Concerns about Under Canvas project on the FS 2918

Published 1:30 am Thursday, August 7, 2025

Dear Editor,

The glamping company Under Canvas has proposed a project out on the West End in the upper Sol Duc Valley. Clallam County’s Dept. of Community Development is working with this out-of-state company “to develop a 78-site campground within the Commercial Forest zone, including a large tent to accommodate a lobby, a commercial kitchen for guests and bathroom facilities at individual campsites and adjacent to a large parking lot” according to the Procedural Summary filed with the county. The plan also includes laundry and housekeeping areas, staff housing and storage.

There is no county fire district that serves the area. The closest one is a volunteer department from over 15 miles away in Beaver. The Dept. of Natural Resources and the Forest Service are the sole means of fire suppression and they are instructed to not put out structure fires anywhere. The planned glamping site is miles back on a poorly maintained, single lane road. However wildfire needs no road as the old-timers who survived the Forks Fire of 1951 will tell. The increased volume of people out there raises the chance of wildfire exponentially. Where is the governmental responsibility to protect human life and natural resources with regard to fire?

The road to access the glamping site is also shared with the Olympic Discovery Trail. The trail accommodates hikers, bicycles, equestrians and wheelchairs. The road is also used by log trucks for commercial logging operations. The shoulders are not safe at present for equestrian and wheelchair use. What happens when 200+ vehicles operated by tourists unfamiliar with road conditions are added to the mix?

I’m appealing to the people of Clallam County with common sense to urge the county to protect it’s local inhabitants. Please keep your senses and don’t be starry eyed with visions of more income from tourism. There is room for all of us, but all of our safety should come first.

Zorina Barker