The raging Skokomish River has claimed more property and vehicles this Thanksgiving week, having reached a major flood stage @ 17.43 ft. according to the telemetry of the USGS Potlatch river elevation gauge.
Eells Hill Rd. is a series of steep switchbacks exiting the Skokomish Valley via the south wall about 4 miles west of Hwy 101. The valley wall is several hundred feet high composed largely of sand and glacial moraine–a highly unstable combination that has led to washouts the size of canyons descending into Hunter and Weaver creeks near the State’s Eells Hill fish hatchery. Never the less, the State agency (DNR) that can’t say ‘NO’ permitted Green Diamond to clear cut its property on these steep slopes/precipices endangering the valley’s residents, as usual.
The reason the South Fork of the Skokomish has silted up into an aqueduct is from years of rapacious irresponsible clear cutting which the government not only permitted, but encouraged through tax and land grants to Simpson (now ‘Green Diamond’) at the expense of residents, their future, their farms, and their safety. Though the results of that clouded history are shockingly transparent today, it continues to be business as usual for wealthy corporations such as ‘Green Diamond’ grea$ing the skids in permit paradise. Those who recall ‘gam-scam’ are reminded of the corrupt lobbyist’s quote: “$10,000 is pretty cheap for an entire State!” That, dear readers, is how business and permitting is done in Mason County and Washington State.
After The Tempest