A Heroic Tale of Conquering Aliens

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt your regularly scheduled blog-scrolling to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Blog News Agency.  At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory of Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars.  The spectroscope indicated the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity.  Professor Pierson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell’s observation, and describes the phenomenon as “like a jet of blue flame shot from a gun.”

I don’t mean to alarm you, but Mount Rainier is under attack from alien invaders.  Massive groves of what scientists are calling Geranium robertianum, or “Stinky Bob” for short, could be found encroaching upon the Carbon River Ranger Station as recent as just last weekend.  Now, this may seem like something out of a certain book that has entered the public domain as it was written in the late 1800’s and may have been loosely quoted above, BUT this is real life.  Much of the newly acquired land around the Carbon River entrance was once used for agriculture, featuring plants that are not native to Mount Rainier’s lush forests.  Luckily help had arrived, right on time.

The Mount Rainier National Park Associates arrived in full battle gear, thick leather gloves on hand and plastic trash bags nearby, to ensure the alien invaders could not escape once more.  With the help of the Revegetation Crew’s extensive training on exotic and invasive species removal, the MRNPA were able to corral mountains of the invaders until no more could be seen. 

With special thanks to this crew, we can rest easy knowing the park is safe once more.

Are you interested in saving the planet from alien invaders?  How about helping to repopulate Mount Rainier with native species?  Maybe you just want to come out and volunteer?  Then check out the Mount Rainier National Park Associates’ website at www.mrnpa.org and sign up for one of their upcoming work projects.  No prior training in eradication of aliens is required. 

 

Mount Rainier National Park Associates sets 2015 schedule

Greetings,

 

During 2015 Mount Rainier National Park  Associates will be conducting six volunteer work parties at Mount Rainier: four Saturdays of doing trail maintenance and two Saturdays doing "alpine gardening".   We invite you to join us for a day or two of volunteer work, donating your time and effort, but also enjoying the amazing place that is Mount Rainier National Park and the company of people who love that place.

 

Please mark your calendars to join us on any, or all, of the following dates [subject to change!].  The locations will be determined by park staff about two weeks before the volunteer work party.

 

April 25th  trail maintenance (a great day to get that first spring outing at Mount Rainier)

May 16th   trail maintenance

June 13th  trail maintenance

July 11th   The Deveg  (exotic plant removal, also known as weeding, but a surprisingly fun Saturday) 

August 15th  trail maintenance during the day, followed by a pot luck dinner, and an overnight camp for the volunteers who have worked that day

September 12th  The Reveg  (planting wildflower seedlings to re-establish alpine meadows)

 

I hope to see you on one, or more, of these MRNPA volunteer work parties.

 

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates

MRNPA Exotics Removal - July 12

From John Titland:

The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer work party will be Saturday, July 12th.  This will be the annual Mount Rainier National Park Associates Exotic Plant Removal work party.  We will be working at the site of the new Carbon River Ranger Station, which is located a few miles west of the Carbon River Entrance of the park on the Carbon River Road.  The ranger station occupies a building that was formerly identified as the Carbon River Ranch.  The property extends all the way down to the Carbon River.  I am sure we will be able to find an abundance of invasive, exotic plants to remove.

To participate in the Exotic Plant Removal work party there is no need to know about native plants.  The NPS crew members we will work with will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area.  There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and use.

Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel, or your favorite weed removing tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear.  A warm jacket would be good to include.  If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too. 

We will meet at 8:30 AM in front of the ranger station.  Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM.

If  you plan to attend this work party, please reply to volunteer(at)mrnpa.org indicating that you are coming and give me the number of volunteers you expect to accompany you.  I need an estimate of the number of volunteers who will attend.

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates

Exotic Plant Removal - "Deveg"

The MRNPA will be holding its annual Exotic Plant Removal ("deveg") party on Saturday, July 13 this year. Although last year's project was done on the Westside Road, NPS leaders are currently evaluating this year's plant growth and the possibility of working at another area. The location will be announced when plans are firmed up.

Participants in the project are not required to know about native and non-native plants. NPS crew members will work with you and tell you which plants to remove, and will be happy to identify native plants for you as well.

You should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel or your favorite weed removing tool. You will not be expected to use or carry larger tools like pulaskis or shovels. Also bring a lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and dress according to the weather.
 
The crew will meet at 8:30 AM and will start work at 9:00 AM. Expect to finish about 3:00 PM.  When you enter the Park, tell the ranger at the gate that you will be working on a volunteer project and you will be admitted to the Park for free.

If  you plan to attend this work party, please reply to John Titland at volunteer@mrnpa.org.

Volunteer Newsletter - May 2013

Sumer is icumen in!

The snow is melting back and the wildflowers are just beginning to emerge in the lower forest zone. It's time to start thinking about our summer Volunteer activities in the Park! If you're a new volunteer or a seasoned veteran looking to expand your service to the Park, be sure you check out the opportunities listed on volunteer.gov. We are actively recruiting for a number of different positions including Backcountry Maintenance (painting) and Frontcountry Patrol - Paradise. Get your applications in soon!

Upcoming Events

The annual Volunteer Brunch returns to the Tacoma Mountaineers' Program Center this year. Join us on Saturday, May 11 from 9-11 AM. Attendees are asked to bring their favorite potluck dishes to share with the group. Beverages and place settings will be furnished by the hosts. The address is 2302 North 30th St. Tacoma WA 98403. Hope to see you there!

Break out the gloves and hardhats! The MRNPA will be working on several trails projects this year. Mark May 18, June 15 and August 10 on your calendars if you'd like to join the crew. The MRNPA will also be removing exotic plants on July 13 and will hold a revegetation project at Sunrise on September 7. If you are interested in participating in any or all of the above activities, please contact volunteer@mount-rainier.org or visit MRNPA's website at mrnpa.org.

Meadow Rovers, we have two training sessions coming up for you as well. The first is for incoming Rovers and will be held on Saturday, June 22. The training for experienced Rovers is on Sunday, June 23. Further details will be posted here and also in an upcoming Volunteer newsletter.

We will be partnering with Washington Trails Association again this year! This fine group will be leading projects every weekend starting in June. You can sign up for on their website at wta.org.

Our Citizen Science programs will be resuming again in July. Watch for details on the Volunteer blog and in upcoming newsletters. We're still taking applicants for amphibian surveys. Butterfly surveys will also return this year, and we hope to be announcing a third citizen science project shortly as well.

What's Been Going On

ArrowCorps502: In recognition of their conservation project ArrowCorps502, the T'Kope Kwiskwis Lodge received the 2012 OA National Service Award, making the lodge the first in its section to receive the Award, and only the second lodge in Washington State. ArrowCorps volunteers built trails and restored campsites during August 2011. Congratulations to all who made ArrowCorps502 a success!

Nordic Patrol wrapped up a great season with 47 volunteers logging over 1,081 hours for the winter of 2012-2013.  Nordic Patrol is made up of volunteers supplied by the Washington Ski Touring Club (WSTC). Volunteers patrol the backcountry trails of the Park on weekends and holidays, and sometimes participate in Search and Rescue. If you are interested in volunteering for Nordic Patrol, visit wstc.org.

Adopt-a-Highway: In a partnership with the Washington State Department of Transportation, teams of Park volunteers conducted two litter patrols along a two-mile stretch of SR 706. This "beat" encompasses the Tahoma Woods frontage as well as that of Columbia Crest School. Future patrols will be scheduled in late June and September. Keep your eye on the Volunteer blog for more information.

Jeanne Friend: On a more sombre note, we are sad to report the loss of longtime volunteer Jeanne Friend. Jeanne's contribution to the Park spanned 27 years of volunteer service. For most of her volunteer career, Jeanne's passion was with the revegetation program. She was actively involved with a Boy Scout troup in Everett, starting with restoration of the old Paradise Campground in 1983. Many of the still-healing patches in the meadows you see during the summer are restorative work done by her and her teams. She also served as a "Paradise Ranger Assistant" under Ranger John Madden, patrolling trails and helping in the ranger station full time from 1997 to 2000 and part-time in 2001 during the summer. In later years, she helped with the park library and curatorial collection. Jeanne received the prestigious Superintendent's Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service

Statistics, statistics!

Number of volunteers have increased from 1,728 to 1,804.
Total volunteer hours increased from 74,504 hours to 74,615 (worth $1.65 million!).
The new value of volunteer time by the hour is $22.14, a 35-cent increase from last year.

MRNPA Work Parties for Summer 2013

On April 27th, the MRNPA has a great day planned on the Tahoma Woods Trail. This 1.3 mile loop trail, used extensively by residents and NPS personnel and Education Center activity groups, is in need of attention due to vegetation overgrowth along the trail corridor. The day’s project priorities include the removal of encroaching vegetation, downed trees and other debris from the corridor. In addition to Park Headquarters, Tahoma Woods is also the location of the greenhouse facility where the seedlings for the meadow restoration program are grown. Sometime during the volunteer day on April 27th, the group will have the opportunity to visit the greenhouse.

The group will be staging at the Tahoma Woods housing area tennis court between 8:30 and 9:00 AM. From Elbe, take SR 706 3.5 miles toward Ashford. At the Park Headquarters sign, turn in and then take the first right. Proceed straight ahead to the tennis court.

If you plan to attend this April 27th trails work party, please respond by email to volunteer@mount-rainier.org to let the supervisor know you are coming. Please provide the number of volunteers who will accompany you. If you have your own hard hat and/or safety glasses, you are asked to bring them. Safety equipment will be provided for those who do not have their own.

Future MRNPA projects include trail work projects on May 18, June 15 and August 10, removal of exotic plants on July 13 and a revegetation project at Sunrise on September 7. If you are interested in participating in any or all of the above activities, please contact volunteer@mount-rainier.org or visit MRNPA's website at mrnpa.org.

Mount Rainier National Park Associates Deveg Project

The Mount Rainier National Park Associates conducts a "deveg" (exotic plant removal) project along the Westside Road in July 2012. MRNPA welcomes volunteers! Learn more about them at MRNPA.org, and join the for one of their next projects -- trail maintenance on August 11, or Revegetation on September 8!

MRNPA July 14th Work Party!

Greetings,

 

The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer work party will be Saturday, July 14th.

 

We will be working with Will Arneson's Ecological Restoration crew doing exotic plant removal (weeding).  The project area is the 3.5 miles of the Westside Road, from the Nisqually Road junction to the end of the road at the Fish Creek parking lot.   We will be removing non-native plants that are invading the areas adjacent to roadway by digging up the whole plant, including the root system, and collecting the plants in plastic garbage bags.  All collected plant materials will be removed from the park and disposed of in a landfill.

 

To participate there is no need to know about native plants.  Will and his crew members will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area.  There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and use.  The Westside Road  is open to vehicle traffic, and though not heavily traveled, we will be required to wear safety vests. 

 

Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel, or your favorite weed removing tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear.  A warm jacket would be good to include too as most of the Westside Road is shaded by trees.  If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too.   Because we will working along the road, you will not need to carry much more than your digging tool, your jacket, and some fluids to drink.  We will have our packs transported to the lunch site. 

 

We will meet at 8:30 AM at the junction of the Westside Road and the Nisqually Road. (That is about a mile inside the Nisqually Entrance to the park).  Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM.  Tell the ranger at the gate as you enter the park that you will be working on a volunteer project and you will be admitted to the park for free.

 

If  you plan to attend this work party, please reply to this email indicating that you are coming and give me the number of volunteers you expect to accompany you.  I need an estimate of the number of volunteers who will attend.

 

If you would like to camp in the park for free before or after (or both) participating in this work party, camping is available at the Longmire VIP campground.  To camp for free you must make camping reservations by contacting Will Arneson at Will_Arnesen@nps.gov or Carrie_Anders@partner.nps.gov.

If you are not able to attend a MRNPA work party, but are interested in volunteering at Mount Rainier National Park,  please look at the Mount Rainier "Volunteers in the Park" website.
  

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates

MRNPA Exotic Plant Removal Work Party - July 9th

The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates work party will be Saturday, July 9th. The group will be working with Will Arneson's Ecological Restoration crew doing exotic plant removal (weeding). The project is to work along the Westside Road removing non-native plants that are invading the areas adjacent to roadway. The work area will be along the 3.5 miles of the Westside Road, from the Nisqually Road junction to the end at the Fish Creek parking lot.

To participate there is no need to know much about native plants. Will and his crew will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area. The Westside Road is not heavily traveled, so vehicle traffic will not be a problem. There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and work with. Because the group will be working along the road, you will not need to carry your pack. Packs will be transported to the lunch site.

Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel or your favorite gardening tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear. Considering how this year has progressed so far, a warm jacket would be good to include. If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too. All participants will be required to wear safety vests because we will be working along a road that is open to vehicle traffic.

Everyone will meet at 8:30 AM at the junction of the Westside Road and the Nisqually Road. (That is about a mile just inside the Nisqually Entrance to the park). Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. Tell the ranger as you enter the park that you will be working on a volunteer project and you will be admitted to the park for free.

If you would like to camp for free in the park before or after (or both) participating in this work party, camping is available at the Longmire VIP campground. To camp for free you will need to make camping reservations by contacting Will Arneson at Will_Arnesen@nps.gov or by phone at 360-569-6762.

If you plan to attend this work party please fill out a Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer form indicating that you are coming and include the number of volunteers you expect to accompany you. An estimate for the number of volunteers so that the Park can be sure to have enough tools for everyone.

For more information visit www.mrnpa.org or contact John Titland (MRNPA's Volunteer Coordinator) at volunteer@mrnpa.org.

MRNPA Exotic Plant Removal Party Happening July 9th

The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates work party will be Saturday, July 9th.

They will be working with Will Arneson's Ecological Restoration crew doing exotic plant removal (weeding). The project is to work along the Westside Road removing non-native plants that are invading the areas adjacent to roadway. The work area will be along the 3.5 miles of the Westside Road, from the Nisqually Road junction to the end at the Fish Creek parking lot.

To participate there is no need to know much about native plants. Will and his crew will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area. The Westside Road is not heavily traveled, so vehicle traffic will not be a problem. There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and work with. Because we will working along the road, you will not need to carry your pack. We will get the packs transported to the lunch site.

Things you should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel or your favorite gardening tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear. Considering how this year has progressed so far, a warm jacket would be good to include. If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too. We will be required to wear safety vests because we will be working along a road that is open to vehicle traffic.

Everyone will meet at 8:30 AM at the junction of the Westside Road and the Nisqually Road. (That is about a mile just inside the Nisqually Entrance to the park). Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. Tell the ranger as you enter the park that you will be working on a volunteer project and you will be admitted to the park for free.

If you plan to attend the this work party, please complete a volunteer form at http://mrnpa.org/workprojectdetails.php or email John Titland (MRNPA's Volunteer Coordinator) at volunteer@mount-rainier.org.

If you would like to camp for free in the park before or after (or both) participating in this work party, camping is available at the Longmire VIP campground. To camp for free you will need to make camping reservations by contacting Will Arneson at Will_Arnesen@nps.gov or by phone at 360-569-6762.

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates

Rainier Hikes Camping & Volunteer Work 7/9-7/11

We just thought we share this wonderful first hand of account of the full Mount Rainier experience; Volunteering, glassading, marmots, back-country hikes and amazing lookouts!

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=625136

Thanks Hikingqueen for sharing the great photos!

MRNPA Work Party!

The next Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer work party will be Saturday, July 10th.


Rather than doing trail maintenance, we will be working with Will Arneson's Ecological Restoration crew doing exotic plant removal (weeding). The project is to work along the Westside Road removing non-native plants that are invading the areas adjacent to roadway. The target species are dock and two species of daisies, but we will remove other exotic plants as we find them. The work area will be the 3.5 miles of the Westside Road from the Nisqually Road junction to the end at Fish Creek.


To participate there is no need to know all that much about native plants. Will and his crew will teach you which plants to remove, and they will be able to identify for you all the native plants in the area. Westside Road is not heavily traveled so car traffic will not be much of a problem. There will be no heavy tools (like shovels and pulaskis) to carry and work with. Because we will working along the road, you will not be so far from you car that you will need to carry a pack. And, who knows, we may even get a dry day.


Things you should bring are your work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel or your favorite gardening tool, your lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and a full set of rain gear. If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too. We will be required to wear safety vests because we will be working along a road open to traffic. And two more things: bring a small tablet that will fit in your pocket, and a pencil. You will need to count the number of exotic plants you remove - this is a government project after all!


We will meet at 8:30 AM at the junction of the Westside Road and the Nisqually Road. (That is about a mile just inside the Nisqually Entrance to the park). We will be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM. Tell the ranger at the park entrance you will be working on a volunteer project and you will be admitted to the park for free.

If you plan to attend the this work party, please go to volunteer@mount-rainier.org to indicate that you are coming. It is important that MRNPA has an accurate number of expected participants to provide the needed resources. You may also email John Titland @ volunteer@mount-rainier.org.


If you would like to camp for free in the park before or after (or both) participating in this work party, camping is available at the Longmire VIP campground. To make camping arrangements, contact Evan Escamilla at evan_escamilla@partner.nps.gov or (360) 569-2211 ext. 3312.

Mount Rainier National Park Associates announces 2010 volunteer work party schedule

A great way to get involved as a volunteer at Mount Rainier, and to meet other people who are also interested in contributing, is to join the Mount Rainier National Park Associates. MRNPA has been helping out every month of every summer for more than twenty years now, contributing thousands of hours of service to trail repair, revegetation projects, seed collection, exotic plant removal, and many other projects. Here's a note from Coordinator John Titland with the tentative plans for this year. For more details, and to contact the group to sign up for one of these projects, visit their website.

Greetings and Happy New Year,

Here are the tentative dates for the 2010 Mount Rainier National Park Associates volunteer work parties. Please put these dates on your 2010 calendar. I will inform you if the dates change.

April 24, trail work

May 22, trail work

June 12, trail work

July 10, exotic plant removal or possibly other "alpine gardening"

August 7, trail work with a camp overnight at the park

Sept 11, meadow revegetation

October 2, trail work

We expect that a large part of the trail work this year will continue to be building the trail from the White River Campground to Glacier Basin. We are informed by Carl Fabiani, Trails Supervisor, that there is a good chance that the trail work on this new section of trail will be completed by the end of the summer. Come join on this effort!

The "alpine gardening (exotic plant removal and meadow revegetation) is not planned as yet. We will have to wait and see what Will Arneson, Restoration Supervisor, come up with.

John Titland
Volunteer Coordinator
Mount Rainier National Park Associates

Out and about in San Francisco

If you've tried contacting me at my office this past week, you've gotten a message saying that I'm out of town. Actually, while everyone back home has been suffering through unseasonably cold, snowy weather, I've been in sunny San Francisco. (Who'd have thought San Francisco would be so sunny?)

I came down to attend Advanced Volunteer Program training Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week, and flew in a few days early to "shadow" Golden Gate's legendary volunteer program. On Friday I went out to Alcatraz Island with volunteers who, along with the Garden Conservancy, are restoring the landscaped areas of the island. These are dedicated recurring volunteers, many of whom who come out several times a month to contribute to the ongoing work, much as our own greenhouse and meadow rover volunteers do. Other volunteers serve as docents, give visitor orientations, and lead tours of the island. An NPS ranger officially oversaw the volunteer operations, but the actual coordination of activities was done by a Conservancy employee.
On Saturday, I joined the "Area A Restoration Program," a drop-in program that, on that particular day, was working at removing invasive oxalis from the Whary Dunes area of the Presidio. I worked alongside about 30 other volunteers, some of whom come out regularly as their schedules permit, others, like myself, who had never volunteered before. We were led by employees of the Presidio Trust and the Golden Gate National Park Conservancy.


On Sunday, with a helpful carpool from a volunteer named Roland, I traveled up to the Stinson Beach area of the Marin Headlands to pull Scotch broom and plant native grasses in an old horse pasture, as part of a Restoration Stewards program led by the Golden Gate National Park Conservancy. We were a combination of regular volunteers, who immediately headed off into the brush to work independently as soon as they arrived, and a group from Chico College's "CAVE" program (Community Action, Volunteerism, and Education), also called "Eco Chico." Like me, they were new to this work, so we took a little more guidance and training, but soon we were all happily pulling weeds, avoiding poison oak, sharing stories, and getting muddy.
The most interesting part of the experience, besides the satisfaction of getting some good work done, was the noticeable lack of NPS presence. Rangers showed up here and there to support the volunteer operations, and one directly led our orientation and training on Sunday, but for the most part, the projects were led by partners: the Garden Conservancy, the Presidio Trust, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. In many cases interns or volunteers themselves had major roles in running or coordinating the programs. Despite this apparent lack of direct oversight, everything ran smoothly, and everyone involved was obviously passionate about the work they were doing to protect and restore national park habitats. Clearly, this is the result of a lot of partnership-building, and a lot of trust that has been established between the NPS and its partners. It's interesting to think of how such an organizational structure would be shaped at Mount Rainier. We don't currently have a park partner as intimately intertwined with our operations as the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. However, we do work closely with SCA, and are venturing into hiring SCA interns and/or volunteers to work within our programs to coordinate volunteers.
Another interesting aspect of Golden Gate's volunteer program is that they don't hire "volunteer coordinators" per se in most cases. Instead, they hire people to lead a project: for example, habitat restoration at a particular site. That person's job isn't just to do the work, nor to hire volunteers to do the work, but rather to work in partnership with volunteers to accomplish the project goals. The idea of somehow getting the work done without the help of volunteers isn't even a consideration.
Our classroom training this week has also been productive, though in a very different way. We spent the first day of training hearing from Jon Jarvis, the Regional Director; Joy Pietschmann, the national volunteer program manager; and Jay Watson, the local regional director of SCA. Our group kept them hopping, peppering them all with questions about current policies regarding volunteerism, from budgets and funding to the priorities of the current presidential administration to new homeland security requirements. We hard from several individuals who shared success stories from the innovative programs at their home parks.
Today, we spent the day with Rick Lynch, a consultant who spoke to us about supervision and delegation. Sounds like a dry topic, but Rick made it interesting with his wry humor and stories, and along the way we learned how to encourage those we supervise--including and especially volunteers--to take on higher levels of responsibility.
Tomorrow we will hear from Julia Washburn about collaboration--certainly another topic of direct importance to our program at Mount Rainier!
I'll be back in the office on Tuesday the 17th.

Spring training is underway

Our Conser- vation Corps is here and learning the ropes of working at Mount Rainier. They're still camping out at the Ashford Lions Hall, joined now by several native plant crews, yesterday spent much of their day pulling up invasive Scotch Broom from around the edge of the meadow behind the Hall, as part of the agreement for camping there. If you've ever done this on your own property, you know--it's hard work! That's one tenacious plant!

Meanwhile, we're coming up on Memorial Day weekend, with lots of closures still in effect all over the park. Some highlights:

• Road crews have begun work in the Paradise picnic area, clearing snow for more parking. However, the Paradise Valley Road remains closed. Parking at Paradise will be extremely limited on busy weekends and holidays. Expect congestion and parking delays.
• Stevens Canyon Road will be open to public traffic from the Paradise Road intersection to Snow Lake Trailhead by 12:00 noon on Friday, May 23, 2008. Rockslides and snowslides are continuing to occur in the canyon beyond this point.
• Hwy 123/410 North/South through the park will be open to public traffic at 12:00 noon beginning Friday May 23, 2008. Hwy. 410 over Chinook Pass remains closed due to snow, and is anticipated to remain so until at least June 5.
• Ohanapecosh Campground opens at 12:00 noon beginning Friday May 23, 2008. Limited sites will be available due to snow. The Grove of the Patriarchs will be accessible, but the water will not yet be turned on in the restrooms.
• Road crews are shifting equipment to White River Road to begin clearing White River Campground and the road to Sunrise. WSDOT has already made some progress there, opening the road partway, but several miles of snow removal remain.

Another place to find updates on road conditions is the new Access and Roads Blog, maintained by the same helpful folks that keep the Mount Rainier Climbing Blog up to date. You can also find details about the conditions that are making this year's opening difficult on the National Parks Traveler website, which has articles about both Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks.
In other news, here's an update on our draft interpretation training schedule; be sure and contact me or register through the Eventbrite calendar at the top of this page if you plan to attend any of the training days.