: America's Best Idea.

Tickets are free and can be ordered here. Seating is limited so get yours today.

Mount Rainier + weather changes = unknown impacts

2009-03-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

Backpacker magazine has a great piece on the changes recent storms have had on Mount Rainier. Specifically, changing weather patterns (rain on snow events) have created conditions that lead to more destructive floods.

Scientists expect this weather pattern to continue for the near future, and a concerned even more severe floods are possible.

The Washington's Parks and Forests Coalition is working with land management agencies to address impact these changes may have on public facilities, trails and campgrounds.

Washington National Parks Take on Climate Change

2009-02-25T10:22:00.001-08:00

Washington's three national parks (Olympic, Mount Rainier, and North Cascades) are addressing climate change. The three parks are hosting individual workshops to educate the community partners and get their ideas on how our parks can reduce their carbon footprint. The workshops are sponsored by NPCA and will provide the Park Service with management tools and resources to address climate change.

The NPS released a video detailing some of the impacts global climate change may have on our Washington parks.

Putting Paradise Back Together

2009-01-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

On Monday, January 26, the Student Conservation Association and Mount Rainier National Park gave a presentation about the Mount Rainier Recovery program at REI. Attendees heard from Mount Rainier Acting Superintendent Randy King, SCA’s President Dale Penny, and SCA’s Northwest Executive Jay A. Satz. Attendees were able to get up close and personal with the devastation wrought by the floods and storms of November/December, 2006 and the back-breaking work it took to put our Mountain back together again. Mount Rainier had 3,254 volunteers contribute 154,168 hours of service to help rebuild the roads, trails, historic structures and campsites that Mother Nature devoured.

In 2009, the Boeing Corporation funded for a second year the Washington Parks and Forests Coalition. Members of the Coalition include SCA, National Parks Conservation Association, and Washington Trails Association. These funds will help the organizations focus on additional work that needs to be done this year at Mount Rainier in partnership with the Park. To find out more about volunteer opportunities go to the Mount Rainier Volunteer Blog.

Gifford Pinchot Roads: It's Bad!

2009-01-17T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Forest Service at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest just completed a roads damage assessment after the recent winter storms. In a couple words: its bad!

Trees block several roads, while others such as Forest Road 21, 25, 26, 54 and 76, have experienced landslides and storm damage and are closed.

For more information on the GP's road conditions, please call the headquarters in Vancouver at 360-891-5000.

Is it Fall? It must be flood season. . .

2008-11-19T08:55:00.000-08:00

The Parks and Forest Coalition members continue to rack up the accolades. This time the Seattle Times editorialized on the hard and necessary work volunteers contributed making public lands accessible these past several years. The Times rightly points out that Washington residents take great pride in and ownership of their public lands.

The reminder couldn't come at a better time. The National Park Service recently announced that Fall storms have once again shut down Mount Rainier national park. The Kautz river has jumped its bank and is undermining the park road. Park Service employees hope to reopen the park by the 21st.

Meanwhile, the Oregonian reports the visitation to NW forest is down dramatically from last year. Experts blame high gas prices, economic uncertainty and increasing fees for the down turn. Public land defenders rightly worry that if fewer people enjoy their public lands, it might translate into less protection for those lands.

2008-10-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, October 28 at Seattle's Town Hall, a venue dedicated to community meetings, lectures, and musical performances, NPCA's Northwest Regional Office--following in the footsteps of the Alaska Regional Office--presented its pilot community lecture program to an audience of 75.

The program, entitled "Rainier: Our Mountain, Our Park, Our Responsibility," featured writer Bruce Barcott (The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier) and Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga. The evening's underlying theme was restoring healthy public lands using Mount Rainier as an example. The goals of this event were: to recruit new friends, members and activists to support our public lands work and to (re)inspire members of the community to actively connect with THEIR Mount Rainier National Park.

Many of the more than 75 in attendance went away inspired to get involved in the effort to repair, restore and protect our public lands!

All in all, the event was a success.

National Public Lands Day: A Huge Success!

2008-09-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

More than 100 people turned out for National Public Lands Day at Mount Rainier this past Saturday. Volunteers ranged in age from as young as 4 to over 80. It was a gorgeous day at the mountain and projects were as varied as rebuilding trails to planting thousands of flowers and trees. At the end of the day, volunteers met at park's community center to celebrate the season's accomplishments.

Here is a run down of the day's accomplishments.

√ Longmire Campground Restoration:
Picked up debris, raked wood chips, winterized picnic tables.

√ Glacier View Road Clean-up:
Collected approximately 50 bags of trash, 10 bags of recycling, 3 kitchen sinks along ~3 miles of road and a dozen campsites; demolished and removed 1 camper.

√ Kautz Bridge Finish:
Installed kick rails, finished decking, built approaches, rehabilitated work areas.

√ Paradise Planting:
Planted ~2500 native seedlings.

√ Mile 9 Restoration:
Planted ~600 plants and seeded new road edge.

√ Snow Lake and Pinnacle Peak Trails Brushing:
Cleared .2 miles of Snow Lake Trail (thick brush) and 1.2 miles of Pinnacle Peak Trail (to saddle).

√ Longmire-Cougar Rock WT Reroute:
Hauled 10 wheelbarrow loads of fill, groomed 200’ of tread, rehabbed bridge work site, finished approaches and decking.

Total Volunteers: 102 (42 youth!)
Total volunteer hours: 509

Thanks to everyone who made the day a smashing success!

Join Us for National Public Lands Day: September 27th

2008-09-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

Once again, NPCA is proud to be a part of one of the nation's largest days of volunteer service on public lands. And, once again, we are thrilled to be returning to Mount Rainier NP to take part in this day of service. As the park prepares to enter winter, volunteers will provide much-needed assistance to get trails and plants ready for this challenging season. As usual, a "menu" of about 10 projects will be available with which volunteers may assist--trail work, plant salvaging, planting, litter pick-up, etc. At least one project will be suitable for families. The National Park Service and the Student Conservation Association will be providing tools, gloves and hard hats; you provide the labor. If you would like more information, or would like to be added to the growing list of volunteers, please call or email Shane Farnor at 206.903.1444 x24 or sfarnor@npca.org

Way In: Send us your Thoughts!

2008-09-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

Last night roughly 100 people attended the Way In Conference to discuss the future of access at Washington's national parks. Audience members heard from experts on the economy, road construction, climate change and national parks. More on the event can be found here.

The wide ranging discussion developed several themes.

First, access and enjoyment of our NW public lands is important to many people. Next, defining terms such as "sustainable access" will be a challenge. Third, the conservation is just beginning and we need your thoughts.

We'd appreciate your input on questions such as:
What are possible solutions to maintaining access and enjoyment that are sustainable from an ecological and economic standpoint?
What barriers prevent access and enjoyment of public lands?
What other options besides roads or infrastructure could be used to sustain the public's enjoyment of our public lands?

Click here to send us your feedback.

The Way In! You're Invited

2008-08-25T14:14:00.001-07:00

Please save the night of September 3rd. NPCA, as well as the Washington's Parks and Forests Coalition will host a discussion entitled "The Way In: The future of access to Northwest national parks."

The event takes place from 6 to 9 pm at the University of Washington's Kane Hall, room 110.

These past two winters severe storms have wiped out park infrastructure and trails at Olympic, the North Cascades and Mount Rainier. National Forests have also been extremely hard hit. Many park and forest roads and trails are beyond repair. Others such as the Cascade River, Carbon or Dosewallips roads will require expensive reconstruction, reroute and maintenance to secure long-term access.

We have a distinguished panel to discuss the issue including Representative Jay Inslee, NPCA President Tom Kiernan, NPS Deputy Regional Director Rory Westburg, atmospheric scientist Clifford Mass and others.

The evening's purpose is to educate the public (and get their input) on the changing access issues at Washington's national parks. Furthermore, we expect the conference to begin a region wide dialogue on how to insure public access and enjoyment in a ecologically and economically sustainable manner.

Contact David Graves at 206-903-1444, ext 25 or dgraves@npca.org, for more information on the event.