“They blocked paradise, and put in a parking lot.” So said local outdoor activist Dan Boeholt after visiting what used to be a vehicle access road to a gravel bar on the West Fork Humptulips River, popular for decades among campers, swimmers, horseback riders and other outdoor enthusiasts.

Word of the Forest Service’s blocking of vehicle access to the gravel bar off Forest Service Road 2203 came late Monday, the same day Grays Harbor County commissioners signed a letter to the Forest Service urging the road be kept open. Opponents to the Forest Service action were also asking local legislators to help them.

“I am angry about it and disappointed that they wouldn’t give my Congressman the courtesy of a return call and site visit before they acted,” said state Rep. Brian Blake. “I hope that Congressman (Derek) Kilmer can reverse the damage they have done to the recreational access in that area.”

Blake said he has spoken to Kilmer since the road was blocked Monday and was told by Kilmer neither District Ranger Dean Millett nor anyone else with the Forest Service had returned his calls regarding the matter.

“Public access to our public lands and rivers is important. I would hope we could all agree on that,” said Blake.

Millett said the action was taken “for resource protection,” because vehicle traffic on the access road was damaging critical fish habitat for juvenile coho salmon and steelhead. He added, “This action was a compromise between resource protection and maintaining public access to the site.”

In 2014 the Olympic Resource Advisory Committee recommended the road access to the river bar be blocked using Secure Rural Schools funding. The Forest Supervisor approved the recommendation for the project to be implemented.

Opposition from Blake, Boeholt and others began almost immediately. However, in an email dated Jan. 13, of last year, Millett said that the “unauthorized road” that had been used to access the gravel bar was to be blocked 200 feet from the river, with a parking area installed, and the remainder of the road would provide a foot path to the gravel bar.

“How do you get to the gravel bar now?” asked Boeholt. “There is about a six-foot drop now over big boulders with sharp edges, and big holes to slip into.”

“How small the parking lot was,” said Boeholt. “Two vehicles are going to be about it. No truck or RV, trailer, is going to be able to turn around here.”

In their letter to Millett, the commissioners wrote, “Access to our public waterways through gravel bars is a historical and cultural tradition that many residents have enjoyed since statehood. The recreational, economic and enjoyment values of public lands is evident in the county’s Public Land Access Plan as it strives to retain no net loss of access to our public lands.”

What once was a popular vehicle access point to a gravel bar on the West Fork Humptulips River was blocked with boulders at its confluence with Forest Service Road 2203 Monday. Beyond the boulders is the old access road, which leads about 200 feet to the river.

What once was a popular vehicle access point to a gravel bar on the West Fork Humptulips River was blocked with boulders at its confluence with Forest Service Road 2203 Monday. Beyond the boulders is the old access road, which leads about 200 feet to the river.