When Washington’s Mount Rainier blew its top 5,600
years ago, a massive mud flow buried much of the Puget Sound under
hundreds of feet of mud and rock. Today, smaller mudslides from the
volcano, called one of the world’s most dangerous, threaten Mount
Rainier National Park. In the past decade, slides have destroyed a
bridge on the Winthrop Trail six times, and one slide nearly buried
a campground in 1963.
Now, as they prepare a new
20-year management plan, park officials are considering closing
some areas to keep the more than 2 million annual visitors safer.
Covered by 35 square miles of glacial ice, Mount
Rainier “is basically being eaten away from the inside out” by
volcanic activity, says park planner Eric Walkinshaw. But he
worries more about frequent small slides than about an eruption.
Slides are set off by small earthquakes and steam releases that
melt ice; they can move so fast that people below have only minutes
to flee.
To safeguard visitors, the Park Service
is considering the closure of two campgrounds and the historic
Longmire Lodge. Locals are not pleased. The agency held hearings
recently in Seattle, Tacoma, Yakima, Eatonville and Enumclaw and
residents showed up at each meeting in force to blast the park
plans.
“They wanted to have even more access to
the park,” Walkinshaw says.
Brooke Drury,
speaking for the climbing group, The Mountaineers, says mountain
users must accept the risks of going into the wild, and so should
the Park Service. “We’re not going to support the closing of a
campground or the Longmire Lodge simply because there’s a threat
from mudslides,” Drury says.
The public comment
period for the plan ended Nov. 30, but more comment will be allowed
when the agency releases a revised plan. For information, contact
Mount Rainier National Park, Tahoma Woods Star Route, Ashford, WA
98304, Attention: Superintendent William Briggle, or The
Mountaineers, 300 Third Ave. W, Seattle, WA 98119
(206/284-6310).
* Jason
Lenderman
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Is the Park Service too timid?.
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