North Cascades National Park Service Complex Wilderness Statistics 1994
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Stephen Mather Wilderness
Statistical Summary - 1994

The following are excerpts from the Statistical Summary 1994, Stephen Mather Wilderness.

Helicopter Overflights

Ranger patrols heard 1,938 overflights (all types of aircraft). Wilderness-wide, this averages one aircraft heard for every 2.38 hours of patrol. Rangers heard aircraft noise 31 seconds of each hour of patrol. Average time each overflight was heard was 1.24 minutes.

Two incidents of human/bear conflict were reported. On July 8, a black bear at Hidden Hand Camp demonstrated no fear of humans. No further human contact was reported; no management actions were taken. On July 17, a black bear entered Rainbow Ford Camp and demonstrated no fear of humans. The backpackers retreated; the bear ate their dinner. There was no further contact with the bear; notices were posted at trailheads, notification was given to backpackers obtaining permits, and patrols were increased. The camp's proximity to Stehekin raises suspicion that the bear was conditioned to obtaining food from residential garbage.

Rangers report that of all backcountry users observed in camp, 86% met the park's regulatory requirements regarding proper food storage. In 1994, the Park purchased two backpack-portable animal-proof PVC food storage containers (manufactured by Garcia Co.). One was loaned to interested backpackers for testing purposes. Comments from users were positive, ranging from "worked well", "convenient", "a little heavy", and "also good as a game board table/stool". Ten additional containers were purchased in 1995.

Campsite Compliance

The North Cascades National Park Service Complex has 335 backcountry campsites, 205 within the Stephen Mather Wilderness. In 1993, a project was started to inventory and map all wilderness campsites. To date, 181 have been inventoried, with only 19 (10%) 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).

Three new licenses were issued; two licenses expired. Citations were issued to one non-licensed outfitter (Dali Llama). He was found non-guilty of commercial guiding and guilty on several resource violations.

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.

15 composter toilets were maintained in 1995 at the following locations: Boston Basin [Upper and Lower Camps), Cascade Pass, Copper Lake, Egg Lake (East and West), 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 1994.

There was one lightning caused ignition, which was allowed to burn as a prescribed natural fire. The fire was named "Hock Mountain" and burnt 0.3 acres in the transition zone between forest and subalpine meadows.

Impact monitoring related to the 1994 fires continued. Locations used for helispots during the 1994 fires were checked for exotic plants. One knapweed was found near a helicopter drop point along the Boulder Creek Trail.

There was one human-caused wildfire, which was suppressed along the Chilliwack Trail. This fire was named "Black Fly" and burnt less than 0.25 acres. It was caused by an abandoned campsite.

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.

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 issued 32 citations and corrected 238 violations by verbal contact. These verbal contacts involved 162 groups, or 4% of the 3,799 groups observed by rangers during the year. Visitors reported 1 larceny from a vehicle.

The Wilderness and Aviation Committee discussed the following issues:

• Copper Ridge Management
• Eldorado Basin Route Rehabilitation
• Inter-Wilderness Networking
• Goats as Pack Animals
• Cable Replacement at USGS Gauging Station
• Hazard Trees
• Stehekin Helicopter Landings/Knapweed Transport
• Helicopter Operations for 1995

The Resources Management Division continued to study changes in the mass balance of selected glaciers; implement long term ecological prototype monitoring of watersheds, and survey for northern spotted owls. A baseline inventory of terrestrial insect species was conducted in the Big Beaver drainage, as was a cultural resources site assessment of the Skagit Queen historic mining district.

The northern spotted owl was listed as a "threatened" species in June, 1990. Northern spotted owl populations are thought to have declined over the last century. Logging and urbanization of mature and old-growth forests have been identified as causes for this decline. In southern British Columbia and the North Cascades Range of Washington, the invasion of barred owls over the last 40 years may also have contributed to declines in population. Recent studies indicate northern spotted owl populations are continuing to decline throughout their range and this decline may be accelerating.

Spotted owls nest in mature and old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. Nests are on stick platforms usually associated with mistletoe clumps, or in tree cavities. Females usually lay 2 eggs (range 2-4) in early April. Incubation lasts 28 to 32 days. Young stay in the nest for approximately 32 - 36 days before branching, and fly 40-45 days after hatching. Spotted owls m Washington eat mostly flying squirrels and bushy-tailed woodrats.

The park presented volunteer Sylvia Thorpe a Wilderness Champion award for her important contributions to the restoration program.

A map of an impacted knoll near Cascade Pass was made and added to the map series already completed by Monika Nill. About 65 large, older pink heathers were carried to Cascade Pass and planted in nearby damaged areas. Nearly 300 partridge foot, sedge, and heathers were transported and planted at Copper Lake. The Easy Pass Draft Restoration Plan was completed. Restoration work in 1995 included carrying nearly 100 plants to Easy Pass and planted in August. About 100 partridge foot and 50-76 sedges were carried to Jack Mountain Camp restoration site and planted by volunteers. About 140 sedges and partridge foot were carried to the Doubtful Lake turnoff on Sahale Arm and planted amongst transplants from previous years. Roughly 500 small salal plants and a few dogwoods were planted around the back and sides of the Visitor Center in Newhalem with the assistance of Native Plant Society and Boy Scout volunteers.

There were 36 search and/or rescues documented by case incident report. Total cost: $20,586. There were no fatalities and three significant injuries. One of the injuries was immediately life-threatening (climbing fall on Colonial Peak). The other two injuries both occurred at Cascade Pass, were both medical (no trauma) and both involved females not physically conditioned.

There was one major search: two climbers lost on Icy Peak. They were found non-injured, by helicopter, on the second day of the search effort. Aid was also given to Skagit and Whatcom Counties for a search on the Ptarmigan Traverse and a rescue in the Pasayten Wilderness.

Nine of the 36 SAR incidents were caused by groups completing Voluntary Climber Registers and then failing to check-in upon completion of the climb. As 779 climbing parties completed registers during the year, this failure rate was a low 1%. These nine incidents accounted for 25% of the SAR responses and 4% of SAR costs.

The Wilderness has 36 stock campsites (11% of all Wilderness campsites). They are located at 29 camps. Stock use in the Wilderness continues to be light, but increased over 1994. The number of permits increased from 22 in 1994 to 40 for this year. Stock parties accounted for 1,381 (6%) of the 22,508 visitor nights recorded.

Grazing permits were issued to 10 parties, for a total of 164 stock grazing days.

The backcountry of North Cascades National Park Service Complex has 386 miles of trails. The Trails Program continued to diversify in 1995, with considerable energy in the spring focused on special non-wilderness projects. The crew of thirteen did get a reasonable amount of work accomplished on wilderness trails. However, efforts to maintain all wilderness trails and camps to park standards continues to fall short. In an effort to not have to abandon an entire drainage for a year, two person crews were implemented. This served as an alternative to the traditional three and four person crews which were more efficient and far safer.

The 11 mile Boulder Creek Trail was severely impacted by forest fires in 1994. Repairs of fire caused damaged was accomplished. Cultural resources located in wilderness received extra attention. Elaborate lead paint analysis was run on Copper Lookout in preparation for repainting in 1996 and a team worked to accurately identify and map artifacts and structures around the Skagit Queen Mine for nomination as a National Historic District.

Ten compost toilets were purchased, of which six were placed in wilderness camps. This should be balanced by the fact that major pit toilet replacement in the valleys is not getting done. High school Student Conservation Association (SCA) work was performed on puncheon up Big Beaver; Canadian/American SCA crews performed much needed brushing and routine trail maintenance; the Sourdough Lookout Trail was "adopted" by the park's fire technicians.

Day use trail counters are located at the entry points to Cascade Pass, Hidden Lake, and Thornton Lakes. The accuracy of the visitor counts are suspect, possibly due to poor counter sensitivity. Cascade Pass counter registered 4,494 visitors between June and October, yet ranger patrols contacted 6,172 hikers during that same time period. No data was available from Hidden Lake and the Thornton Lakes counter registered 13,370 visitors in August and September.

Backcountry overnight use was 38,903 visitor nights; 22,508 (58%) of this visitation was to the Wilderness. Overall backcountry use increased by 9%; wilderness use increased by 10%.

The following tables show backcountry visitation. The first table is data from the BCRES computer software for the Stephen Mather Wilderness. The second table is from monthly use reports for all of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. In the first table, the relatively low visitor nights for 1992 and 1991 probably reflect software glitches (BCRES was first used in 1991) rather than low visitation. The third table shows use levels broken down into types of use compared to a theoretical maximum capacity. Finally, the fourth table shows 1994 backcountry usage by month.

46% of persons obtaining permits were from the greater Seattle area and 61% 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. In 1995 other volunteer projects included development of a brochure, impact site mapping and photography, and stocking of ranger camps.

The production of the Wilderness Trip Planner brochure included significant volunteer assistance. The District worked closely with The Mountaineers, and utilized students in that club's basic mountaineering course to stock several ranger camps, and pack plants to restoration sites. Monica Nill again shared her expert cartography skills to map impacts at Cascade and Easy Passes.

Increased use of volunteers and better documentation of hours, together reflect the increase in hours (over last year) shown in the table below.