The National Park Service is proposing to demolish the Enchanted Valley Chalet seen in this May 2020 photo/NPS
In a long-awaited decision sure to have supporters and critics, Olympic National Park staff is proposing to tear down and destroy the Enchanted Valley Chalet, a once venerable building with a rich history that will be claimed by the Quinalt River if nothing is done.
Built in 1930-31 by the Olympic Recreation Company and used as a backcountry lodge until World War II, when it was used as Aircraft Warning Station, the two-and-a-half story building later saw use by the Naitonal Park Service as administrative space, public use, and as a ranger station.
But the river slowly and steadily has edged closer and closer to the structure, which is located 13 miles up the Quinault River from the Graves Creek Trailhead. In January 2014, the river had migrated to within 18 inches of the chalet. The National Park Service prepared an environmental assessment for “Emergency Action to Temporarily Relocate the Enchanted Valley Chalet for the Protection of the East Fork Quinault River.”
The selected alternative was to move the chalet 50-100 feet from the bank of the river in an effort to protect the river and its associated natural resources from imminent environmental harm. In September 2014, the NPS hired a local contractor, and the chalet was moved approximately 100 feet from the river. Since then, the park staff has been trying to decide what to do with the building. In a 2016 request to the public for input, there was a mix of desires to both keep the structure for its history and to erase its presence from the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness.
"The majority of comments expressed either a general desire to 'restore the area to natural conditions' or 'save the chalet' without any further detail, ideas, suggestions that would help build out the current, or develop new, alternative concepts," the Park Service said in an environmental assessment released this past week for public comment. "Many comments offered additional details to the preliminary alternative concepts, some of which were not considered technically or economically feasible."
All the while, the vagaries of the river channel continued to encroach on the chalet's new location. By March 2019 river bank erosion had crept to within 5 feet of the structure, with the nearest river channel just 10 feet away, according to an environmental assessment the Park Service prepared.
Now the Park Service has decided that it would be best to dismantle and remove the chalet, with some aspects of it being helicoptered out of the valley with others possibly burned there.
There are two other alternatives in the EA: one that would simply leave the structure to the whims of nature (if the river claimed it, the park would again have to decide how to respond to that event), with another calling for it to be relocated to a site above the river's floodplain.
The document, which was estimated to cost $116,000 to produce, did not specify the costs of each alternative. Supporting documentation does note, however, that, "(I)t is unclear if or when the park would acquire the funding to dismantle and remove the chalet."
Public comments on the alternatives is being taken through August 2. You can read the entire EA and comment at this website.
The Park Service will host one virtual public meeting where Olympic National Park staff will conduct a presentation on the EA followed by a question and answer session. The meeting will be held from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, July 15.
Virtual Public Meeting Access and Information
WebEx connect time: 4:45 p.m. PDT
Meeting start time: 5p.m. PDT
Meeting end time: 6:30 p.m. PDT
To join the webinar via computer and computer audio:
“Ctrl+click” on the following link or copy and paste the link into your internet browser:https://doilearn2.webex.com/doilearn2/onstage/g.php?MTID=e2ed0011d0909bb19dbb99f7674b10f53
Event (ID) number (access code): 199 948 4882
Event Password (if prompted): Chal3t!
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Comments
It's distressing that NPS, to which we entrust the preservation of historic sites across the nation, would choose destruction of a treasured site listed on the National Register of Historic Places over its preservation.
It's doubly distressing that NPS, to which we entrust the preservation of wilderness, would choose this even though it requires many more helicopter flights (involving greater wilderness impact, cost and labor) than moving this historic structure back away from the river to a sheltered corner of the meadow.
This is an abdication of NPS' mission to preserve either historic or wilderness values.
Did you read their decision paper or analysis at all? Do you understand that moving it back isn't really an option and why? Rather than piss all over the NPS, have you proposed a reasonable and cost-effective alternative based upon the facts of the situation?
Unfortunately this another example of how the NPS pays lip service the the principles of the NHPA but practices benign neglect or even indifference to the historic structures they are charged to protect.
Too much fuss over a few boards the river can cheaply take care of next spring, if indeed it hasn't already gone downstream. Okanogan National Forest hasn't removed the remains of the Eureka Creek bridge from the Pasayten Wilderness in my back yard, and most hikers don'd even notice the remains occassionally sticking out of the gravel. An avalanche induced flood took it out years ago, and the Wolves think it's great having Pistol Pass to themsrlves.
Save the chalet for future generations!
Considerting the fact that this beautiful land was taken from the Original Native People of this country, it is a small price to pay to at least restore aspects of its natural beauty.