Hello from Darrington, (Letter to USFS Supervisor on Closed Roads) Some of you will remember me as the grumpy lady from Darrington who wants to keep “all” roads open. This has been near and dear to my heart for more than 30 yrs. since FS roads were being closed beginning in the mid 1980’s. Countless hours have been spent organizing meetings, writing letters, contacting multiple use groups, and most of all providing input on what FS roads are important and why. I volunteered my time for the Western Cascade Province Advisory Committee representing recreation in the implementation of the current Forest Plan in the mid 1990’s. I was on the road sub committee. I am currently on the RAC for Mt Baker Dist. Over the years many groups have provided the FS with the information of what roads are important. Over and over again, I asked that the FS take this information and place it not only in a hard file according to road name or watershed but how hard would it have been to scan and place on a computer. The problem has been that none of this information is carried forward into future projects. So unless you are an environmental group with a paid or volunteer staff, a private citizen trying to earn a living and raise a family does not have the time or the resources to respond individually to each and every project. The other problem is that FS changes staff frequently and about the time a staff person gets to know the area and the people, the FS staff person moves on to another forest. This has been classic especially in Darrington. So here comes the current pick your 5 roads idea. This might be a feel good public relation, fill the letter of the law to gather information, but it does not meet scientific , social and economic needs of rural forest communities, the multiple use act, and long term management of the forest. Over the past 20 yrs WA state has spent close to 1 billion $$ in Salmon Recovery funds in doing “watershed enhancement” and digging up forest roads. For a long time I could not figure out why I was running into dug up roads without no public input. Then, after several years, I found out that the FS called digging up these roads “putting them in storage”. This new English word did not need a public review but the end result was the same it is non driveable. We have lost over 90% of our day hikes due to road closures and lack of maintenance over the last 20 yrs expanding most hikes from under 5 miles round trip to an avg of 20 miles round trip. Examples: Meadow Mtn. up the White Chuck, Curry Gap and Kodak Peak, Goat Lake off the Mtn. Loop, all the day hikes out of Monte Cristo, and the list goes on. 1. There needs to be an address to write your concerns about the current Travel and Access plan and meetings. Emails for FS employees managing this process along with the supervisors and district rangers, a place where current laws and executive orders can be read concerning this issue. This should be on all FS web sites as well as the ability to cut and paste info to Face Book. 2. There are current foresters following this issue they should be consulted as far as the future of the forest, wildlife needs, watershed planning, healthy forests etc. Trees do not live forever and every forest has fire history. Doc Hastings has a chart compiled of how many acres logged vs how many acres burned up by fire over a 20 yr period. Check his web site. Fires are wasting a lot of timber and burning up homes. 3. The Forest Service needs to make a concerted effort to go back and recapture the input from multiple use groups over the last 20 yrs . In the early 1990’s our group did 2 surveys on forest service road use. The information we gathered is even more valid today. 4. Under the Great Outdoor Initiative there appeared to be over 50% of the respondents that were over 50 yrs of age or families with young children advocating keeping roads open for access. Our population is aging. Closed roads and expanding wilderness and roadless areas makes the forests off limits to the elderly, the young, the handicap. The North Cascade Wilderness Outdoor Leadership School has clients with the avg. age of 16 to 32. That has to tell you the age of the population accessing these long and steep hikes into wilderness. 5. Roads to trails do not work as the road turned into a trail is not maintained and will quickly grow shut. Horse access to wilderness is not being maintained on a timely basis. In conclusion, we need more than a few token meetings around the country. This is a complex issue. Once the road is gone there will be no rebuilding because at today’s FS specs. roads can cost up to $1 million a mile to build. This vs $1000 a mile to maintain. Put up signs at the beginning of each road “Primitive Road Enter at Your Own Risk” then walk away and make no decision until it can be done scientifically to meet multiple use criteria, economic and social needs of rural communities, and what is best for the forests and wildlife. Have a good day. Shari Brewer Darrington, WA shari3@frontier
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 10:15:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015