Kautz Creek: Nature's power is evident

That's the title of an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, detailing the effects of the November 2006 floods on Kautz Creek. The author of the article "played leapfrog" with volunteers working on the trail as they hiked up into the forest:

The damage to Kautz Creek and other trails within Mount Rainier National Park was so extensive that volunteers from several organizations answered the call for help and have responded accordingly. At the trailhead we ran into volunteers from Starbucks working with the Student Conservation Association, a non-profit organization established 50 years ago. The focus of SCA is to restore and protect public lands for future generations.

We played leapfrog with the volunteers to the crossing of Kautz Creek, their project for the day. The crew was putting in stone steps where the stream bank had crumbled away.We stopped to view the destruction; much of it still looks as if it happened yesterday. Between the trailhead and Kautz Creek fallen trees and root balls line the new route the creek created. The old bridge lies askew on a pile of debris where it was tossed during the rampage. Now bridges are back in place but debris borders the creek as far as the eye can see.

Rainier's Glacier Basin Trail getting a re-route

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a great article about the work that's now underway on the Glacier Basin Trail, under the direction of the Washington Trails Association.

Washington Trails Association began work on the trail with a group of high school students participating on one of WTA's weeklong Volunteer Vacations for Youth earlier this month. Nine teens and two crew leaders stayed at the nearby White River campground and worked five consecutive days on the clearing the corridor and beginning the new construction: clearing duff, large rocks, downed wood, bucked trees, and more. The WTA youth crew worked along side other youth groups, including Northwest Youth Corps, Earthcorps, and Student Conservation Association. For those of you who have ever participated in building new trail, you know this is not a quick or easy task! But the groups made a lot of progress, and although there is still much to be done, the project is finally on its way.

Read the full article on the P-I's Trail Talk blog.

A sunny winter day on Mount Rainier is Paradise on ice

Here's a great article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, written by Rebecca Agiewich, who volunteers at our Climber Information Center during the summer:

"With a little education and a lot of common sense, your winter outings at the park probably will be some of the most memorable of your life. From Paradise, not only do you get monstrous close-ups of Rainier, you also can drink in the jagged, snow-covered spine of the Tatoosh Range to the south (those pointy peaks and broad saddles are also part of the park). Climb just a little higher and you can survey a veritable who's who of Northwest volcanoes, including mounts Hood, Adams and St. Helens...."

Mountain Rescue Volunteers

If you've been watching the local news over the past 24 hours, you might have seen me wearing one of my other park service hats: that of Public Information Officer. Two days ago, a young man from Lynnwood was caught in a snow avalanche while snowshoeing with a friend about a mile above Paradise. The search for him reached a peak at mid-day yesterday, when a total of 17 people were out looking for him in the midst of a vigorous winter storm. Eight of those people were dedicated volunteers from Tacoma, Olympic, and Seattle Mountain Rescue, three of our most important partner organizations. (Uncharacteristically, these are volunteers that we'd prefer not to have to call!) They started showing up at 7am yesterday morning and worked hard until dark, in 20 degree weather plus high winds and sometimes whiteout conditions, finally heading for home about 5:00. (The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a great picture of the Olympic volunteers coming in from the field, thumbnailed and linked above, along with a detailed article about the search.)

The weather, unfortunately, did not cooperate for us to search further today. We got 15.5 inches of snow at Paradise last night, and the visibility and avalanche danger never improved enough to accomplish, safely, more than what we were already able to do yesterday. Tomorrow's weather looks better, and so we hope to be back out in the field searching, again with the help of our friends from Mountain Rescue. It's just another example of what we wouldn't be able to accomplish without the help of our volunteers.

Hunter fined for killing park elk

This from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"An Arlington man sentenced Thursday in federal court for killing an elk in Mount Rainier National Park was ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and serve a year of probation, a federal official said Friday.... A park volunteer found an adult elk's remains Nov. 6, 2004."

Rangers used DNA analysis to link the elk to the poacher. Good work, rangers and volunteers!

A neighborhood Park in Vancouver gets a facelift!

From the "trail talk" section of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"...noteworthy in itself, this was the largest trail crew work party WTA has ever held. Pretty cool! Previous record, 90 REI folks at Mount Rainier."

Congratulations to WTA for breaking the record they set on June 30th at Cougar Rock!

Volunteers Rescue Ravaged Mount Rainier National Park

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 28, 2007:

The Mount Rainier recovery estimate was $36 million, but volunteerism and fiscal management likely will bring costs down, possibly allowing funding to shift to other hard-hit national parks like Olympic or North Cascades, said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

2,000 Set Out to Care for Rainier: Students Lead Repairs on Storm-Damaged Rainier

Looking like a Civil War re-enactment, nine canvas tents sit in a row in the middle of an abandoned campground at Mount Rainier National Park. Lined up next to the moss-covered remains of picnic tables, under towering Douglas firs, the tents and a converted carnival-concession trailer are base camp for the crew leaders who will be directing an army of 2,000 volunteers on the mountain this summer....

Read more in an article by Colin McDonald on the website of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer!

Cool things are happening to trails at Mount Rainier

WTA volunteers have been busy at Mount Rainier this summer. So far, WTA volunteers have contributed over 30 days of work on trails around the Park, totaling 3,923 hours with the participation of over 200 individual volunteers. What exactly have all of these volunteers accomplished? Here's a glimpse...

Read more by Alyssa Kreider on the Seattle P-I's blog!