The U.S. Forest Service plans to do a prescribed burn on 20 acres near Edelweiss on Thursday (April 17), conditions permitting. The burn will be on the Lucky 2 Timber Sale unit, about 10 miles west of Winthrop and about one-fourth of a mile from Edelweiss.
The Forest Service said that other burn units in the district are behind roads that are still blocked with snow and it may be one to two weeks before access is possible.
Gap closes to 15 miles in North Cascades snow clearing
East side and west side Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews clearing snow from the North Cascades Highway had closed to within 15 miles of each other by the end of the second week of work on the road, WSDOT said Friday (April 11).
WSDOT said an earlier estimate that it would take about six weeks to clear the highway was holding up. Don Becker, WSDOT’s Twisp office maintenance supervisor, said at Thursday’s Winthrop Chamber of Commerce meeting that he hopes the road will be clear in time for the ’49er Days celebration May 9-11, but couldn’t guarantee it.
A crew working from the west side was at mile post 150, while the Twisp-based crew working from the east side had cleared the road to milepost 164.5 near Cutthroat Ridge, WSDOT said.
Friday through Sunday, people are welcome to recreate beyond the gates, WSDOT said, but the highway is still closed to licensed motor vehicles. Snowmobiles are still OK, WSDOT said.
