WORKING WILD OLYMPICS
Keep the Land Working for All to Enjoy
Successful
Working Wild Olympics gets public access to gravel bar open again.
Successful
USFS says mistakes were made on piling of roads and will not do anymore and wants to work with us to re-open them.
Olympic Public Access Coalition had a great meeting on the gravel bar
USFS again agreed it was not done right to close public driving access and is working with us to get that access again.
Olympic Public Access Coalition had a great day!
Meetings on site with USFS ~ They agreed things were done wrong and can be fixed. No more existing old roads will be piled and destroyed. Just blocking the entrances to motorized and supporting public access and forage seeding the roads as we originally wanted.
United States Forest Service
USFS is deliberately blocking public access on the Olympic Peninsula by destroying existing 80 year old roads that are temporarily being used to thin for healthy forests. Pacific District Ranger Dean Millett plays the word game.......we "temporarily" used the road, therefore we can remove it........ Citing in the NW Forest Plan that temporary roads are to be removed. These are not those newly created temporary ones. The Plan also calls for ....scattered debris to be spread over the roads to mimic natural forest conditions.......Digging up the gravel into 5 foot tall piles every several feet and then piling stumps and logs on top, is not scattering or mimicking natural conditions.
When I asked Dean if his FS Wildlife Bios consider this to be wildlife habitat? He responded.....they have not said it wasn't. Come to find out they had not even seen this or been asked. Word games at its worst.
I requested a on site meeting with him and his bios and we set a date. Just 2 days before he cancelled, saying.....something more important came up...... He then had his field bio set up a Doodle calendar for a future meeting and over 8 FS specialist were signed up. We added our concerned citizens and Dean never did add his. Finally a date was selected and just the day before he cancelled sighting fires in the other side of the state as his staff was to busy. Made up excuse again. He never did attempt to reschedule a meeting, despite my calls to him. He continues to destroy roads and public access.
PUBLIC ACCESS BLOCKED
Rainbow Creek access road to the W. Fork Humptulips gravel bar. All dry as the stream has returned to its historical channel. The Forest Service made excuses for blocking yet another access point for the public.
Please contact Congressman Derek Kilmer and ask him to support our cause!
253-272-3515
Rainbow Creek access road to the W. Fork Humptulips gravel bar. All dry as the stream, which has been deemed as Millett Creek has returned to its historical channel.
A recent letter from District Manager Dean Millet explained that the forest service has not been able to find a solution that would maintain the access road and accommodate a small stream that forms in one of the tire tracks at certain times of the year.
However, Rep. Blake says “It is now gone, it returned to its historical channel. The vehicle access is stabilized, so hopefully, we can convince the forest service not to destroy this important access.”
(Pictured to the right is Rep. Brian Blake and Cosmopolis Mayor Frank Chestnut)
Reporting by: David Haviland
