Forest damage piles up
December 29th, 2007 by sitedudeDamage assessments continue to roll in concerning flood damage to area forests. Officials with the Washington Department of Natural Resources are just completing assessments on Tahuya State Forest, Green Mountain State Forest and Hood Canal State Forest. In the Tahuya alone, roads, trails and bridges sustained more than $1 million damage. That’s the subject of my story and Caroline Yaschur’s photos in today’s Kitsap Sun.
It’s going to be an ongoing challenge for state and federal officials to keep recreation areas open, let alone enhancing opportunities — especially if climate change brings more frequent flooding.
It’s been barely a year since Mount Rainier National Park sustained flood damage that forever changed the landscape of that magnificent park. The latest cost estimate of park damage (PDF 28 kb) stands at $24 to $27 million.
Now Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest officials are going through the painful exercise of assessing their damage from the Dec. 3 storm. I’d like to commend the folks at Olympic National Park for putting together a nice photo gallery and slide show in short order. They have been wonderful about providing photos and videos on their Web site, and I hope they can keep up the great effort.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
December 30th, 2007 at 8:25 am
I love the plug about climate change…they complain about drought in other parts of the country.