The U.S. Forest Service is just out with a self-examination of its national recreation infrastructure — and it isn’t pretty. The report from our half dozen national forests speaks of “critical vacancies, staff reassignments, seasonal hiring restrictions, imploding trail maintenance and partner support.”
The 164-million-acre system has been hit by two perfect storms. An atmospheric river in January washed out trails, campgrounds and access roads across the Pacific Northwest. Not to be outdone, DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk, has ravaged its corps of overseers.
Asked to sum it all up, Gary Paull, retired trails/recreation director in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, summarized by saying, “Oh boy, what a mess. Don’t know where to start.” (Perhaps with the failure to fill Paull’s position?)
Indicating alarm, Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray penned a letter last week, opining: “The [Forest Service] report warns of significant challenges in sustaining trail operations as well as potential loss of decades of investments in trail infrastructure.”
A big chunk of that recreation infrastructure was created during the Great Depression, which sent Civilian Conservation Corps works to build trails and campgrounds. This system is now neglected by a vastly more wealthy America.
If you want to see the consequences, drive up the Mt. Baker Highway out of Bellingham. When I was a kid, my family befriended Ross Files, the avuncular Glacier District Ranger. He had a decent budget to keep up trails and camps, even though often there were few hikers. Nowadays, there is hardly any budget and many hikers. The result: more hikers are channeled onto fewer trails. For instance, when larch trees turn gold, cars are parked for more than a quarter mile at the Maple Pass trailhead on the North Cascades Highway.
Sen. Cantwell, herself a summit bagger, has made a dollars-and-sense case for restoring and maintaining the recreation infrastructure. Recreation sustains an estimated 143,000 jobs — just walk into REI — and sustains a $128 billion economy.
The Washington Trails Association, to its credit, has recruited volunteer work parties to repair trails. But supervision is needed — witness a Sierra Club volunteer party blitzing Gary Paull with watermelon seeds. A few good deeds have gotten done, such as a backcountry bridge over the Suiattle River in eastern Snohomish County. A rebuilt trail reaches Lake Serene beneath Mt. Index off the Stevens Pass Highway. Who knows, however, what damage was done by the floods of January?
The staffing crisis remains: The vastly popular Enchantment Lakes country above Leavenworth — the most requested permit in the National Forest system — had a complement of 11 rangers. Now it has just one.
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration wants a 25 percent increase in the timber harvest off our federal lands. “Our” federal lands? They belong to the American people. That we have neglected this priceless heritage of mountains and wild rivers is a crying bloody shame.
This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.
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