Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the state of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula.The park has four basic regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west side temperate rainforest and the forests of the drier east side.
>> U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt originally created Mount Olympus National Monument on 2 March 1909.
>> It was designated a national park by President Franklin Roosevelt on June 29, 1938.
Landfall
>> The coastal portion of the park is a rugged, sandy beach along with a strip of adjacent forest. It is 60 miles (97 km) long but just a few miles wide, with native communities at the mouths of two rivers. The Hoh River has the Hoh people and at the town of La Push at the mouth of the Quileute River live the Quileute.
>>The beach has unbroken stretches of wilderness ranging from 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km). While some beaches are primarily sand, others are covered with heavy rock and very large boulders. Bushy overgrowth, slippery footing, tides and misty rain forest weather all hinder foot travel. (Times to hike should typically be doubled.) The coastal strip is more readily accessible than the interior of the Olympics; due to the difficult terrain, very few backpackers venture beyond casual day-hiking distances.
Ecology
>> The park sits on an isolated peninsula, with a high mountain range dividing it from the land to the south, it developed many endemic plant and animal species (like the Olympic Marmot, Piper's bellflower and Flett's violet). The southwestern coastline of the Olympic Peninsula is also the northernmost non-glaciated region on the Pacific coast of North America, with the result that – aided by the distance from peaks to the coast at the Last Glacial Maximum being about twice what it is today – it served as a refuge from which plants colonized glaciated regions to the north.
>> It also provides habitat for many species (like the Roosevelt elk) that are native only to the Pacific Northwest coast. Because of this importance, scientists have declared it to be a biological reserve, and study its unique species to better understand how plants and animals evolve. The park is home to sizable populations of black bears and Black-tailed deer. The park also has a noteworthy cougar population, numbering about 150.Mountain goats were accidentally introduced into the park into the 1920s and have caused much damage on the native flora. The NPS has activated management plans to control the goats. The park contains an estimated 366,000 acres (572 sq mi; 1,480 km2) of old-growth forests.
Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Project
>> The Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Project is the second largest ecosystem restoration project in the history of the National Park Service after the Everglades. It consisted of removing the 210 feet (64 m) Glines Canyon Dam and draining its reservoir, Lake Mills and removing the 108 feet (33 m) Elwha Dam and its reservoir Lake Aldwell from the Elwha River. Upon removal, the park will revegetate the slopes and river bottoms to prevent erosion and speed up ecological recovery. The primary purpose of this project is to restore Anadromous stocks of Pacific Salmon and steelhead to the Elwha River, which have been denied access to the upper 65 miles (105 km) of river habitat for more than 95 years by these dams. Removal of the dams was completed in 2014.
References
>> National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-11-14.
>> Pacific Northwest Research Station. Resource Bulletin PNW-RB-197.
