Chelan County presses Park Service for Stehekin road solution

CHELAN COUNTY — Chelan County officials are pressing the National Park Service for a faster solution to a flood-damaged road in Stehekin, warning that temporary access serving residents remains vulnerable months after December flooding reshaped the Stehekin River.

Mike Kaputa, director of the Chelan County Natural Resources Department, updated county, Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority and Chelan PUD commissioners during an Aug. 11 Tri-Commission meeting on continuing efforts to address infrastructure problems in the remote community.

Among the most immediate is Company Creek Road, one of two roads in Stehekin, both owned and managed by the National Park Service.

Flooding in December 2025 washed out a section of the road and destroyed a levee that had helped keep the Stehekin River within its channel. The Park Service has since constructed temporary access, but Kaputa said a gap remains where the river can again cut through as water rises.

“This is the area that we're really concerned about, where the river is just going to keep coming through right here,” Kaputa said while showing commissioners an image of the damaged area.

The county has been working with the Park Service and Stehekin residents on a solution, and the issue drew considerable attention during a recent community meeting attended by Gov. Bob Ferguson and state lawmakers. Kaputa said the Stehekin school was packed for the meeting.

“This is a very high-priority project for that community,” he said.

State Sen. Keith Goehner, R-Dryden, was more pointed in his criticism of the federal response, saying local and state officials have been trying for months to resolve problems involving federal land and infrastructure.

Goehner contrasted the response in Stehekin with the federal response following the deadly 2014 Oso landslide, recalling that U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., pushed for federal assistance following that disaster. He also took a more skeptical view of Ferguson's involvement in Stehekin, saying the governor had visited the community but questioning where the issue stood among his priorities.

The comparison reaches across two very different periods in federal government. Following the March 22, 2014 Oso landslide, Washington's congressional delegation pressed the Obama administration for assistance, and federal disaster aid was expanded within days. A major disaster declaration followed April 2.

The National Park Service now confronting Stehekin's infrastructure problems has undergone substantial workforce reductions since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. More than 4,000 permanent employees have left the agency through terminations, retirements, deferred resignations and vacancies, representing nearly a quarter of its permanent workforce. The Trump administration also sought a reduction of more than $1 billion in NPS discretionary funding for fiscal year 2026, although Congress rejected most of the proposed cut.

“When you've got kids wading through a stream to get to school, I mean, that is just inherently wrong, and there should have been an immediate response to that,” Goehner said. He did not note any of the radical changes the National Park Service has undergone, or the shift in power at the federal level between 2014 and now.

He also questioned why rock has had to be transported up Lake Chelan for work in Stehekin when quarry resources exist within the national park, describing the situation as another example of the difficulties local officials have encountered while trying to respond to an emergency on federal land.

“The fact that we are still in August trying to get the federal government to move because this is federal land,” Goehner said, is a source of continuing frustration.

Even restoring the road connection would not eliminate the longer-term problem.

Kaputa said the loss of the levee has substantially changed conditions along Company Creek Road and the river has moved into a historic channel. That leaves uncertainty about future flooding and what additional protection may ultimately be needed.

“There's a big question mark about what might happen in the future now that the river has really occupied a historic channel,” Kaputa said.

Kaputa said Jason Taylor, who had been serving as interim superintendent of the National Park Service complex overseeing the area, was made permanent superintendent recently. Kaputa said he spoke with Taylor the morning of the Tri-Commission meeting about the continuing work.

The road is one of several Stehekin issues county officials are working to address.

Chelan County has also secured approximately $150,000 for a Lake Chelan Waterways Woody Debris Assessment, which will examine debris that entered Lake Chelan during the December flooding and determine where it is located and whether removal or other action is necessary.

Kaputa said officials are also considering longer-term strategies involving multiple agencies, potentially including booms that could capture woody debris before it moves farther down the lake.

The work comes as the county continues moving a broader Stehekin Community Plan through the Planning Commission and County Commission process. Kaputa said implementing the plan's recommendations will require continued work over the next three to five years.

For Goehner, the continuing problems are ultimately about the people who depend on reliable access and a functioning community in one of the most geographically isolated parts of Chelan County.

“These people were living through literally life-threatening situations,” Goehner said. “They have to have tourism coming to Stehekin, and it really is a symbiotic relationship.”

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media