Just in time for sunshine and warmer weather, visitors may get a chance to return to the mossy Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park before summer begins.
Repairs on the damaged Upper Hoh Road, the only access way to the forest, will be funded through a state grant coupled with private donations, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced Thursday at a news conference in The Mountaineers Seattle Program Center.
Once the grants are finalized, repairs to Upper Hoh Road will take about a month, Jefferson County Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour said. That puts reopening of the rainforest on track for sometime this May, she said.
Heavy rains in December heightened flow in the Hoh River and caused several feet of the road to erode, putting it “in danger for imminent failure” at milepost 9.7, according to the National Park Service. The road has remained closed for nearly three months.
Repairs will cost an estimated $650,000, Ferguson said.
The governor’s office said it’s using what it called an “economic development and strategic reserve” that can only be used by the governor to support the state’s economy, which includes protecting jobs.
To use the reserve, the state funding needs to be accompanied by private investments, Ferguson noted. More than 100 donors gave Jefferson County more than $27,000 for the repairs, and the state will foot the remaining $623,000.
Ferguson’s office considered amending a disaster declaration issued by former Gov. Jay Inslee’s office for November’s “bomb cyclone.” By including Jefferson County and Hoh Rain Forest in the declaration, the repair project would have been made eligible for the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program, KUOW reported.
Embankments on the Hoh River began to erode during the bomb cyclone when flood flows altered the course of the water and saturated on-site soil, according to a memo from the Washington State Department of Transportation. Additional storms in December only exacerbated that erosion.
But Ferguson said the road needed a quicker solution.
“ Those funds have not come through at this point … we need to act quickly to get the road ready for the summer,” Ferguson said.
Access to the Hoh Rain Forest is crucial for the local businesses and economy, Eisenhour said. Nearly 460,000 people visited the Hoh District last year, Olympic National Park reported.
Tourists in 2023 spent over $444 million in Jefferson and Clallam counties, generating nearly $39 million in state and local tax dollars, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
Eisenhour asked people in the room at the Mountaineers facility to close their eyes and picture the rainforest to understand its value.
“Imagine emerald moss draping ancient trees. Have you been there? Can you see it? Can you smell it?” Eisenhour said. “A symphony of birds sing, their song echoing off the stout trunks of the old road creeks. The soft, distant drizzle that nourishes this community. All those things are going on around you. If you’ve been there, you know the Hoh is a place where time slows down, where the sheer abundance of life leaves you breathless.”
