Roosevelt Elk Shaped Land Use Policy on Olympic Peninsula

On a trip up the Hoh River valley to examine a potential large deep-seated landslide I got to take in the elk herd that occupies the valley.

This herd was one of two I observed just west of and outside of Olympic National Park. The herd is one of the few "unmanaged" elk herds. The elk on the Olympic Peninsula are on the large side compared to other elk. These elk played a significant role in the land management history of the Olympic Peninsula. 

C. Hart Merriam, head of the USDA Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy named the Olympic elk (Cervus canadensis Roosevelti). The name was in part to honor then Assistant Naval Secretary Theodore Roosevelt (theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library). Merriam recalled the detail which Roosevelt pointed out regarding an specimen.

Theodore Roosevelt was an avid hunter and conservationist. As a hunter he became interested in protecting his name sake elk and attempted to create a reserve for the elk in the Olympics, but was blocked by Congress. He later used the Antiquities Act in 1909 to create Mount Olympus National Monument.

Three decades later Franklin Roosevelt pushed for the creation of Olympic National Park further protecting the elk range.      

Rain Forest to the Big Dry

This winter has been on the wet side. But despite that my trip to the Hoh River on the west side of the Olympic Range was all sun.

Hoh River and Mount Olympus

Sunshine in the temperate rain forest of Sitka spruce, western hemlock and western red cedar

This view of Olympus was a surprise. I had driven this haul road numerous times but had no sense of the mountains as it was raining on all previous trips 

After a couple days on the outer coast I headed east to the high plains east of Washington and the Rockies to the Big Dry of Montana. I paid lots of attention to the weather reports as I navigated to and from my destinations.

Landslide Split Tree Stump

I assess a lot of slopes for potential landslide hazards as part of my work. The bluff slope of this inspection was obviously not stable. There was recent slope movement on the steep slope. And the top edge was failing along much of the bluff.

Fracture along outer edge of steep bluff from slope movement expanding into the upland above the older slides on the slope.

Given the wet weather over the past two months, slope failures on steep glacial drift soils is not surprising. Landslides can rip roots apart and twist trees. Indeed we observed roots that had been broken by the soil moving away down the slope.

Broken roots hanging above dropped down slide block

But, the tree stump pictured below is the first time I have seen a split stump ( I have seen split and splintered trees on landslides)  

Split and offset stump on landslide

The slide was taking place within glacial marine drift. While the definitive shells were not present, the marine drift was over consolidated by past wetting and drying and has distinctive vertical fracturing from the consolidation. The vertical fractures can lead to blocks of the upper hard drift breaking and sliding down steep slopes.

Fractured drift underlying upper slope

Hard silt/clay drift

Checking a Debris Flow Deposit

Debris flows on alluvial fans are a geologic hazard that can be of considerable consequence. This debris flow spilled large logs above the incised stream channel several years ago. I used my cell phone to record a few observations.

Adiabatic Heating and The Bear Who Stole the Chinook

A few messages suggested a bit more background on Snow Eater Wind would be useful. If there is a barometric pressure gradient across the mountains air will flow over the mountains and then descend down the other side. The air is a gas and will follow what is termed the Ideal gas law.  The simple equation is PV = NRT, where P = pressure, V = volume, N = amount of gas (moles), R = gas constant (a number value with an interesting history) and T = Temperature. Hence, if the pressure of the air is increased air will become warmer and if pressure decreases the air will become cooler; other aspects of the equation remaining equal and the gas behaves ideally. Of course there is more to this and that is why we have meteorologists.

Meteorologists use a term called dry adiabatic lapse rate and moist adiabatic lapse rate and  for how temperature will change within an air mass. When an air mass descends it will warm because the pressure is increasing. As an air mass descends it will warm at the dry adiabatic lapse rate which is approximately 5.5 degrees F for every 1,000 feet the air descends.

The strong east winds that reached Bellingham and Skagit County as well as the lower west slopes of the Cascade Range to the south were the result of a high pressure mound of air east of the Cascades with a low pressure off the coast of Washington. The high pressure air flowed towards the low pressure and as it descended it warmed at the dry adiabatic lapse rate. Even if the original air mass pulled over the mountains may have been cold, the increase pressure would cause it to warm substantially. The roughly 7,000-foot drop over the North Cascades Range would produce a warming of the descending air mass of 38.5 degrees F. So an air mass of say 10 degrees F would warm to 48 degrees F, about the temperature spike Bellingham had for a few hours last Wednesday evening.

Technically this is not a Chinook wind per meteorology, but the results are very similar and I would note the term Chinook wind is used more broadly by some and I do not know if the type of wind that descends east from the Cascades has been given a name.

Billy and I experienced our share of Chinook winds and he alerted me to this song by Jack Gladstone, a Blackfoot and former U of W Husky.       

Snow Eater Wind Comes to Northwest Washington

Down slope winds off of mountain ranges can have a pronounced impact on temperature. Long cold spells in central and eastern Washington will come to abrupt ends when storm systems from the west are strong enough to push across the Cascade Range. The descending air will scour out the pool of cold air but also the descending air warms rapidly causing a sharp jump in temperature. The wind is locally called a Chinook and the term is used widely in the interior northwest U.S. out to Montana and the plains of Alberta.

A similar phenomena took place last night in the lowlands of western Washington - only the wind direction was reversed. A low pressure off the coast to the west created a sharp pressure gradient from east to west across the Cascade Range. The result was a sharp temperature increase from the descending air.         

Bellingham temperature plot

In Bellingham the temperature jumped about 20 degrees in minutes. The temperature spike lasted for a few hours and when the descending winds eased, the temperature returned the low 20s.

A similar effect took place in the Skagit lowlands that I experienced first hand. I had to venture out to pick up Lisa at the train station in Mount Vernon. The wind was very hard from the east; high enough to cause some slipping on the icy roads as the car was pushed about, and formed numerous speed bumps of snow drifts. But on the return the temperature jumped from the low 30s to the mid 50s in less than 5 minutes.

The Blackfeet Indians called these events snow eaters. Indeed much of the snow was eaten away down from its deep layer by the warmish and dry wind before the temperature lowered to the 30s and the slow wet melt that has persisted all day. 

Snow Day on Samish

A snow shower band stayed in place over a swath of northwest Washington last evening leading to a snow day. Mid day I took a walk-about on the east end of Samish Island. 

Lummi Peak is the high point of Lummi Island to the northwest 

Chuckanut Mountain to the northeast with Samish Bay in the foreground

Blanchard Mountain with Samish Bay in the foreground

On USGS topographic maps Blanchard Mountain is lumped together with Chuckanut Mountian. Locally the term Blanchard Mountain is used for the southern summit area. The name is derived from the small village of Blanchard at the base of the mountain. Geologically the two mountains are markedly different with the northern Chuckanut Mountain underlain by Chuckanut Formation sedimentary rocks of Eocene age. Blanchard is underlain by metamorphic rocks of Jurassic age.

Lyman Hill to the southeast

Lyman Hill is 2,000 feet higher than the highest point on Chuckanut Mountain. Perhaps it seems hill like as to the main portions of the North Cascade Range is further to the east behind the "hill".

Alice Bay viewed from Scott Point at the east end of Samish Isalnd

The road towards home.

The road to Samish Island looking south from the island across the flats

Samish Island is an island that can be driven to. The island was separated from the mainland by tide flats prior to dikes being built to create farm land.

The road heading up onto the island

It was sort of a black and white day - mot much color with the snow and overcast. One bright spot was this Ixoreus naevius (varied thrush) on a small native cherry in the forest.