Hikers Weigh in on Travel Management on the Okanogan-Wenatchee

The Wenatchee-Okanogan National Forest is in the process of substantially increasing its system of motorized trails and travel routes—and it’s imperative that hikers speak up during this process to ensure that motorized recreation on the eastern flank of the Cascades does not happen at the expense of hiking trails.

Hikers in Whistling Pig Meadow, by Karl Forsgaard.

The Forest recently released a draft map of proposed routes, both motorized and non-motorized. Take a look at them here.

In some places, the Forest Service has been careful to separate out motorized route development from wilderness and roadless areas. In other places, these elements overlap, creating the potential for user conflict, law enforcement problems, and resource damage.  One such case actually routes dirtbikes and ATVs on a road that leads to a Pasayten Wilderness-accessing trail. These changes are an open invitation to motorized trail users to trespass in Wilderness, and we are deeply concerned that they will lead to future conflicts, enforcement problems and resource damage.

WTA is also concerned that some trails being added to the motorized system are user-built, unauthorized trails. The Forest Service must conduct an environmental review of each trail, as mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), before adding any unauthorized trails to the system.

The Forest Service has taken pains to preserve most existing dispersed camping sites while closing the most damaging. In addition to these management changes, the Forest Service must decommission bootleg trails that have been built between many of these dispersed sites, most often by motorized trail users.

Devil’s Backbone from Middle Tommy Trail, by Karl Forsgaard.

Finally, WTA is pleased to see that in this most recent map of proposed routes, the Forest Service has scaled back a proposal that was truly detrimental to hikers. These maps do significantly less damage to the hiking experience, generally speaking. In some cases, particularly in the Entiat region, we believe the hiking experience will be improved by the proposed changes. We appreciate that new motorized recreation opportunities are generally isolated from non-motorized trails, roadless areas and Wilderness.

WTA is compiling detailed, trail-specific comments on this proposal, and we encourage you to do the same. If what you see on these maps would discourage you from using particular non-motorized trails, or if you see potential user conflict and enforcement issues, be sure to let the Forest Service know.  You can use the comment form found here, or write your own comments and mail them to the address given on the form.