Olympic National Park

Restoration Projects

You might think a wilderness could take care of itself; it survived a long time without our help. But problems arise when people use the wilderness. The 1964 Wilderness Act designates areas "for the use and enjoyment of the American people" but further stipulates that these areas "shall be administered in such manner as will leave them unimpaired." This is the fundamental problem: using an area, especially by the huge numbers that visit a national park, will not leave it unimpaired. To be compliant with the law requires a heroic effort from the people in the park service. One of these people is Matt Albright who manages the greenhouse at Olympic National Park and works to restore heavily impacted areas in the wilderness. This sedge is one of over 22,000 plants that were grown in his greenhouse for a restoration project in 2002. Various plants including grasses, sedges, heathers, and several small ground covers were grown from seeds and cuttings then transported to Royal Basin where park employees and volunteers worked nine-hour days for a month and a half to plant them in heavily impacted areas before the snow made work impossible.

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