IT WAS ANOTHER tough week in the news. Demonstrators flooded the streets of Port Angeles, making their voices heard in a crowd. One reporter said it was the largest gathering they had seen in the town, with somewhere over 300 people.
All of which begs the question, what were they protesting? The war(s)? Inflation? Climate change? No. They were showing their support for Olympic National Park and the U.S. Forest Service employees who have been fired in the name of government efficiency.
These agencies have been managing public lands on the Olympic Peninsula in one form or another since the establishment of the Olympic Forest Reserve in 1897 by President Grover Cleveland. It was an attempt to protect what was left of our old-growth forests that were being logged at an unsustainable rate.
In 1909, President Teddy Roosevelt declared part of the Forest Reserve as Mount Olympus National Monument to protect what was left of the Roosevelt elk that were being market-hunted into extinction. In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt toured the Olympic Peninsula to support the establishment of Olympic National Park in 1938.
While we can all agree to disagree with some of the management policies of the National Park and U.S. Forest Service, no one can argue about the positive effects these agencies contribute to the economic health of the Olympic Peninsula from Port Townsend to Aberdeen and every place in between due to tourism.
Olympic National Park is the No. 1 tourist trap on the Olympic Peninsula. In 2024, an Olympic National Park economic impact report stated that the cumulative benefit to local communities surrounding the park to be more than $393 million.
The Hoh Rainforest was the No. 1 tourist trap in Olympic National Park last year, with 104,176 cars paying $30 apiece to drive through the fee station and who knows how many more slipping through after hours.
The Hoh Rainforest is routinely named as a bucket list experience. Tourists plan their vacations around visiting this natural wonder that has been declared a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
Now, the tourists are wondering if they should go someplace else.
It seems to come as a shock to many, but it rains in the rainforest — a lot. We get hit with atmospheric rivers, bomb cyclones and gully-washers on a regular basis.
The Upper Hoh Road routinely washes out, as it did again this winter. Normally, it’s just a case of fix the road and wait for the next washout. It would be smart to implement a proactive fix to the washouts, but nobody ever said we were smart.
These days, we’ll fix the road when we get around to it. Given the chaotic nature and the moral and financial bankruptcy of our federal, state and county governments, this could take a while.
That’s OK. The people of the West End of the Olympic Peninsula are a tough bunch of problem solvers.
So, when the Jefferson County commissioners said they were too broke to fix the road, the locals offered to finance a temporary fix with a one-lane road with traffic lights and a stabilization of the river bank.
Locals are in the process of starting a Gofundme account to fix the road, but there’s just one problem. They have to have a financial goal. Jefferson County will not say how much it will cost. Which leads to the conclusion that, even if they had the money, the commissioners don’t want to fix the Upper Hoh Road.
When asked why, they will not answer.
In politics, as in much of life, no answer is an answer.
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Pat Neal is a Hoh River fishing and rafting guide and “wilderness gossip columnist” whose column appears here every Wednesday.
He can be reached at 360-683-9867 or by email via patnealproductions@gmail.com.
