After multiple stakeholder engagements, the Olympic National Forest is sharing the Klahanie Campground Stakeholder Engagement Report. Klahanie Campground located seven miles northeast of Forks, WA, has been closed since 2018 due to safety concerns over hazard trees and frequent flooding due to its location within the Calawah River’s floodplain.

In 2023, together with Trout Unlimited, the Forest Service contracted Triangle Associates, an independent third-party, to understand public opinion as the agency considers how to enhance sustainable recreation and promote benefits for people, wildlife, and fish at the campground.

Triangle Associates compiled the report for the Forest Service after collecting public feedback through stakeholder interviews, a site tour, in-person and virtual town hall meetings and a public survey.

The report’s findings showed support for:

prioritizing reopening the campground

improving community engagement through enhanced communication

integrating recreation and conservation efforts

allowing multiple uses to appeal to broader audiences

The report is part of Forest’s larger effort to incorporate the concept of Community Based Recreation Planning into current and future recreation planning processes.

Community Based Recreation Planning enhances planning by incorporating communities’ voluntary input into the recreation planning process early and throughout the process. This allows the people most impacted by management decisions to propose ideas and potential concepts during the planning process ensuring their voices are heard.

The Forest Service is now transitioning into the next phase of the project which includes developing a proposal informed by the Stakeholder Engagement Report.

To view the Stakeholder Engagement Report, visit the Olympic National Forest website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/olympic/home/?cid=FSEPRD1037740