PORT ANGELES — For a two-day training session for seasonal employees at Olympic National Park, Diane Schostak is a palate-pleasing speaker.
About 150 seasonal employees and volunteers were trained Sunday and Monday as the summer season of the park begins.
Schostak, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, pitched chocolate at the audience members, ensuring they would stay awake and at attention during her talk.
“The No. 1 reason why people are coming to the Peninsula is Olympic National Park,” Schostak told the group, tossing a chocolate bar to her left.
“That is important to remember.”
Town’s resources
The chocolate — which was handed out to all of the trainees in addition to bars thrown to the audience — was supplemented by brochures of various business organizations in town so the employees would have resources when looking for information for park visitors.
Schostak also went into her personal history, recounting how her grandfather was known as the “Iron Man of the Hoh.”
John Hulesdonk was famous for carting a metal stove — with a 100-pound bag of flour in it — the 27 miles to his Hoh River Valley home south of Forks with just brute strength.
He also made history by suing Olympic National Park for trying to take his homestead away.
“It was a precedent-setting case,” Schostak said.
“The important thing to remember is you will have to deal with all sorts of people, and not all of them will like the park.
“There is still some of that sentiment around.”
Schostak also encouraged the trainees to visit the whole Peninsula — including areas like Clallam Bay and Port Townsend that aren’t parts of the national park.
The seasonal employees fill federally funded positions to help with maintenance, safety and interpretation — or rangers to explain the various parts of the park.
In 2004, the park cut the number of seasonal employees to 25 from its previous 130.
In 2008, the Centennial Initiative Funding from Congress was approved and restored many of those positions.
As of Memorial Day, most areas of the park were open officially for the summer season.
For road information, phone 360-565-3131, and for trail conditions visit http://tinyurl.com/yqee44.
