Park Newsletter April 2009

A Junior Ranger meets one of the park's hardworking pack mules.  Olympic's mules are members of the trail crew, carrying supplies and materials vital to the annual trail maintenance and repair work.

Junior Ranger Day Fun for All
Over 350 kids and adults enjoyed Junior Ranger Day this year, re-potting native plants, examining insects and plants with a microscope, playing games and taking walks with rangers and saying hello to one of the park's hard-working pack mules.

This year's Junior Ranger day was held on April 25 at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center. Over 350 children and adults took part; 130 kids received their Junior Ranger badge and certificate.

Just one week before, on April 18, 560 people volunteered to carry trash and marine debris from the park's beaches as part of the annual Washington Coast Cleanup. This event brings hundreds of community volunteers to beaches all along Washington's Pacific Coast; a total of 1,100 volunteers participated statewide this year.

 

Coming Soon ....

May 6 - Rangers to be Honored in Washington, D.C.
Bryan Bell, Mike Danisiewicz and Sanny Lustig, all rangers at Olympic National Park, and Scot Bowen, retired park ranger, will receive Department of the Interior Valor Awards for their courageous rescue of a lost skier in late 2007. Read more in next month's newsletter!

May 12 - Peninsula and Huxley Colleges Present: Elwha Field Research Reports 7:00 p.m. at Olympic National Park Visitor Center
Dr. Dwight Barry, Peninsula College faculty member, and students of Peninsula College and Western Washington University’s Huxley College-Port Angeles will present findings from their environmental science research associated with the Elwha Restoration Project, the nation's largest dam removal and river restoration project.

 

Steelhead Jumping in Sol Duc Valley
The viewing platform at Salmon Cascades, in the park's Sol Duc Valley, is well-known for watching summer coho salmon swim upstream in the fall.

It's also a good place from March through May, to see wild winter steelhead leaping upstream towards their spawning grounds.

For more information on times and places to watch fish in Olympic National Park, check the newly released Fish and Shellfish Regulation brochure.

 

A winter steelhead makes its way upstream to its spawning area on the Sol Duc River.

Elizabeth West

 

Elwha Restoration Moves Forward One Year
As a special highlight of National Park Week, the National Park Service nearly 800 projects totaling $750 million that can be completed across the country with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including 14 projects in Olympic National Park.

Chief among Olympic's projects is Elwha restoration, one of this country’s largest and most significant conservation projects, which received $54.7 million in Recovery Act funding. Not only will over 200 jobs be created in the next year, but dam removal will begin in 2011, one year earlier than projected. Over $3 million was allocated for other park projects as well. Read more.

 

Visitation Update
Through the end of March, Olympic recorded a total of 347,076 recreation visits. March's visitation represents a 7.5 percent increase over March 2008 when a number of park roads were closed by storm damage.

For more information, and monthly visitor use updates, check the National Park Service NPS Stats website.