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Wild Olympics VOICE of the WILD OLYMPICS The Natural History of a Coastal Prairie In Olympic National Park by Ed Tisch Olympic Although typically they are forested, the tween Cape Alava and the north end of Lake Park Olympic lowlands support a sizeable number Ozette, belongs in the wet prairie category. It, Associates of coastal prairies. Harlan Bretz, an early too, has had a long fire history. In a recent in- Founded in 1948 Washington geologist, reported in 1913 that terview with Myra Vanderhoof, one of the last many of these occupy glacial outwash plains children born to homesteaders at the now-ex- and moraines (e.g., near Shelton and Sequim) tinct Lake Ozette settlement, she informed me Volume 10, No 2 where excessively-drained, gravelly soils pro- that in the early 1900s the white settlers found Spring 2002 duce summer-arid conditions. Fire has also an abundance of fire-scarred trees in the for- contributed to the sparsely-forested character ests adjoining Ahlstrom’s Prairie to the west. Contents of these “prairies,” which sometimes resemble At that time most of the trees between Ozette oak savannas. G.N. Jones, a 1937 University of and Cape Alava also seemed smaller than they Washington graduate student, felt that these are today. The homesteaders assumed that the OPA Meeting Schedule 2 “constituted the nearest approach to a grass- local Ozette Indians had burned their prairies land formation” in the Puget Trough region. to eliminate trees and to keep down the salal Congressional In stark contrast, however, the coastal prai- understories. When Myra first visited Contacts 2 ries of the rainy western Olympics are bog-like Ahlstrom’s Prairie, around 1927, she found it Roadless Bill ? 3 and tend to occur on clayey glacial tills where very sparsely forested. wet, nutrient-deficient soils limit tree growth. In the early 1900s the prairies near Ozette Olympic Coast Here, also, natural and man-made fires have were occupied by two, possibly three, Scandi- Clean-up Report 3 played a role in restricting invasion by redcedar, navian pioneers. Lars Ahlstrom’s homestead Elwha Update 4 hemlock and Sitka spruce. In the absence of straddled the trail that now connects Lake periodic fires, both the dry and the wet prairies Continued on P. 6, Coastal Plain Highlights from are usually replaced by forest. Picket fence at Roose’s Prairie. Photo by Ed Tisch. North American Ahlstrom’s Prairie, located in Wilderness Conference 2002 4 ONP’s coastal strip, halfway be- Washout: Dosewallips Road 5 Washout: Graves Creek Road 5 Book Review: The Olympics: A Wilderness Trilogy Hamilton & Scharf 7 Amphibians of Olympic National Park 8 Voice OF THE WILD OLYMPICS Next OPA Board Meeting Olympic Park Associates Board of Trustees Dates: September 25. *Executive Committee Time: 6:00 p.m. President Place: Kingston Community Center *Tim McNulty Sequim A short walk up the hill from the ferry, white building on the right. Vice President Please join us. OPA members are always welcome at Board meetings. *Donna Osseward Seattle OPA Board meetings generally are in the Kingston Community Center Secretary on the 4th Wednesday of odd-numbered months, except no meeting *Philip Zalesky Everett in July. Treasurer *John W. Anderson Seattle *Polly Dyer Seattle How to Reach Your Members of Congress *Harry Lydiard Port Angeles U.S. Congress Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Howard Apollonio Bellingham Paul Crawford Port Angeles From this number you can reach any member of the U S Senate or House of Representatives. Erica Fickeisen Port Angeles US Senate, Washington DC 20510 <www.senate.gov> David Friedman Seattle Dick Goin Port Angeles Senator Patty Murray Patrick Goldsworthy Seattle Phone (DC): 202-224-2621 Carsten Lien Seattle Fax: 202-224-0238 Joe Mentor, Jr. Seattle Seattle: 206-553-5545 Bruce Moorhead Port Angeles E-mail: [email protected] Johsel Namkung Bellevue Sally Soest Seattle Senator Maria Cantwell Ira Spring Edmonds Phone (Washington, DC): 202-224-3441 Edward Tisch Port Angeles Fax: 202-228-0514 Norman Winn Seattle Seattle 206-220-6400 Advisory Board Members E-Mail: [email protected] Randall Payne Renton US House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515 Rick Rutz Friday Harbor <www.house.gov> Membership Chair Representative Jay Inslee, Dist. 1 Representative Norm Dicks, Dist. 6 Laura Zalesky 2433 Del Campo Dr. 308 Cannon House Office Building 2467 Rayburn HOB Everett, WA 98208 Phone (D.C.): 202-225-6311 Phone (D.C.): 202-225-5916 FAX 202-226-1606 Fax 202-225-1176 Newsletter Editor WA: 425-640-0233 Toll-free 800-947-NORM (947-6676) Sally W. Soest Web page <www.house.gov/inslee> Web page <www.house.gov/dicks> 2055 43rd Ave. E, #202 Seattle, WA 98112 Representative Rick Larsen, Dist. 2 Rep. Jim McDermott, Dist. 7 1529 Longworth HOB 1035 Longworth HOB Legal Counsel Phone (D.C.): 202-225-2605 Phone (D.C.): 202-225-3106 Peter Dykstra Seattle FAX 202-225-4420 FAX 202-225-6197 WA: 425-252-3188 WA: 206-553-7170 Web page <www.house.gov/larsen> Web page <www.house.gov/ WWW Home Page Representative Brian Baird, Dist. 3 mcdermott> http://www.drizzle.com/~rdpayne/opa.html 1721 Longworth HOB Rep. Jennifer Dunn, Dist. 8 Webmaster: Randall Payne Phone (D.C.): 202-225-3536 1501 Longworth HOB FAX 202-225-3478 Phone (D.C.): 202-225-7761 Voice OF THE WILD OLYMPICS WA: 360-695-6292 WA: 206-275-3438 is published three times per year by Olympic Park email Web page <www.house.gov/dunn> <[email protected]> Associates. Rep. Adam Smith, Dist. 9 Unless specifically copyrighted, articles may be Representative Doc Hastings, Dist. 4 116 Cannon HOB reprinted without permission. However, credit is 1323 Longworth HOB Phone (D.C.): 202-225-8901 appreciated. Phone (D.C.): 202-225-5816 FAX 202-225-5893 FAX 202-225-3251 Toll free 1-888-smith09 (764- OPA membership dues are: WA: 509-543-1972 8409) $20 for individuals; Web page <www.house.gov/hastings> Web page $25 for families; Rep. George Nethercutt, Dist. 5 <www.house.gov/adamsmith> $35 (or more) contributing member; 223 Cannon HOB $50 for organizations; Phone (D.C.): 202-225-2006 $5 for students or low income individuals; FAX 202-225-3392 $250 for an individual life membership. WA: 509-353-2374 Web page <www.house.gov/ Printed by EcoGraphics on elemental-chlorine-free, nethercutt> 50% recycled paper, 20% post-consumer waste. 2 NEWSLETTER OF OLYMPIC PARK ASSOCIATES Roadless Bill? Excerpted with permission from Inner Voice, the newsletter of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. While the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of ap- public what it can and can’t do on roadless peals mulls the future of the U.S. Forest land. Rather it’s a call for the Forest Service Service’s roadless rule, members of Congress not to add more roads to a system that the are rallying to introduce legislative protection agency is incapable of maintaining. The Forest for those 58.5 million roadless acres. A Service is responsible for the largest network of roadless bill would fix protection for these roads in the world — 386,000 miles — an wild areas, making their preservation a federal underfunded deteriorating system that would be law rather than an administrative rule. Ulti- stressed further by the addition of new roads…. mately, protection would be under the author- The Forest Service estimates that 220 spe- ity of elected members of Congress rather than cies listed as threatened or endangered or pro- administration-appointed bureaucrats, who in posed for listing under the Endangered Species the current climate have refused to enforce the Act would benefit from preservation of provisions of the Roadless Area Conservation roadless areas. Rule or defend it in court…. About 31 percent of national forest land would Congressional protection of roadless areas is be protected under the rule…. [This figure includes backed by bipartisan support — Washington 85,000 acres in Olympic National Forest. Ed.] Democrat Jay Inslee and Representative Roadless areas are roadless for a reason. Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican, are The Forest Service predicts that roadless pro- prominent in the coalition spearheading the bill. tection would reduce timber harvest on its land Inslee spokeswoman Sara O’Connell ex- by 2 percent — or about 0.5 percent of the na- pects a difficult fight with the current makeup tional harvest. Most roadless areas are in rug- of the House of Representatives…. Without a ged terrain that has offered little opportunity core group of conservation conservatives in for cost-effective resource extraction, but that support, the roadless bill won’t go far in the doesn’t mean there’s a lack of will to try. On Republican-majority House. the other side of the issue, environmentalists Rather than locking up lands, as some crit- mounted the biggest ever public comment What you can do: ics of roadless are protection have argued, the campaign about a resource issue. Most of the Write or e-mail bill would determine forest practices in the re- nearly 2 million comments submitted to the maining unprotected roadless acres on national Forest Service supported protection, but the your representative forests…. Nevertheless, industry and off-high- will of millions means little to the current in Congress, way vehicle groups see the roadless rule as an management of the Forest Service: the agency, urging support for attempt to deny them their rights to public after all, isn’t beholden to the people in the legislative land, as if the Forest Service, if it enforces the way Congress is, and in the end, it may take protection rule, will ring roadless areas with No Trespass- legislative protection for roadless areas to keep for National Forest ing signs.
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