[pct-l] Trail Gorilla Work near PCT/Kern Plateau

[kmurray at pol.net (kmurray@pol.net)]

Ilja, this is my thought on the discrepency:  I think that the parks have
a much higher profile, and that translates into political clout when it
comes to funding.  I am under the impression that the parks do not need to
use volunteers to do the wilderness trail maintenence, at least to the
degree that the forests do.  In the Sierra National Forest, where I
volunteer as a wilderness Ranger, *much* of the work is done by
volunteers.
For example, the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew did all the work on the
PCT from Mono Creek to Boundary with Kings Canyon NP.

In the Sequoia National Forest, where I just got back from 10 days of
trail construction, there are three districts.  Each district has ONE
trail maintenence worker.  Some trails have had no maintenence in many
years.  Some trails are being deleted from the official trail system, and
will no longer be listed on maps, nor maintained in any way.

The money used to support this group comes from grantwriting and community
fundraising, and to some extent from the forests themselves.  The
trailcrew site has pictures of the work done(www.trailcrew.org) , and I
think the efficiency ratio is something like 15:1 ----meaning that if the
forest employed workers to do the same work, it would cost 15 times what
it costs the volunteer group.

Hope that makes sense.....

Ken

> Hi Kmurray,
>
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 kmurray@pol.net wrote:
>
>> This Sept, we will be doing a tree cutting project on the Inyo
>> national Forest, from Big Whitney Meadow to Little Whitney Meadow.
>> This trail has not been maintained in many years,
>
> Now that I found somebody involved in trailwork, I have a question: Why
> are trails in the national parks so much better maintained than the
> trails  in adjacent wildernesses? As it is volunteer work, is there
> anything  favoring NP's? (You mention free food and equipment transport.
> Does this  make the difference?)
>
> Ilja.