Hanford Reach National Monument

Hanford Reach National Monument is a protected area by the type of National Monuments in the south of the U.S. state of Washington. It was built by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and currently consists of the former security zone around Hanford Site, an abandoned nuclear facility of the Department of Energy, was produced in the part of the Manhattan Project from 1943 plutonium for nuclear weapons. Parts of the site are contaminated with radioactive or PCB. As part of the ongoing decommissioning of installations and the management of nuclear waste further decontaminated areas will be added to the reserve after their release.

The reserve is located on and within a 80 km long river loop of the Columbia River above Richland, which is the longest free-flowing section of the river. The area is, as one of only two National Monuments of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and is used with the Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, an adjacent game reserve, managed by that.

Description

Hanford Reach is located in the Columbia Basin, an area between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains. At the end of the Miocene and the beginning of the Pliocene, about 5.33 million years ago, creating enormous basalt flows of volcanic origin, the plane is now determined by semi- arid climate and a steppe vegetation.

The sparse vegetation is dominated by plant society of couch grass and sagebrush. This includes various bluegrasses. Riverside isolated are willows. The sanctuary preserves the almost undisturbed wildlife of the United ecosystem. Around 240 species of birds, 1500 species of insects, 43 mammals, including nine species of bats alone and also 43 fish species have been recorded in the area. Following closure of military reactors to 1991, the introduction of heated cooling water greatly reduced in the river and the fish populations recovered within a few years. Today, about 80 % of the chinook salmon spawn in the upper Columbia River system in the sanctuary.

The flow loop and the adjacent hills Rattlesnake Mountains and Wahluke Slope were inhabited in prehistoric times and also after contact with the whites by Indians. The oldest traces of stone tools of Paleo- Indians about 10,000 years ago, lived in the 19th century, hunted and fished the Wayampam, Yakama, Colville, Umatilla and Nez Perce on the river and its surroundings. In the region there are over 150 identified archaeological sites, only a few have so far been excavated. The first white men in the area were the participants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1805. Around 1860, a ferry across the river to the north of present-day reserve was established. It was not until 1870, significant numbers of whites settled in the area and founded the two places Hanford and White Bluffs, the colonization remained thin. In December 1942, just days after the first controlled nuclear chain reaction by Enrico Fermi, the federal government chose the area as a center for the production of nuclear weapons; the 1,500 families living in the area sold voluntarily or were dispossessed, resigned and relocated.

The nuclear weapons production at Hanford Site was subject to strict safety regulations. A zone of at least six miles ( 10 km) in each direction from the plant was reported as restricted and deserted. Since the beginning of the production of nuclear weapons in 1943, there had been no human intervention more.

The National Monument

Due to the special history of the area and the wilderness character of the former parts of the Sperrgebiet National Monuments are designated as priority area for ecological research in Protected Area Management Category 1 of the World Conservation Union IUCN, they are not accessible to visitors.

  • Columbia River Corridor: River and riparian areas are freely accessible, camping is not permitted.
  • Fitzner - Eberhardt Arid Lands Ecology Reserve: priority area for ecological research, the public locked.
  • Saddle Mountain Unit: priority area for ecological research, the public locked.
  • McGee Ranch and Riverlands: Still used by the Department of Energy is expected to release
  • Vernita Bridge: open to the public
  • Wahluke Slope: open to the public

The area does not have a visitors center. Information and maps are available in Richland in the office of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Washington (state) Richland (Washington) Desert climate Plant community Native Americans in the United States Yakama people Colville tribe Umatilla people Hanford (Washington)
372615
de