• Mount Rainier peeks through clouds, viewed across subalpine wildflowers and glacial moraine.

    Mount Rainier

    National Park Washington

Environmental Factors

A member of the Mount Rainier revegetation crew rappelling to pull invasive plants.

A member of the Mount Rainier Revegetation crew rappelling to pull invasive (nonnative) plants.

NPS Photo

Mount Rainier is a Class I air quality area. The Clean Air Act requires federal land managers to protect park air quality related values, which include scenic, natural, and cultural resources. Air quality impacts have occurred in the park due to recreational use and are a concern, as are regional effects on the park.

The water resources in the park are protected and managed under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, and the Clean Water Act of 1977. NPS Management Policies also require the protection and conservation of water quality in the park.

About 149 exotic (nonnative) plant species are found in the park. Most nonnative species grow in disturbed habitat below 5,500 feet. Their presence is the result of human intervention, not natural migration. About 10% of the species are aggressive, capable of invading undisturbed natural areas and dominating native plant communities.

Did You Know?

Winter snow buries the lower floors of the Paradise Inn.

At Mount Rainier, winter snowfall is typically heaviest between the elevations of 5,000 and 8,000 feet.  Paradise, at 5,420 feet, receives an average of 641 inches of snowfall (nearly 54 feet) every year, making it one of the consistently snowiest places on Earth of those where snowfall is measured.