[pct-l] Logging on the PCT

[mkwart at gci.net]

Scott:

I was really bummed when I travelled on the PCT in the Lassen NF in 
California and in southern Washington and came across several logging 
operations right on the trail--dozers going over the trail, pulverizing 
it to moon dust, logged stumps of large trees right next to the trail. 
Although I know that the National Forests are multi use public lands, I 
have no confidence that the mitigation for trail damage is being done 
after the timber sales, or if anyone from the PCTA or other 
backpacking/hiking group is even at the table when the Forest Service is 
planning these projects to make sure the trails are taken care of.

A partial solution (barring not having the timber sale at all) would be 
to have our names added to the local National Forest or BLM district 
office to be notified when projects are being planned. When I worked for 
the US Forest Service in the central Sierras (my job was cleaning up the 
logging slash after the loggers took what they wanted and providing fire 
management input to the timber sale planning process) I saw that one 
individual person, as long as they had made themselves "persons of 
interest" in the projects could submit input into the timber sale 
planning process. The input of the local concerned public sometimes has 
more weight than written comments submitted by off site organizations.

After the timber sales are finished, local hikers could then use their 
copy of the timber sale planning document and monitor when and if trail 
damage is repaired. This could be done even if the hikers were not part 
of the planning process. If the timber sale is on public land, we can 
request a copy of the planning document to see if trail damage 
mitigation work is being planned.

I know from experience that mitigation for damage to recreational 
resources like trails from timber sales often goes undone. The 
recreation specialists on the districts have little power and a full 
plate and often don't follow through on timber sale damage mitigation.

Thanks for providing the images of clearcutting. I have a famous aerial 
photo of Yellowstone National Park taken after the great fires of 1988, 
showing the checkerboard of clearcuts crowding the green island of the 
National Park land, and also showing the origin of several of the fires 
that covered Yellowstone that summer--the clearcuts.

We can't do much about timber sales on private land, but we can have an 
impact on projects done on public land.
--Fireweed

Here are 2 land cover images showing the scale of some of the logging 
along the PCT. Both are in Washington.

The first and most dramatic is section I9. You can clearly see the large 
checkerboard pattern of deforestation covering the entire map:

http://postholer.com/digi/I9.png

The second image shows large swaths of clear cuts from section H12:

http://postholer.com/digi/H12.png

All of your postholer topo maps show these 'enlightening' details.

-postholer
-- 
www.postholer.com