“I have thoroughly enjoyed working at Olympic National Park,” she said in a prepared statement. “The staff is a great group of people to work with, as are the communities of the Olympic Peninsula.  The community support and our park neighbors have been wonderful here.”

In Gustin’s time at Olympic, the park started the removal of the Elwha River dam, the nationa;s largest dam removal. The project is scheduled to be complete in September 2014. The park has also started a wilderness stewardship plan. She’s also worked to nurture the relationship with local Indian tribes.

Gustin oversaw the $2 million repair project to the popular Hurricane Ridge Road, when it was damaged by a landslide in 2010. She also spearheaded the installation of new bridge of Staircase Rapids, a $1.1 million project that will restore the popular Staircase Rapids Loop Trail.

Gustin plans to move to Lexington, Kentucky, where she plans to “immerse herself in the equine industry,” according to a statement released by the park.

“There are a host of non-profit organizations and companies that work in all facets of horse breeding, training, conservation and management,” she says. “I look forward to making new contacts, taking advantage of employment opportunities, and learning more about the business,” she explained.

Todd Suess, the park’s deputy superintendent, will serve as interim acting superintendent.

On Saturday, September 17, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will join Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Congressman Norm Dicks, and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles to officially mark the beginning of the Elwha River dam removal project. The event marks a significant milestone for the Elwha River Restoration project which will help increase salmon populations, uphold commitments to the culture of the Elwha Klallam Tribe, and create new opportunities for growth and regional vitality.

The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. PDT and the streaming of the ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. through the following link:  http://celebrateelwha.com. Showcasing the first step in dam removal, an excavator will remove the first concrete from the Elwha Dam.  A big-screen showing of the ceremony will take place at Elwha Central at the Port Angeles City Pier in Port Angeles and at the Mountaineers Outdoors Fest at Magnuson Park in Seattle.

Tom Skerritt, board member of the nonprofit group American Rivers and actor will serve as master of ceremonies. The ceremony will include musical interludes by singer/songwriters Eliza Gilkyson and Dana Lyons, who will each perform an original work.  Students from the Port Angeles High School will also perform and area artists have created original pieces to help tell the story of Elwha River Restoration.

This ceremony is part of the weeklong series of events in and around Port Angeles, Sequim and the Elwha Valley. Hosted by dozens of sponsors, partners and participants, the events are  commemorating the history and celebrating the future of this landmark project, while educating visitors about dam removal and restoration, Olympic National Park and the North Olympic Peninsula. A full schedule of events and more information is available online at celebrateelwha.com.

The Elwha River Restoration is an environmental and cultural restoration project which includes the nation’s largest dam removal and will free the Elwha River after nearly a century. Removing the 108-foot Elwha Dam and the 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam will allow anadromous fish to access more than 70 miles of protected habitat and help restore the river’s salmon populations from 3,000 to more than 300,000.

For more information on Elwha River Restoration, please visit the Olympic National Park’s website at www.nps.gov/olym or share information and interact with “Elwha River Restoration” on Facebook.

Olympic National Park has instituted a ban on all open fires in the park’s wilderness backcountry, effective as of September 10, 2011. The ban is in response to the warmer temperatures of summer and the continued drying out of forest fuels, both forecast to continue in coming weeks.

This ban has been instituted in conjunction with the Olympic National Forest, and is expected to be in place until seasonal rains occur in October.

“With the forecast for warmer than normal temperatures and drier conditions, as well as seeing an increase in human-caused fires in the park, we are taking this precautionary approach to protect park resources and the safety of our visitors, employees and neighbors,”  Olympic National Park Superintendent Karen Gustin said.

Campfires are permitted only in established fire grates at established front-country campgrounds. Along the park’s coastal strip, campfires will be permitted only along the beach below the high tide line, except between Yellow Banks and Wedding Rocks, where all campfires are prohibited.

Camp stoves may still be used in the park’s wilderness backcountry, but should be operated well away from flammable vegetation and forest litter.

Please use caution with any open flame.

People are urged to notify the nearest ranger station or park headquarters at (360) 565-3000 to report abandoned campfires or smoke within the park.

Olympic National Park will host an exciting opportunity for cyclists to “Ride the Hurricane” on Sunday, August 7.

“Ride the Hurricane” is a recreational ride up Hurricane Ridge Road, organized by the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by several local businesses. Registration information is available on the Chamber’s website at portangeles.org/ride-the-hurricane.html.

To ensure safety of all event participants, Hurricane Ridge Road will close to all vehicle traffic between the Heart O¹ the Hills entrance station and Hurricane Ridge, starting August 7 at 5:00 a.m. and ending at noon. This short-term closure applies to both uphill and downhill travel, as well as cyclists who are not a part of the ride.

Access to the Lake Angeles-Heather Park trailhead and Heart O¹ the Hills campground will remain open.

Olympic National Park will waive entrance fees at the Heart O¹ the Hills entrance station for the rest of the day August 7.

³We are excited to partner with the Chamber again this year to present a safe and enjoyable event,² said Olympic National Park superintendent Karen Gustin. ³Cyclists will have the road to themselves all morning, and it will give participants a unique way to enjoy their national park. After the last rider has finished, we¹re pleased to offer a fee-free afternoon for all visitors to Hurricane Ridge.²

This year, event participants will have two options as to where they start their ride. Starting from the Heart O¹ the Hills entrance station to Hurricane Ridge (elevation 5,242 feet), riders will climb more than 3,300 feet on the 12-mile, one-way ascent. Participants may also opt for a longer ride, starting from the Olympic National Park Visitor Center at 3002 Mount Angeles Road, gaining approximately 4,300 feet over the 18 miles to the Ridge.

The official start time from both locations is 7 a.m., but riders may start at any time before 10:00 a.m. After completing their summit, participants will follow pilot cars on their descent back down the Ridge. Pilot cars will leave Hurricane Ridge approximately every 20 minutes, with 15-20 riders following each pilot car. All riders should be started downhill by 11:30 a.m., as Hurricane Ridge Road will reopen to vehicles at noon.

Registration will be capped at 500 riders, and the $35 registration cost includes a personal photo from Hurricane Ridge, a Ride the Hurricane t-shirt and refreshments. Two dollars from each registration will benefit the community fundraising effort to keep Hurricane Ridge Road open seven days a week, weather permitting, during the 2011-2012 winter season.

The Jefferson County Public Works Department has announced that repairs to the Willoughby Creek Bridge, on Upper Hoh Road near milepost 3.5, will start on August 1.

Access to the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic National Park will remain open throughout the repair work, but some traffic delays are anticipated.

According to Jefferson County officials, the repair work will require a limited number of one-hour closures. These one-hour closures are scheduled to occur starting August 8 through August 11, and will only occur between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Jefferson County, which maintains the first 12 miles of the road off of Highway 101, says that electronic message boards, with road closure dates and times, will be posted on each side of the project at least three days in advance of any scheduled road closure.

Olympic National Park visitors can check on the status of park roads online by accessing nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/current-road-conditions.htm.

Seton Construction of Port Townsend, Wash. will repair damage caused by erosion in order to prevent bridge failure. Repairs will include driving sheet pile in order to stabilize the slope, placement of streambank protection and installation of logjams to divert water under the bridge.

Work is expected to last through mid-September, though no additional closures are expected.

The animals will be let go in the Elwha and Quinault valleys, and bring the total of reintroduced animals to 90. Seven males and six females will be released.

“As we complete the reintroduction phase of this project, we celebrate the many partners who have and will continue to make fisher restoration possible,” superintendent Karen Gustin said in a prepared statement. “Together we’ve come very close to reaching the original goal of releasing 100 fishers in the park, and together we will continue to monitor the animals and track project success.”

Each released animal wears a small radio transmitter, allowing biologists to track and monitor its movements. Biologists continue to monitor 49 fishers released over the past three winters.

With the discovery of three fisher birthing dens last summer, biologists determined that three females gave birth to at least seven kits. Other females may also have had young, but locating and verifying fisher dens is extremely difficult and time-consuming in the Olympic wilderness.

Fishers are about the size of a cat and are members of the weasel family, related to minks, otters and martens. They are native to the forests of Washington, including the Olympic Peninsula, but vanished from the state decades ago because of over-trapping in the late 1800s and early 1900s and habitat loss and fragmentation.

Fishers were listed as a state-endangered species in 1998 by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission and were designated as a candidate for federal listing in 2004 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act.

The fisher reintroduction at Olympic is the effort of a partnership with the state Department and U.S. Geological Survey. The British Columbia Ministry of Environment supported the effort to capture and import fishers to Washington.

Biologists have maintained frequent monitoring of the fisher’s radio collar signals and are continuing to track 49 of the 77 animals already released. Despite extensive searching, the whereabouts of six fishers
is unknown. Two animals’ radio signals have failed, 16 animals are known to have died and four are presumed to be dead.

Click here for more information, including monthly updates from the monitoring effort.

A slope below the roadway slid Sunday afternoon, destroying both lanes along a 100-foot long section of road. The slide is just beyond the Lake Dawn Road intersection; access to Lake Dawn is unaffected.

A timeline for reopening the road has not yet been developed, although early estimates suggest that repairs may take at least a month to six weeks to complete.

The road closure applies to all entry, including bicycle, foot, stock and vehicle. The slide area is still active, and soil is continuing to move down slope, undercutting the remaining narrow strip of asphalt, said a park news release.

Park staff first saw signs of damage to the road late on Saturday afternoon, when members of the road crew noticed cracks and slight slumping in the road’s downhill lane just north of Heart O’the Hills. A safety inspection early on Sunday confirmed the initial reports and travel was reduced to one lane only, using the uphill lane of the road. Immediate repair action was taken as road crew members filled the cracks and spread
gravel to alleviate the uneven road surface.

The road was closed Monday due to high winds and white-out conditions at Hurricane Ridge. Meanwhile, road crew members cut and removed a number of small trees on the slope beneath the road in an effort to protect and preserve the road, and had hoped to open the road later in the day. Less than an hour later, however, the slope failed and slid downhill, taking most of the road with it. The soils that make up the slope are completely saturated from recent heavy rains.

For information about alternative destinations within Olympic National Park, people may consult the park’s website at www.nps.gov/olym or call the Olympic National Park Visitor Center at 360-565-3130. The recorded Road and Weather Hotline is updated throughout the day with changes and can be reached by calling 360-565-3131.

Here is a summary of the known damage:

Hoh Road – The Hoh Road is closed at the park boundary as park crews are removing downed trees.

Quinault Valley –The North Shore Road is closed due to downed trees and electrical lines. The Graves Creek and the North Fork Roads are closed and have not been assessed yet. There is no electrical service along the north shore of Lake Quinault.

Queets Valley –The Lower Queets Road is closed due to water on the roadway and the Upper Queets Road has not been assessed for storm damage.

Hurricane Ridge Road – The Hurricane Ridge Road is closed due to snow. If weather conditions allow, the road is scheduled to be open on Friday, the first day of the winter road schedule. Park crews have been working on clearing two slide areas. One of the slides is blocking a culvert and the other is at the location of a previous slide near the Switchback Trail.

For current road information, call the park’s recorded road and weather information line at 360-565-3131.