OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Public comments will be accepted until next Sunday on proposed improvements of the Boulder Creek trail and campground.
Olympic National Park has released a 167-page environmental assessment, which lists each of the four plans — or alternatives — the park is considering. It can be viewed online at tinyurl.com/ye7unr4.
The Boulder Creek trail head begins at the south end of Olympic Hot Springs Road and leads to the hot springs that the road is named after.
Park staff said the trail has deteriorated considerably over the last couple of decades and is in need of repair.
Along with maintaining the trail, the park also is considering improving the trail head to allow for more parking space and removing obsolete facilities at the Boulder Creek campground.
Top pick most costly
Its preferred plan, alternative four, is the most extensive of the options listed in the document.
It involves creating an 80-foot diameter paved turnaround for vehicles; adding 45 parking spaces and an area for trailers at the trail head; replacing asphalt on the trail with natural tread or gravel; widening the trail from about 14 feet across to between 24 and 30 feet; removing all culverts and grading areas where culverts are removed; constructing a 50-foot-long, six-foot-wide steel bridge over Cougar Creek and log bridges over Hell and Crystal creeks; and creating seven campsites on the east side of the campground and allowing the west side to return to natural vegetation.
No price tags are listed in the document.
Parks spokeswoman Barb Maynes said Saturday that the project will be funded through federal stimulus money but she didn’t have cost estimates.
The park’s least-extensive plan, alternative one, calls only for “routine maintenance” of the trail with no infrastructure improvements.
Nos. 2, 3 less involved
The other alternatives, two and three, differ from the park’s preferred plan through less use of steel bridges, fewer parking spaces and less trail widening.
Alternative two would widen the trail to between 18 and 24 feet, create 36 parking spaces and use only log bridges.
The third alternative would widen the trail to between 24 and 30 feet, create 36 parking spaces and use one steel bridge over Crystal Creek.
The other bridges would be made of logs.
Any “noise-producing construction” would occur between Aug. 6 and Sept. 15 to avoid disturbing northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet breeding.
End of January
A plan is expected to be chosen by the end of January, said Maynes, but she didn’t know when work will begin.
She said work is expected to continue through early 2011.
Comments can be submitted online at www.parkplanning.nps.gov or through mail and fax.
Mail-submitted comments should be addressed to Superintendent — Boulder Creek EA, Olympic National Park, 600 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles, WA 98362.
The park’s fax number is 360-565-3015.
The public comment period began Dec. 18.
The Boulder Creek trail was originally a road built in the early 1900s that accessed the former Olympic Hot Springs Resort.
It was designated a trail in 1982 due to extensive erosion.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
