Followers of our blog, and dear friends,
The following is an email Nicole received from the President of Jefferson Trails Coalition. It is very important to continuing the growth of the Larry Scott Memorial Trail into the Olympic Discovery Trail. Please read on and take action!!!
"Next Monday, October 4th, the Olympic National Park has invited the public to an informational meeting to learn more about preliminary alternatives now under consideration for two segments of the Olympic Discovery Trail on the north shore of Lake Crescent. The meeting will be held at 5:00 p.m. at the Port Angeles Senior Community Center (328 East 7th St. in Port Angeles).
Park staff will present some preliminary alternatives for developing the historic Spruce Railroad grade into a non-motorized, multi-use trail from the Lyre River to the Park's western boundary, including an alternative proposed by Clallam County. Both park and County staff will discuss key details of the proposals and will be available to answer questions during the meeting.
Based on input received during the initial scoping period, the park has developed six preliminary trail development alternatives, including the design plan submitted by Clallam County. Per the over one hundred responses from the public during this period, well over 85% of the responses have favored the County plan.
**Here's the issue at hand: If the Park adopts a design other than that of the County's , which complies with the standard for the ODT, the funding to develop the trail around the north shore of Lake Crescent will be lost. Specifically, the money granted to open up and refurbish the two tunnels on that side of the lake for a non-motorized, multi-use, multi-accessible trail could be withdrawn. This effectively blocks the ODT at that point on its route across the entire width of the Olympic Peninsula, which has been worked on continuously for over twenty years, involving hundreds of volunteers and tens of thousands of hours.
And perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this result is that it will force road and touring cyclists to continue to use highway 101 as the only east-west route alternative in this area. (See the attached presentation.) I believe this may very well eventually cost the lives of some of those travelers on this dangerous 12-mile stretch of highway.
In addition, of the hundreds of miles of trails throughout the Park, there currently exist only 2 miles of ADA accessible trail. This improvement would add over 10 additional miles for access by disabled users.
The purpose of this letter is to ask that you please consider attending this meeting in a show of support for the Clallam County's design.
In addition, please contact Representative Norm Dicks (norm@normdicks.com) and Senators Patty Murray (http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm) and Maria Cantwell (http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/) to ask for their support of the County's plan as well. We must protect the funding for this project in light of the critical importance to the integrity of the entire concept of the ODT and the economic and cultural interest of both Clallam and Jefferson Counties. Thank you very much.
Respectfully, Jeff L. Selby
Peninsula Trails Coalition,
Vice President, Jefferson County
(360) 385-0995"
Thank YOU for making a difference.
