Decision expected in early 2004 on whether to relocate road

By Patrick J. Sullivan
Leader Staff Writer

Snow-fed rivers such as the Dosewallips naturally shift and move. Salmon spawning beds move with the water-shorn gravel banks.

Since the flood of January 2002, the Dosewallips River now hooks into a huge gravel and sand bank where the Dosewallips Road used to be, about 10 miles up the Dosewallips Valley from Brinnon and U.S. Highway 101.

Unconfined by rock canyons, the raging river at that point nearly three years ago ripped away a quarter-mile chunk of Forest Road 2610. Last month's sudden rainwater runoff only deepened the river's cut into the bank where the road is now blocked by a pile of dirt, a few posts, and then a 20-foot drop into the river.

It'll be at least early next year before the U.S. Forest Service resolves what to do next: Decommission the road at the washout, build a road on the terrace above and around the washout, or simply do nothing.

"It's just going to take more time to work through the process," said David Craig, Hood Canal District ranger. "We should have an answer in January."

Already removed from further consideration is the alternative of rebuilding the narrow two-lane road exactly in place. The scale of repairs needed, and the resulting impact on salmon spawning habitat, has already been rejected through an environmental assessment process.

"The river does continue to pull spawning gravel out of that high bank, and that is one of the reasons our fish biologist determined it would be better not to rebuild the road in place," Craig said Nov. 17.

But there are 20 primitive camping sites at the Forest Service's Elkhorn Campground about a mile upstream from the washout. The road ends at a National Park Service ranger station (open mid-June through September) and the 30-unit Dosewallips Campground and trailhead. Both sites are intended to provide motorized access to unique facilities, enough to bring serious consideration to Alternative C: Relocate the road up and over the gravel bank terrace a few hundred feet from the river.

"It's not just a road to nowhere," Craig said of the Dosewallips. "There are some important facilities up that road." Since the washout, the campsites and trailhead are open only for people who can hike around the washout.

If the new road alternative were chosen, a full Environmental Impact Statement would follow.

The economics of the road repair is one issue that USFS staff have already discussed briefly, and it would be investigated further in an EIS. Some business leaders in Brinnon have suggested that restoring road access to the campgrounds is important for visitors and locals alike.

The Fisheries Biological Evaluation was reviewed by the Olympic National Forest fisheries biologist, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Now the process needs a response from Fish and Wildlife before a direction is chosen early in 2004, Craig said.

(Contact Patrick J. Sullivan at psullivan@ptleader.com.)