[pct-l] Why California's Trails Are Disappearing From Our Maps

[Rob Langsdorf]

We are losing Wilderness Trails. Probably not the PCT, but other trails in the Wilderness can't be maintained due to the fact that you can't use machinery in Forest Service Wilderness areas. This means that you can't use chainsaws and trail cats. With a chainsaw I can keep a number of people busy hauling away the cut brush. When we have to switch to loppers and and bow saws it takes about 20 workers to keep two haulers busy. 

As a result the Forest Service just has to let a lot of trails go. A good trail through chaparral can become completely overgrown in under 10 years. So the Forest Service has to choose which to maintain and which to let go.

With hand crews it takes a number of men-days to carve carve a few hundred yards of tread. With a good trail machine a small crew can knock off a quarter of a mile per day and in some areas change jack that up to a mile per day. So it is the Wilderness Act limitation on what tools can be used that is killing the wilderness trails.

Mataguay Connector Rob