[pct-l] Forest Service at it again!

[Ronald Moak <ronm@fallingwater.com>]

With calls by the Forest Service to reduce access to the forest
wilderness based on the "Solitude Factor" (see story below), it's clear
that once again the Forest Service can't see the forest for the trees.
If the wilderness area too crowed, it's probably because there are
enough of them. Especially near centers of urban development. Instead of
working on ways to increase the Wilderness opportunity, the Forest
Service is determined to further restrict it. 

It's bad enough to have to put up with trail parking permits.
Eliminating trails and cutting usage seems the WRONG approach to
wilderness management. Each year the Forest Service builds hundreds of
miles of new roads into roadless areas to harvest timber. Perhaps a few
trails would be a better option. 

It is getting increasingly difficult the support the Forest Service when
it's becoming clearer that backcountry recreation is falling farther and
farther behind on it list of multiple use priorities.

Ron



Mount Hood wilderness plan may renew outdoor limits debate 
The Associated Press
10/20/98 4:52 PM 
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The debate over wilderness protection could heat
up again with a U.S. Forest Service proposal to limit hiking on some of
Mount Hood's most popular trails and restrict the number of climbers. 
Similar restrictions are expected to be released this month in a draft
plan for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southwest Washington to
increase protection in seven wilderness areas. 

The Mount Hood trails and the most heavily traveled summit route lie
within wilderness that, according to a 1964 act of Congress, is supposed
to retain a "primeval character . . . with the imprint of man
substantially unnoticed." 
Forest Service officials are concerned that the thousands of people who
use three wilderness areas southeast of Portland each year are damaging
some sensitive backcountry and ruining the solitude. 

"For some people, solitude isn't an important thing, and they don't
care," said Roberta Moltzen, Mount Hood National Forest supervisor. "But
there are other people, who, when they go to the wilderness, they don't
want to see 200 other people." 

Mount Hood officials are preparing a protection plan covering 130,700
wilderness acres within the 1.1 million-acre national forest. 

The plan will list a series of options, including no changes. 
But the strictest option could result in cutbacks of more than 50
percent during peak periods on the number of people allowed to hike
several of the most heavily used wilderness trails, such as Ramona Falls
near Zigzag. 
The option also would sharply limit the number of climbers allowed on
the popular south-side route to the summit of Mount Hood. 
In Minnesota and California, among other areas, some wilderness
restrictions already are in place. In Oregon, the Willamette National
Forest instituted limits three years ago on day-hiking along two popular
wilderness trails. 
This month, the Gifford Pinchot National Forest will release a draft
plan that would increase protection over seven areas covering 179,547
acres. 

Citing deterioration caused by heavy recreational use, the plan lists
several options, including restricting the number of climbers on Mount
Adams and limiting the number of campers allowed during peak periods. 
Five years ago, Forest Service officials proposed reducing by half the
access to some of the most popular trails in the Alpine Lakes wilderness
area, less than an hour's drive east of Seattle. 
But many hikers denounced the plan, and it was shelved. 

One of the fiercest critics was Ira Spring, co-author of "100 Classic
Hikes in Washington" and several other popular hiking guides. Spring
said those who want to get away from the crowds should hike farther into
the backcountry. 
Last year, at Spring's request, Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., put language
in the Forest Service appropriations bill prohibiting the agency from
restricting access based on solitude. 

This year, Gorton put stronger language in the bill, scolding the Forest
Service for ignoring the previous directive and denouncing solitude
standards as "subjective, artificially set numbers." 

The language has angered some conservationists who say that Gorton is
trying to short-circuit a legitimate debate about crowded wilderness. 

"We feel that an outstanding opportunity for solitude is one of the
principal reasons that we have a wilderness system," said Bill Worf of
Wilderness Watch in Missoula, Mont. "It's really disconcerting that
these kinds of things go through Congress without any debate." 

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