Looking to visit Tolmie State Park? Avoid this parking lot for the next several months
A parking lot at Tolmie State Park will be closed from September to February to make way for a fish passage construction project.
Washington State Parks will close the park’s lower parking lot and all its restrooms on Sept. 6, according to a news release. The 154-acre park north of Lacey features three miles of hiking trails and 1,800 feet of Puget Sound saltwater shoreline.
Those looking to visit the park can still access the upper parking lot which has space for 30 cars. Beach access will still be available via a steep trail from this lot, according to the release. Portable toilets also will be available.
The $1.1 million fish passage project will replace a 5-foot culvert with a 95-foot span bridge. The release says this bridge will enable free water flow between the park’s stream and inter-tidal lagoon, providing rearing and feeding habitat for salmon.
Removing the culvert should improve about two miles of spawning grounds for Chinook, coho, chum, winter steelhead and cutthroat, and meet state and federal requirements for fish passage improvement and culvert correction, according to the release.
Wildlife won’t be the only ones to benefit. Once complete, the release says the bridge will provide visitors a safer and more scenic route from the parking lot to the lower picnic shelter and beach.
Rognlin’s, Inc. of Aberdeen has been contracted to complete the work, which has been scheduled through February.
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