Additional time has been allowed for the public to provide input on plans by Olympic National Park to remove an aging chalet in the Enchanted Valley that is threatened by the Quinault River.

Park officials cited COVID-19 complications as the driving force behind their move to allow respondents until Aug. 31 to voice their thoughts and suggestions, following the publication of an environmental assessment in early July.

The two-and-a-half story Enchanted Valley Chalet is located about 13 miles up the Quinault River from the Graves Creek Trailhead. The chalet was originally built in 1930 by Olympic Recreation Company and operated as a commercial business until 1943. It was used briefly as a World War II aircraft warning station and later purchased by the National Park Service in 1951. 

The Park Service reopened the chalet in 1953 to public use but issues surrounding maintenance and vandalism prompted its closure to the public. The building was used as a ranger station from 1954 through 2013, with a small corner room on the first floor having been converted to an emergency shelter in 1995.

The building resides on top of a riverine terrace within the active floodplain of the Quinault River. Over the years, erosion has brought the river closer and closer.

In 2014 the Quinault River came knocking again when all but 18 inches of the terrace had eroded between the building and the riverbank. The erosion required an extensive stopgap effort to move the building 100 feet further from the edge.

Park officials say that the bank has once again eroded to within 5 feet of the chalet and action must be taken — or not — to prevent further costly recovery and removal efforts in the event that the Quinault does reclaim the Enchanted Valley Chalet.

The first option explored in the National Park Service’s environmental assessment of the site would be nothing at all, actually.  

Inaction, according to the assessment, was described as leaving the chalet “in its current location and on top of the steel I-beams that were used to move it in 2014.”

Under this plan, the chalet would remain closed to the public and no action would be taken to protect the structure from the river — or for that matter, the river from the chalet.

The second alternative offered by park officials is also the preferred course of action: dismantling and removing the chalet. 

Large and heavy pieces of the 48-ton building would be choppered out from the site and with much of the building’s lighter materials put into piles and burned. 

Under this plan, helicopters would be available to bring in tools and equipment for the dismantling efforts. Officials estimated the work would require approximately 12 days or 80 hours of helicopter use and between 24 and 26 weeks of work by a Park Service crew. This alternative carried an estimated price tag of $660,000, not including National Historic Preservation Act mitigation costs.    

The third option is also the most costly, at more than $1.25 million before mitigation costs, and would see the building moved again using hydraulic jacks and cribbing, as was done in 2014. 

To site the chalet at its new location, approximately 12 cottonwood or alder trees (up to 72 inches in diameter) would need to be removed along with some leveling of the landscape.

According to the National Park Service, alternatives that were considered, but ultimately dismissed included dismantling and relocating the building outside the Enchanted Valley; modification of the river channel and bank stabilization; and just burning it down.

Public comments on the chalet will be accepted until midnight Monday, Aug. 31, and may be submitted online at www.parkplanning.nps.gov/ONPEVCEA2. Written comments should be addressed to Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum, Olympic National Park – EVC EA2 600 East Park Ave., Port Angeles, WA 98362. 

Comments provided via email or phone will not be accepted.