ONP Speaker Series

Olympic National Park’s Perspectives Speaker Series concludes for the season with “Coastal Bluff Erosion at Kalaloch,” a presentation by Dr. Ian Miller, coastal hazards specialist with Washington Sea Grant.

The free hybrid event is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 8 at the Port Angeles Main Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., or join the livestream using the Zoom link at NOLS.org/ONP.

Miller will discuss erosion of the bluffs at Kalaloch, documented through ground surveys and aerial lider conducted over the last two decades, and available analyses of the site dating back to 1974. The presentation includes early photo monitoring results from five Chronolog community-science photo stations set up in 2023 to further track the bluffs.

Erosion at this site presents a variety of management problems, placing buildings and recreational infrastructure at

risk.

No registration is required. Recordings of the Perspectives Speaker Series are available on the NOLS YouTube channel.

Help sought for coastal cleanup

Volunteers and Olympic National Park employees will remove marine debris from the park’s wild coastline on Saturday, April 19 as part of the Washington Coastal Cleanup effort. This year’s cleanup will focus on beaches near Mora and Kalaloch. Interested volunteers can register online at volunteer.gov. The deadline to sign up is 11 p.m. Sunday, April 6.

Although walk-up registration will be available, it is not guaranteed. Volunteers should arrive early, as the registration tables at the Mora and Kalaloch trailheads will be open from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on April 19. The cleanup event will run until 5 p.m. that day.

The coastline in the Mora area presents unique challenges for cleanup participants. Volunteers must hike several miles to reach their cleanup site, collect trash, and carry it back to the trailheads. Motor vehicles are prohibited on park beaches and all litter must be removed on foot.

Frontcountry camping in the Kalaloch Campground will be offered free of charge for pre-registered volunteers.

In April 2024, 133 volunteers stuffed debris into garbage bags, tied multiple buoys and floats to framed backpacks, and carried trash off park beaches on foot. Some even rolled automobile tires to trailheads.

Dems host Ennis Creek program

A program sponsored by Friends of Ennis Creek will take place at the headquarters of Clallam County Democrats, 124-A W. First St. in Port Angeles, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday April 9. The program concerns the cleanup of hazardous waste that remains from the former Rayonier chemical cellulose mill that closed in 1997.

Open to the public, the meeting will be hybrid with in-person participation and online participation through a Zoom link. The link will be posted on the Clallam County Democrats web page, clallamdemocrats.org, in the calendar section.

Featured speakers will include Port Angeles City Manager Nathan West and Olympic Environmental Council representative Darlene Schanfald. West will focus on how a complete cleanup of the site became a priority for the city council. Schanfald will provide a brief history of how the former mill site became cited for a hazardous waste cleanup and will discuss the status of contaminants and risks of exposure. There will be a question-and-answer period.

Photo courtesy of NOLS| Kaloloch Campground South.