PORT ANGELES — Olympic National Park will explore a federal grant to help fund mass transportation to various sites in the park — including Hurricane Ridge for skiers.
Park Superintendent Karen Gustin told the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday that “I have heard loud and clear that access to Hurricane Ridge is an important issue.”
Gustin, who has been at the million-acre park’s helm for about four months, said, “We are looking at doing a proposal for mass transportation, and to explore this for other areas including the Hoh Road and the Sol Duc Road, both of which we try to keep open in the winter times.”
She said the park is in the preliminary stages of seeking the grant funding.
“We are still figuring out the criteria,” Gustin told the Port Angeles chamber audience during its weekly Monday meeting at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant at the Red Lion Hotel.
Other transportation issues
Other transportation issues include the park re-evaluating parking on Hurricane Ridge, she said.
“We are looking at having designated parking for people who are carpooling and try and facilitate movement in a more efficient way,” Gustin said.
“We are also looking to better communicate the [weather] conditions on Hurricane Ridge.”
Gustin said the park is looking into technology that could e-mail or text alerts to people who are interested in the road conditions.
“It is a way of communication that we can get out as accurately and as quickly as possible, and we are starting to work on that,” Gustin said.
“I’m sure many of you have heard about the chain requirement, too.
“We are requiring people to carry chains this year, and that may help us to keep the road open longer because we will be certain that people who are already up there are prepared.
“We all know that you can go up in the morning, and it can be nice — then by the afternoon things can turn hairy coming down.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark completion of a Hurricane Ridge Road construction project will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Heart O’ The Hills entrance, Gustin said.
“It isn’t very often that projects finish early,” she said.
“The fact that this one is about a year early is amazing.”
Gustin said a 2009 budget has not yet been passed for the park, and that it will operate under an extension of the 2008 budget until March.
“It is an important day tomorrow,” she said, speaking of today’s election.
“No matter who gets elected, there are possibly changes in the Department of the Interior, and it could take up to six months to shake out.
“We’ll see what happens after March.”
Reintroduction of fishers
Gustin also touched on the reintroduction of fishers to Olympic National Park, which began in January.
Of the 18 weasel-like animals released into the park, 15 are alive and a 16th is probably still alive but its radio tracking collar is not functioning properly, Gustin said.
No confirmation of any of the fishers giving birth has been caught on cameras set up near where the fishers are thought to reside, but the park is hoping to confirm some blessed events soon.
About 20 more will be released into the park this winter, with up to 100 being released over the course of the next several years, she said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
