The Olympic Discovery Trail could get more help from the other Washington — D.C., that is — after it was selected to be part of President Barack Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative.
The trail was named by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as one of the country’s most promising projects to reconnect Americans to the natural world and worthy of federal support.
A Department of the Interior report to be released within the next two weeks will discuss the Olympic Discovery Trail and its “convergence” with the Pacific Northwest Trail, which starts at Glacier National Park in Montana and is planned to connect to the Olympic Discovery Trail from Port Townsend to the Olympic Coast.
The Lower Columbia River Water Trail and the expansion of the Pacific Northwest Trail and its connection to the Olympic Discovery Trail are among 100 projects nationwide that will be highlighted in the report — two in every state — as part of the president’s initiative.
Salazar recently recognized two projects in Washington state that will be included in the final report — representing what states are believed to be among the best investments in the nation to support a healthy, active population; conserve wildlife and working lands; and create travel, tourism and outdoor-recreation jobs across the country.
Reconnect to outdoors
The initiative is intended to establish a 21st-century conservation and recreation agenda and reconnect Americans to the outdoors.
The report is the result of 50 meetings with governors and stakeholders held by Salazar and other senior Interior officials to solicit ideas on how to best implement America’s Great Outdoors in their states.
The projects were identified for their potential to conserve important lands and build recreation opportunities and economic growth for the surrounding communities.
Also involved is Gov. Chris Gregoire and other state officials, as well as private landowners, local- and tribal-elected officials, community organizations and outdoor-recreation and conservation stakeholders.
“Under the America’s Great Outdoors initiative, we are listening to the people of Washington and communities across America and working with them on locally based projects that will conserve the beauty and health of our land and water and open up more opportunities for people to enjoy them,” Salazar said in a statement.
“My staff and I have been asking each governor for the most promising projects to support in their states, and we will do all we can to help move them forward.”
The announcement of the forthcoming report was good news for supporters of Olympic Discovery Trail and the Pacific Northwest Trail.
The Pacific Northwest Trail ties together national, state and local trails, including the 126-mile Olympic Discovery Trail, constructed along or near the historic route of the Pacific railroad line.
“I work pretty closely with [the Department of the Interior] on a number of issues, but this one caught me by surprise,” said Jeff Chapman with the Buckhorn Range Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen of Washington and a Port Townsend-area resident living near a Larry Scott Memorial Trail link of Olympic Discovery Trail.
Chapman, who is a volunteer and supporter for developing the Pacific Northwest Trail, said he looked forward to seeing the federal Department of the Interior report, which he saw as holding up the Olympic Discovery Trail as a model.
Help complete trail
“This should provide the energy to help complete the trail in Jefferson County,” Chapman said, which is hung up on right-of-way land acquisition, but private and public, south of Four Corners Road and around Discovery Bay via Eaglemount.
John Dolanksy, Peninsula Trails Coalition treasurer and a cyclist, said he hopes the recognition will lead to long-term federal support of the trail project.
“If Washington has to have two, it doesn’t surprise me that this would be one of them. It is a place that people love to recreate in and visit,” he said of the Olympic Discovery Trail and the North Olympic Peninsula.
“It’s a big attraction for the Seattle metropolitan market.”
He added that the trails coalition hopes to have the trail completed all the way to the Elwha River Bridge by the end of the year.
Adam Fetcher, a spokesman for Interior, said the Olympic Discovery Trail project would benefit as a partner with the federal government.
“It could include financial support, although there is no guarantee of financial support,” Fetcher said.
But the federal government has the staff experience, from engineers to land managers, who have expertise and could work on the ground level to support the trail projects.
Columbia River trail
The second Washington system recognized is the Lower Columbia River Water Trail, a well-established paddleboat trail that stretches from the Bonneville Dam to the Pacific Ocean along 146 miles of one of North America’s longest rivers.
The trail is managed by the Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership — a stewardship organization focused on coastal-habitat restoration and environmental-education programs.
The Department of the Interior will work with each of its key bureaus — including the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — to direct available resources and personnel to make these projects a reality, Salazar said.
“The America’s Great Outdoors Initiative turns the conventional wisdom about the federal government’s role in conservation on its head,” Salazar said.
“Rather than dictate policies or conservation strategies from Washington, it supports grass-roots, locally driven initiatives.”
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
