News Release

Parks Seek Input for Removal of Lower B500 Road

Date: April 8, 2019
Contact: Leonel Arguello, [phone]

The purpose of the project is to protect park resources, especially threatened salmonids and their habitat in Larry Damm Creek and Lost Man Creek, by reducing the potential for erosion and sedimentation from the Lower B500 Road. The primary goals of the project are to reduce the potential for erosion of sediment from the road into the stream; improve fish habitat conditions by restoring drainage patterns affected by the placement of the road adjacent to the stream; and improve watershed function by restoring hydrologic patterns altered by the road.
 
Removal of the Lower B500 Road is in alignment with the 1978 park expansion legislation which directs the NPS to reduce sedimentation through rehabilitation of damaged watersheds. This road is not needed for administrative use or access, and the project will not remove or reduce current and established visitor access.
 
The park is preparing environmental documents to satisfy the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). To learn more about the project, visit the project home page at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/Lower B500. Members of the public are invited to provide comments on the full spectrum of issues and concerns to be addressed in the draft environmental documents; to assist with defining a suitable range of alternatives; to advise on the nature and extent of potential environmental impacts; and to suggest possible protection measures that could reduce project impacts. Comments can be submitted online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/Lower B500 or mailed by April 22, 2019 to:
 
National Park Service
South Operations Center
Attn.: Leonel Arguello
PO Box 7
Orick CA 95555.