Opening more of the Hanford Reach National Monument to the public, adding trails and improving boat docks are proposed in a long-awaited draft management plan for the monument released Thursday.

The management study considered several alternatives for how the monument should be used, but favored a plan that it described as providing "a high degree of public access and facilities development."

That would include developing campgrounds and boat launches on the Columbia River at each end of the Reach, allowing some access to the sand dunes at the downstream end of the Reach and creating a hiking trail to near the top of Rattlesnake Mountain.

Although the present White Bluffs Boat Launch is proposed to be closed to motorboats, that would not happen until the primitive launch at Vernita is improved for motorboat use.

It's the same plan favored by a federal advisory committee in June 2004 after it spent two years developing a proposal.

The monument was created in 2000 out of the horseshoe-shaped buffer zone around the Hanford nuclear reservation, where plutonium was produced for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

The buffer remained largely untouched, or at least undeveloped, for more than six decades. It includes a remnant of the shrub steppe land that once covered the region and the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River outside its tidal area.

With the designation of the land as a national monument, a management plan was needed to be used as a blueprint for how it should be protected and also used over the next 15 years.

Under the preferred plan, areas now closed to the public could be opened as Hanford cleanup progresses. That includes doubling the acreage the public could use along the Columbia River.

The west end of the proposed new Wahluke management unit also could be opened to the public, adding 28,321 accessible acres. However, no hunting would be allowed in the newly opened area.

The Rattlesnake Mountain area would remain closed to the public except for two proposed hiking trails. One would allow the public to walk to near the top of Rattlesnake Mountain and the other would be north of Highway 24.

Now, the sand dunes on the west side of the Columbia River near the southern end of the Ringold area are closed to the public except along the water line where boats can reach. But the draft management plan favors adding a foot trail that would allow public access to the eastern half of the dunes area. The western half would remain closed.

However, those plans would require issues to be worked out with Energy Northwest, which has facilities nearby.

The White Bluffs Boat Launch could continue to be used by non-motorized boats, and primitive launches at Vernita and Ringold would be developed.

Campgrounds would include three to six river sites with access by boats without motors. A campground would be developed at Vernita and the primitive Ringold campground would be improved. Two of the eight parking lots in the Ringold area would be closed.

New trails in the monument would total up to 100 miles. Also planned are as many as four interpretive trails, two photography sites and eight new wildlife viewing sites.

The favored plan includes a road to historic B Reactor on the Hanford nuclear reservation from the Vernita area, and a road across Hanford land to allow access to the west side of the Columbia River in the Ringold area.

Before the federal government adopts a final management plan for the monument, it will take public comment and could make changes.

Four open houses are planned to discuss the draft management plan:

n 5 to 8 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Mattawa Elementary School gym, 400 N. Boundary Road.

n 5 to 8 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Sunnyside Community Center, 1521 S. First St.

n 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Hampton Inn, 486 Bradley Blvd., Richland.

n 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave., Pasco.

The draft management plan is posted at www.fws.gov/hanford reach/ and copies will be available at area libraries.

Comments may be sent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Draft CCP Comments, 3250 Port of Benton Blvd., Richland, WA 99354. They must be postmarked by Feb. 23.