BuzzH
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If everyone did, we wouldn't have to clean up after them.
#Winning = more public land poop
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elkduds
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Sarcasm rarely translates on da 'net.
Carnage2011
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Is there a way to see what trails/how many are cleared by USFS personnel every year? I’ve never seen a trail crew in my life. I’m sure they are working somewhere, but I’d be curious to know what exactly they do. Is it 10% of trails? 50%? My first summer out of college I rode for an outfitter in the absaroka-beartooth for a couple months clearing trails. Fun work, cool country, lots of wildlife and a great way to spend a summer. Hopefully there is a plan for the campground/shitter side of things, but I’m not sure that trail maintenance is going to be noticed in many areas.
It varies district to district how many miles get cleared per year. Trails are broken down into classes. Class 1, 2, and 3. Class 1 receiving the most maintenance and usually getting cleared at least once per season. Class 2 and 3 receive less attention. If you dig around on each forest’s website you can usually find a clearing schedule.
And as far as not seeing a trail crew on the trail, it’s not surprising. Depending on the size of the district it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. You’re talking about 4-6 people that could be anywhere on 500-1000 miles of trail on any given day. You would just have to happen to be hiking/riding on the trail they were working on that day. Very low odds.
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The understatement of this entire thread. In Western MT, if you hike on trails on USFS lands it will definitely be noticed. Not even close to enough outfitters, non profits, or volunteers to even make a dent on the clearing/maintenance.
Bonasababy
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I am struck by the similarities between decrying the firing of lower level workers and claiming management should be targeted....neither direction involves ANY analysis of value or service that would be lost.
Here’s the status page for the Bitterroot NF. They do one for other RD’s as well.
Whoever answers the phone at RD offices usually has a pretty good idea of when maintenance is scheduled where (in the before times, anyway).
Pretty much every backcountry wilderness cabin still in use by the FS seems to have a crew working from it the entire season in places like the Flathead. They’re out there.
SAJ-99
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None of it matters when the driving ideology is "The Federal Government is Bad". The rest is noise. Many who cry "bankrupting the country" will celebrate the idea of getting a $5000 check. Any debate is a mind boggling experience down a rabbit hole that would make Alice jealous. The people who made the plan realized this long ago. Now we are in Wonderland.
ismith
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I won't see a difference. Haven't in a long time. Since I like my elk spot I don't care. Oh yeah. I am in Western Montana. mtmuley
I don’t know much about the bitterroot. Haven’t spent much time down there since early 2000’s. Are you saying that because you don’t use trails to access your elk spots, or have the bitterroot’s not had active trail crews recently. MT side trails were always cleared back then. I worked on the ID side long ago and the trail crew was severely understaffed back then.
SAJ-99
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If you find yourself thinking this is good news, I think it is necessary to point out that a large number of people in the private sector couldn’t do this either.
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Around where I live it’s basically all volunteers. I can think of a couple trails that I walked with my dad in the 90s are choked and no longer used. I’ve never seen a trail crew either.
Mountain bike groups are pretty active in clearing trails they ride(as well as just pioneering new ones ) and a notable contributor to trail clearing in the back country around here are The Backcountry Horsemen.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
Yeah the FS doesn't clear more than a couple of trails a year, and I wish it was less.
Poop. Pathogen riddled human feces is what the FS does manage, and quite well given their lack of resources. That is what will be missed the most.
Poop. Pathogen riddled human feces is what the FS does manage, and quite well given their lack of resources. That is what will be missed the most.
The trendy trails might get cleared for as far as the Sunday crowd will venture. mtmuley
You seem to be in a bad mood these days also. Thanks though. mtmuley
Huh. Times have changed from when I worked down there.
I don't think you have any idea. The Root is a different place these days. mtmuley
I know forest service budgets don’t reflect population changes, but I would’ve guessed more was being done not less.
I was down there last about 6 years ago and I climbed a couple peaks with a buddy that lives in Stevensville. Trails were in decent shape then, and recently cleared. Sad to hear.
Flynarrow
Well-known member
Look at public land management direction from a distance. Congress and now Trump/Musk holding back funding just plays into the land transfer proponents, who have been salivating over the opportunity to grab the federal land for their oligarchs own enrichment.
For a couple of decades, Congress has neglected to fund natural resource management agencies. Road maintenance is way behind, campgrounds aging, little money for forest thinning, fewer trails cleared, few range inspections, on and on. The funds are getting even tighter in the last few years, except for fire.
So the optics from the public is that the agencies can't do the job. Increasingly the cry is to turn over the federal land to the States. With State's limited funds trails would likely not be maintained, roads would not be maintained, and fire costs would quickly sink the state budgets. Then land disposal would begin.
Starving the budgets of land management agencies is a deliberate effort to ensure the feds inability to manage and the solution some politicians are using is to simply dispose of public lands. Beware......
For a couple of decades, Congress has neglected to fund natural resource management agencies. Road maintenance is way behind, campgrounds aging, little money for forest thinning, fewer trails cleared, few range inspections, on and on. The funds are getting even tighter in the last few years, except for fire.
So the optics from the public is that the agencies can't do the job. Increasingly the cry is to turn over the federal land to the States. With State's limited funds trails would likely not be maintained, roads would not be maintained, and fire costs would quickly sink the state budgets. Then land disposal would begin.
Starving the budgets of land management agencies is a deliberate effort to ensure the feds inability to manage and the solution some politicians are using is to simply dispose of public lands. Beware......
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