BRINNON — A group of about 20 Brinnon residents gathered Tuesday afternoon at the river-damaged end of Dosewallips Road in Olympic National Forest to show support for rerouting it around a washout that prevents vehicles from entering the forest and Olympic National Park beyond.
Their intent was to counteract an expected protest from environmental interests — Olympic Forest Coalition, specifically — who oppose rerouting the road washed out in 2002 flooding that never materialized.
“This is just sort of an indicator of how people are concerned for the road,” said Bud Schindler, one of the Brinnon residents at the area overlooking a massive gouge in the hillside that left a gap of about 500 feet in Dosewallips Road.
The road is one of only two eastern road entries into the national park.
“This is kind of a non-event,” said Brinnon resident George Sickel, who notified the Peninsula Daily News and others by e-mail Monday about the gathering “to help counter the Seattle-area Olympic Forest Coalition who do not want the road rebuilt.”
TV interview
Bonnie Phillips, Olympic Forest Coalition executive director, was interviewed by KING-TV 5 reporter Jerry Chittim Monday morning at the scene but missed the Brinnon road reroute support group, she said.
Phillips argued against the road being cut through on the hillside above the northern bank of the river.
“We do not want the road, not at the expense of old-growth trees,” Phillips told the PDN.
“That washout keeps getting bigger each year,” she said. The road is only a quarter-mile away from Buckhorn wilderness, and the road is not going to stay there. It’s going to keep failing.”
Reroute alternative
Also interviewed at the washout Tuesday were Tim Davis, Olympic National Forest planner out of Olympia, who helped come up with the road reroute alternative.
The proposed alternative is being considered by Dale Hom, National Forest supervisor, who is expected to make a final decision some time early next year.
“For a project this complex, it’s going to take six to nine months,” Davis said.
Davis was joined by park spokeswoman Barb Maynes, who called washed-out Dosewallips Road a significant loss to the park for eastern access.
It leaves only the Cushman access road out of Hoodsport about 30 miles south of Brinnon off U.S. Highway 101.
Economic lifeline
Many Brinnon residents said the road is an economic lifeline for the Hood Canal community that extends up the Dosewallips River.
Joy Baisch, who lives downriver from the washout, said when the road was open, about 55,000 vehicles a year entered the national park.
“We not only lost tourist dollars but shellfish beds,” Baisch said, recalling the additional siltation from the wash out.
Two restaurants closed, two bed-and-breakfast inns were shuttered and the town’s two small stores have suffered from less traffic into the park.
A temporary foot trail was cut around the washout, but cars cannot reach the Elkhorn campground about a quarter-mile east of the washout and the Dosewallips trailhead campground farther west in the park.
It allows hikers to get around the washout to where Dosewallips Road resumes.
The preferred alternative before Hom in the Forest Service draft environmental impact statement would construct a 0.84-mile reroute along the hill slope above and to the north of the washout.
Retaining walls, reinforced fills and other measures to minimize clearing and excavation would be used. This alternative requires amendments to the Forest Plan.
In addition, the proposal says, it would:
• Narrow the road’s footprint, create fewer acres of detrimental soil conditions and minimize removal of late-successional forest habitat.
• Restore public access to Olympic National Forest’s Elkhorn campground and other destinations for recreational activities.
• Provide public access to Olympic National Park.
The park is 95 percent wilderness and vehicle access is critical to meeting the park’s goal of providing a wide range of recreational opportunities, park officials said.
The park’s recently approved general management plan calls for road access to the facilities at Dosewallips.
Whatever the Forest Service’s decision is, Phillips said that Olympic Forest Coalition would not back down.
“It’s no secret that we’ll appeal their decision and go to court,” Phillips said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
