North Cascades National Park Service Complex Wilderness Statistics 1993
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Stephen Mather Wilderness
Statistical Summary - 1993

The following are excerpts from the Statistical Summary 1993, Stephen Mather Wilderness.

Helicopter Overflights

Ranger patrols heard 1,031 overflights (all types of aircraft). Wilderness-wide, this averages one aircraft heard for every 3.5 hours of patrol. Rangers heard aircraft noise 17 seconds of each hour of patrol. Average time each overflight was heard was 0.95 minutes.

There were no human/bear conflict incidents reported in the wilderness in 1993. The Hannegan Pass SCA Ranger reported three bears were harvested from Forest Service land in the Hannegan Pass area. In one of these instances, the Ranger observed a hunter shoot the bear. The wounded animal rolled down a slope and several yards into the park, where it was killed by the hunter. The incident occurred close to Boundary Camp, and was also witnessed by several campers.

The Hannegan Pass area has a history of bear incidents, and for that reason was closed to camping by the Forest Service in 1991. In August 1993, the Wilderness District Ranger hiked to the Pass with a group of Forest Service wilderness managers and biologists. At this meeting the group decided to implement food storage options, probably to include bear poles, and to re-open the area to camping.

The Wilderness District drafted the campsite renovation plan for Jack Mountain Camp to meet grizzly bear standards.

Campsite Compliance

The North Cascades National Park Service Complex has 341 backcountry campsites, 212 within the Stephen Mather Wilderness. 1993 marked the first year of a project to inventory and map all wilderness campsites. In 1993, 111 sites were inventoried, with only 9 (8%) meeting all standards. In the above table, the percentages reflect the number of campsites that are in compliance with the stated standard (the higher percentage the nearer to 100% compliance).

The campsite inventory project inspected sites for hazard trees. Three sites were closed because of high risk: Graybeal, North Fork, and Grizzly Hiker. Additional closures or restrictions were recommended: Reynold's Horse Camp (not suitable for stock, hiker-only), Rennie (no toilet, poor location), Hooter (no toilet, no water, poor location), and Buckner (numerous deficiencies at two sites).

The above table reflects the number of mountaineering/climbing accidents and fatalities per 100,000 participants (dates not specified) taken from a Rock and Ice Magazine article by Jeff Smoot (Nov/Dec 1993). It should be noted that climbing activity in North Cascades has almost tripled over the past 15 years. Donations to the climbing safety fund totaled $2,800.

Reports over the past two years indicate several horsepacking businesses are using the Twisp/McAlester/Lake Juanita areas without permits. These groups have been contacted, and are aware of Park regulations. No prosecutions have occurred because they have not been observed by law enforcement commissioned personnel inside the Park.

North Cascades National Park began experimenting with composting toilets in 1982. Since then the composting system has been critical to preserving the water quality of high use areas and to mitigating the social impacts of human waste.

The composters are very successful in controlling human waste in the sub-alpine environment, but require a strong staff commitment. Overuse, lack of maintenance, and saturation of the mix have been some of the problems that have led to minor disasters. Depending upon level of use, they must be checked and serviced on a daily to monthly basis. The composter requiring the closet attention is situated at Cascades Pass.

14 composter toilets were maintained in 1993 at the following locations: Boston Basin [Upper and Lower Camps), Cascade Pass, Copper Lake, Copper Lookout, Egg Lake, Monogram Lake, Pelton Basin and Ranger Camp, Sahale, Silesia, Thornton Lakes, Thunder Basin, Whatcom Pass.

There are 50 entry points into the wilderness. They range from popular primary accesses as Cascade Pass, to very lightly used crosscountry travel corridors such as Depot Creek. The following shows the number of permitted parties entering the wilderness from each entry point in 1993.

There were no natural nor prescribed fire ignitions in the Stephen Mather Wilderness in 1993.

In 1993 data gathering began on using social impacts to draft a set of Level of Acceptable Change (LAC) indicators. In addition to its potential application for establishing and quantifying future LAC indicators, this data has value for determining patrol assignments, evaluating the effectiveness of education efforts, establishing compost toilets, and determining other management actions.

Two monitoring programs were performed: an analysis of long-term campsite impacts by the University of Idaho and a crosscountry impact inventory.

The following set of potential indicators have been proposed:

• Average party size
• Parties contacted per hour of hiking
• Party compliance with Park regulations
• Pieces of litter collected per mile of hiking
• Incidents of toilet paper or human feces observed per mile of hiking
• Illegal fire-rings dismantled per mile of hiking
• Number of aircraft noise heard per hour
• Minutes of aircraft noise heard per hour
• Complaints per party
• Compliments per party
• Food storage (ratio of proper food storage vs improper food storage)

Other possible LAC indicators include:

• Accidents per 100,000 climbers
• Fatalities per 100,000 climbers
• Level of use compared with theoretical capacity

Rangers filed 13 incident reports, issued 1 citation, and corrected 232 violations by verbal contact. These verbal contacts involved 171 groups, or 8% of the 2,188 groups observed by rangers during the year. Visitors reported 3 larcenies from vehicles.

The Wilderness and Aviation Committee discussed the following issues:

• Campfires at Certain Lake Chelan NRA Camps
• Juanita Lake Camp
• Permanent Markers
• Commercial Use
• Compost Toilets
• Summit Registers
• Wilderness Boundary Signs
• Helicopter Operations for 1993
• Resource Damage on Social Trails along Climbing Routes
• Shuksan Access

North Cascades National Park Service Complex completed the second year of a 5-year archeological survey and inventory project. Although relatively little time was spent surveying within the Wilderness boundary, two new archeological sites were recorded in the Wilderness. One is a high elevation, prehistoric lithic scatter located at approximately 5,950 feet, and the other is a historic site located at about 2,750 feet elevation. There are now approximately 30 known cultural sites in the Wilderness.

A five year program for monitoring the mass balance of three glaciers was initiated. Detailed measurements on these index glaciers will provide sufficient data for calibration of a GIS based model for monitoring all Park glaciers. The glaciers being studied are the Silver, North Klawatti, and Noisy Creek.

Oregon State University continued it's multi-year study to assess the impacts of fish stocking on the ecosystems of subalpine and alpine lakes.

The impacts of stock grazing and campfire wood collection were studied in the Lake Chelan NRA portion of the Wilderness. The studies were related to the development of the NRA's environmental impact statement.

A proposal to monitor and evaluate selected watersheds in wilderness was approved and funded by the NPS. The Resource Management Division intends to begin preliminary fieldwork during the summer of 1994 in the Lightning Creek watershed.

The Stehekin River drainage was surveyed. Five pairs of owls were located; three pairs reproduced, having four young. Two single males were also found. The 1994 survey will focus on the Thunder Creek drainage.

A Revegetation Plan was written and approved. A new 1,700 sq. ft. greenhouse was completed. Restoration plans for Jack Mountain and Desolation Camps were written and implemented. Cascade Pass, Mix-up Arm, Sahale Arm, and Doubtful Lake impacts were mapped. The New Visitor Center at Newhalem was landscaped with 6,000 plants.

Plants were propagated for 16 different projects (12 wilderness, 2 non-wilderness, 2 Forest Service). Just over 8,200 plants were out-planted to the field, and almost 18,000 new plants were started and over-wintered. Fourteen different subalpine species and, at least, 10 forest species were propagated. The subalpine species were: Luetka pectinata, Phyllodoce empetriformis, Cassiope mertensiana, Vaccinium sp., Carex sp., Spiraea densiflora, Phleum alpinum, Rubus casiococcus, Erigeron sp., Festuca sp., Deschampsia sp., Antennaria sp., Potentilla sp., and Juncus sp. Propagation techniques for two new species, subalpine fir and mountain hemlock, were researched.

There were 33 search and/or rescues documented by case incident report. Total cost: $8,222. One person died from a heart attack and one person was seriously injured with a fractured femur. The remainder of the incidents were either non life-threatening injuries, or non injury. Most injuries were lower extremity, and occurred while climbers were crossing non-technical terrain.

Eighteen of the 33 SAR incidents were caused by groups completing Voluntary Climber Registers and then failing to check-in upon completion of the climb.

The Wilderness has 34 stock campsites (16% of all Wilderness campsites). They are located at 23 camps. Stock use in the Wilderness continues to be light. 39 permits were issued, which is comparable to the previous two years.

Grazing permits were issued to 6 parties.

Until recently, the Triplet Lakes area was free of significant impacts. Early in 1993, a High Lakes Study researcher reported the recent development of a social trail to the lake from the Chelan Summit Trail. The impacts appear to have been caused by stock. Non-licensed outfitters are suspected of illegally entering the Wilderness and traveling to the lakes. They may be the primary cause. However, private stock parties and licensed outfitters may also be traveling to the lakes. The impacts will be closely monitored. One option, if appropriate, would be to close this area to stock use.

The backcountry of North Cascades National Park Service Complex has 386 miles of trails. The Trails Program is struggling with a heavy workload and inadequate budget. 11% of wilderness trails need replacement. 22% need rebuilding. 67% are in need of maintenance. Trail and camp inventories are revealing a downward spiral in conditions. Areas of particular concern are: major bridge replacement, prevention of trail tread erosion, reconstruction of camps to meet pending grizzly bear standards, sanitation, and trail brushing.

Major 1993 actions include: Copper Lookout stabilization, Junction Cabin removal, May Creek Bridge replacement, McAlester Lake Horse Camp relocation, Rainbow Lakes Trail reconstruction.

The Park doesn't have reliable data concerning levels of day use. The best estimate - although poorly supported by data and unchanged for the past 10 years - is 20,000 to 25,000 visits annually.

We believe the heaviest day use area is Cascade Pass. We suspect relatively heavy day climbing use on Shuksan, primarily from groups camping at the Forest Service's Lake Anne. Other known popular day use areas include Hidden Lake, Monogram Lake, Thornton Lake, and Easy Pass. With the exception of Cascade Pass, none of these areas receive regular patrol coverage.

52% of persons obtaining permits were from the greater Seattle area and 67% were from the greater Puget Sound area (Seattle, Whatcom and Skagit Counties). The following table shows additional points of origin.

The Wilderness District relies on volunteers to perform essential services such as Wilderness Information Center staffing, wilderness ranger patrols, restoration, and plant nursery care. The following table shows the volunteer staffing in 1993.