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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2015)
3C THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2015 New trail opens to North Head Lighthouse By KATIE WILSON EO Media Group ILWACO, Wash. — One of the most popular spots at Cape Disappointment State Park, North Head Light- house, is also one of its least developed. But that is changing, said Tom Benenati, ranger and assistant park manager at Cape Disappointment. Now open is a trail ex- tension that runs more or less parallel to North Head Lighthouse Road, follow- ing a portion of the original historical lighthouse access road, and winds through marbled murrelet nesting habitat. Construction on the mul- tiuse trail began last spring. After getting delayed by weather, construction most- ly wrapped up right before Christmas. “I think what’s most ex- citing is just the connection to the lighthouse and the Discovery Trail,” said Park Manager Evan Roberts. Big upgrade Until recently, the road leading up to North Head Lighthouse was not a safe place to walk or bike. But travelers coming up the 8.5-mile-long Discovery Trail that stretches from Long Beach to Ilwaco had limited options. If they stopped at the Beards Hollow parking lot in the state park, they could jump on a primitive 1-mile- long hiking trail and reach the North Head Lighthouse parking lot that way, or they could continue on the Dis- covery Trail, crossing State Route 100 and then jumping onto a paved State Parks trail. But that trail ended where North Head Lighthouse Road began. Park employees are ex- cited to be able to offer vis- itors another option now, Benenati said. What they had before was “really in- adequate to handle the de- mand.” The park is planning a more elaborate opening of the trail extension for late Photo courtesy of Jim Sayce A new paved trail now links Washington State Route 100 with North Head Lighthouse, tying in with Cape Disappointment State Park’s world-class system of walking/bicycling paths. The new trail spur permits pedestrians to reach one of Washington state’s most spectacular seaside viewpoints with a minimum of exposure to vehicular traffic. spring; mean- tion Office, spend- while, contractors ing that was autho- are still tidying up, rized back in 2011, testing restrooms and from a bud- and making small geted $150,000 final tweaks to dedicated solely the project, said to North Head Virginia Painter, Lighthouse area spokesperson for improvements. the Washington Complications State Parks and Evan “These are Recreation Com- Roberts challenging trails mission. to build, but feasi- The 2,000-foot- long extension and improve- ble,” said Roberts. The challenges of this ments to the parking lot were paid for in part by a particular trail extended be- $1.6 million grant from the yond the high costs of con- Recreation and Conserva- structing it. The trail goes through habitat used by the marbled murrelet, a small sea bird whose preferred nesting habitat is old-growth trees and which is listed as threatened in Washington, Oregon and California un- der the Federal Endangered Species Act. It posed a great educational opportunity for visitors, but also a delicate balance for park stewards to maintain. Contractors had to identi- fy exactly which trees they were going to cut down to make way for the trail while avoiding the trees the birds prefer for nesting. They worked during peri- ods when the birds would not be present. Park rangers closed down the trail from the Beards Hollow parking lot to further limit exact- ly how many people would be tromping around in the birds’ nesting habitat once the trail extension opened. The park decided not to pro- vide much by way of “trail amenities” like trash cans and benches along the trail extension to further discour- age people from leaving trash in the area. The park also abandoned plans to continue a multiuse trail from North Head Light- house down to the ranger station. “That (would have been) really challenged and would have been cost-prohibitive,” Roberts said. Also, there would have been no way to avoid affect- ing the murrelets and would have even likely required an incidental take permit, a permit allowing activities that could harm or impact listed species, Roberts add- ed — something the federal Fish and Wildlife Service was not interested in allow- ing. ested in pursuing exploratory drilling in the area, Campbell said, and BLM is still working on the issue. “Time will tell whether or not the (review) pans out in a way that’s going to allow us to move forward,” he said. Drilling plan near volcano dropped Ascot’s plan was the third time since 2004 that a com- pany has attempted to drill or develop a mine in the area, according to the task force, a Vancouver-based advocacy group. The most recent proposal was reviewed by the forest service and BLM, both of which approved it in 2012. Ascot Resources had hoped to carry out exploratory drilling in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, just north of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument bound- ary. The company planned to look for copper, silver, gold and other minerals by drilling 63 holes at 23 different sites north of the mountain. The exploration never hap- pened. After an unsuccessful administrative appeal, the Gifford Pinchot Task Force led a lawsuit aiming to block the drilling, citing environ- mental impacts and other con- cerns. That led to a July 2014 opinion from the U.S. District Court in Oregon nding ear- lier review and approval of the plan inadequate, and, ulti- mately, the decision by Ascot By The Columbian A Canadian mining com- pany has for now dropped its pursuit of an exploratory drilling project near Mount St. Helens, prompting envi- ronmental advocates to de- clare victory after a prolonged legal ght. Ascot Resources, along with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, agreed late last month to vol- untarily dismiss appeals aiming to keep the project alive. The action followed an earlier court opinion that sided with oppo- nents of the drilling on many key arguments. “We think this is it, and we consider it a win, after work- ing on it for a decade,” said Matt Little, executive director of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force. The decision likely won’t be the end of the controver- sy, however. BLM plans to work with Ascot to develop a revised environmental assess- ment this year and possibly is- sue new drilling permits, said agency spokesman Michael Campbell. ! Y A D O T OUT ges allen ions ith g c o h cean condit w s e cop e changin tlight: ry spo FREE Indust h farm c despit ellf m is ains optimisti : e h id S s In r re Taylo g the niclin Chro AY FIRST FRID ED THE PUBLISH H MONTH OF EAC Joy of Mount St. Helens ternatives, among other prob- lems. Despite the most recent setback, Ascot is still inter- The January edition ssjournal rbusine oastrive 1 k.com/c • Issue • faceboo e 10 rnal.com Volum crbizjou ic -Pacif lumbia the Co ess in Busin and others to drop it. Opponents had argued that exploratory drilling could cause signi cant harm to a sensitive natural area, par- ticularly wildlife and water in the Green River area. The land, where mining claims go back decades, was purchased by the forest service in 1986 with funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, according to the task force. The court’s decision on the Ascot plan could impact other areas tied to the same program, said Roger Flynn, director and managing attor- ney of the Western Mining Action Project. “The district court’s rul- ing has far-reaching rami - cations, as millions of acres of public lands across the country were purchased with LWCF monies,” Flynn said in a statement. As it revisits the Ascot plan, BLM will work to ensure its environmental assessment follows the National Environ- mental Policy Act, Campbell said. 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