The Future Prospects

The previously mentioned controversy is between local landowners and environmental preservation groups. Each of which have conflicting concerns about the future of the Dosewallips River washout.

The city of Brinnon, Washington believe that access to the area needs to be restored in order to preserve the crucial economic and cultural health of the local community. They claim that converting the remaining 5 miles of the road into a trail would discourage handicapped, elderly, and adolescent tourists from visiting the park. They also highlight those environmental groups and young athletic hikers who are against the road being built are not from the area and therefore do not have enough experience to know what is best for the region.

On the other hand, numerous environmental groups have strongly advocated against rebuilding the road because of the risk to the environment. If another road was built above the previously washed out section it would violate the Northwest Foreign Plan by degrading spotted owl habitat, protected under the Endangered Species Act. This habitat consists of thousands of centuries old trees, which would have to be mowed down. Most importantly, construction at the site would send even more sediment down stream and cause the degradation of Chinook Salmon habitat. High levels of sediment moving down the Dosewallips river would cloud the water and bury the breeding grounds that salmon return to every time they reproduce.

Presently it looks like the road will not be rebuilt, and a temporary trail has been set up around the washout. Yet, the Forest Service confirmed in 2010 that it would be willing to construct a new motor vehicle only roadway up hill of the wash out, at a cost of $3.96 million dollars. Despite the fact that the Temperate Rain Forests of the Pacific Northwest are considered to be some of the best preserved in the world, human development in the form of forest roads, for example, are threatening the ecosystem and it's native inhabitants.

Despite the controversy with the forest road-river interactions, the human impact on this particular ecosystem seems rather good!