People walk above Sluiskin Falls along the Skyline path at Paradise on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015.
The public can still comment on the proposed Wilderness Stewardship Plan for Mount Rainier National Park, which considers how to preserve wilderness while providing visitor use.
The National Park Service issued a release stating that the public scoping period for the plan has been extended to Feb. 22.
According to the release, public involvement is crucial to the planning process; the scoping period began in December.
“At Mount Rainier in particular people really love the park … Many people probably know better than many of us do and they have a perspective that we don’t have,” said Karen Thompson, environmental coordinator with the park. “The public can bring up issues. It will help us maybe identify some actions that we never thought about.”
Thompson said so far about 45 online and 10 written comments have been received. She expects many will come in during the last week of the comment period.
The previous plan is from 1992, so Thompson said it needs to be updated not only because it is 24 years old, but also due to high visitor volumes.
She said visitors had been increasing since the 1970s until about 2000. After that the numbers leveled off and have gone up and down since then. While the numbers for 2015 aren’t in yet, she said, it is likely that due to low snowpack and nice weather it could be one of the higher years.
Even if the numbers are continuing to increase, Thompson said, the park is seeing visitor numbers that require some attention.
The plan, she said, will help to guide day-to-day administrative decisions as well as potential rehabilitation actions.
A notice of intent to do an environmental impact statement was published on Dec. 22. The statement will consider and analyze five alternatives for the proposed plan.
The first is no action as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
The second is to implement elements of the 2002 general management plan, which could include a Westside Road shuttle or a shuttle system in the Nisqually to Paradise road corridor.
Another alternative focuses on managing visitor levels for increased opportunities for solitude, which might include relocating campsites further away from one another, reducing parking at some trailheads or requiring parking permits for some areas or managing day use with trailhead quotas or day-use fees.
The fourth alternative expands access and reduces management control on visitors, which could include reducing designated camps and allowing self-selected sites instead, increasing parking at some trailheads, creating new trails or increasing off-season recreational opportunities.
The last alternative for analysis looks to preserve and restore the wilderness. Proposals might include removing non-native fish from waters in the park, implementing restoration projects, requiring bear canisters and removing bear poles, moving campsites away from streams, removing some structures or limiting access to areas of degradation.
The alternatives are scheduled to be finalized this spring, and a draft plan is scheduled to be released in the summer or fall.
Public comment can be submitted at parkplanning.nps.gov/morawild.
Written comments must be postmarked or received by Feb. 22. Comments can be mailed to Randy King, superintendent, Attn: Wilderness Stewardship Plan, Mount Rainier National Park, 55210 238th Ave. E., Ashford, WA 98304.
Questions about the proposed plan can be directed to Thompson at (360) 569-6507.
