Share Your Hopes for Trails in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Gifford Pinchot National Forest is creating a sustainable trail system plan to guide future recreation opportunities across the forest and to support visits to iconic places like High Rock Fire Lookout, Goat Rocks Wilderness, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens. The forest’s leadership wants to hear from you by Sept. 30 to learn what you value about access to this landscape and where you see opportunities to better meet needs in the future. 

• The benefits of trails
• “Trails benefit individuals, families, communities, and society as a whole. They connect people with each other, themselves, with their community, with their heritage, with their future and with their public lands. The role of the Forest Service is to sustain a vibrant and healthy system of trails, both now and for future generations.”
• — National Strategy for a Sustainable Trail System, United States Forest Service  

The forest is responding to increasing visitation, a need to prioritize limited resources across the 1.3 million acres of the forest and a desire to expand shared stewardship of the forest’s trails among the U.S. Forest Service, nonprofit partners and the public.  WTA appreciates Gifford Pinchot National Forest’s approach to the sustainability of its trail system, and we are excited to deepen our partnership with the forest as we build a blueprint for the future together.

High Rock is a popular destination in the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District of Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Other iconic destinations within the Gifford Pinchot include Mount Adams and Mount Saint Helens. Photo by trip reporter richard.zielke.

The Forest Service’s Shrinking Workforce

According to analysis by the Government Accountability Office, around one quarter of the approximately 159,000 miles of United States Forest Service system trails across the country are maintained to standard in a given year. With current resources unable to support all the trails in the system, we need to develop new strategies to concentrate resources and expand our shared impact. The Forest Service’s leaders in Washington D.C. have called for more collaboration with nonprofits. WTA is an example of one of those partnerships. WTA work party participants contributed over 7,000 hours of volunteer service on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest last year. We believe that our partnership with the Forest Service is a model of collaboration that should be supported and replicated across the National Forest System. We also believe that Congress needs to dedicate more funding to the Forest Service for recreation. In a meeting with WTA staff earlier this year, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore noted that the Forest Service has around 8,000 fewer jobs than it did two decades ago. WTA is working on the national level to get the Forest Service the resources it needs. At the same time, we support the national forest units here in Washington through collaborative planning and trailwork.

• What is a sustainable trail system?
• “A sustainable trail system is a holistic network of diverse physical and social resources comprised of actual on-the ground routes and associated community health and economic benefits. It is a resilient system consisting of a wide array of well-planned, well-designed, well-constructed, and well-managed trails that are supported by a mosaic of public and private interests.”
  — National Strategy for a Sustainable Trail System, United States Forest Service 

Sustainable trails find balance

Sustainable trails exist at the balance between social, natural and economic factors. We need to consider who visits trails, why they visit and how they get there. Ecological factors mean that trails require regular maintenance, as well as responding to the impacts of extreme weather events and climate change. Reliable funding is necessary for beloved trails to stay open and safe. The complexity of this balancing act means that trails should be examined for sustainability on an individual basis, and that this should happen in conversation with local communities and other stakeholders. There is no formula for what makes a sustainable trail. That is why your feedback is critical to creating a plan for trails in Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The forest is asking for your thoughts on a key set of questions. Below are some of WTA’s perspectives on those questions that we are sharing with forest leadership. We encourage you to share your own feedback.
Trail of Two Forests is one of the 13 trails within Gifford Pinchot National Forest that the forest considers accessible. WTA would like to see the forest expand the spectrum of opportunities available for different levels of ability, experience and challenge. Photo by Ryan Ojerio. 

• Speak up
• What do you value about Gifford Pinchot National Forest and its trails?
• Review the Gifford Pinchot Sustainable Trail System Story Map then share your feedback by Sept. 30 by choosing “Proceed as Guest” to leave comments on this interactive map. You can also submit comments via email: SM.FS.GPSustTrails@usda.gov.

WTA's key thoughts 

What is working well?

There are multiple places where Gifford Pinchot National Forest already benefits from networks of interested parties working together for trails. Places like the Upper Cowlitz Valley and Silver Star Mountain. Available funding should target key areas where there is already momentum and a framework to translate funding into sustainable trails.

What concerns do you have about trails?

WTA wants to see the forest provide a wide spectrum of recreational opportunities to meet a variety of experiences and levels of challenge. We want the benefits of being outdoors to reach as many people as possible. Within Gifford Pinchot National Forest, there are only four trails that are more than 1 mile in length that the forest considers accessible. We would like to see this type of opportunity increased. Wheelchair friendly trails also serve families, hikers who are limited on time and those who are new to the experience of exploring our national forests.

What do you think are opportunities to improve trails and recreation?

WTA is interested in the possibility of connecting recreation sites, trails and roads with the goal of making Gifford Pinchot National Forest accessible by public transit. We hope that individuals and families without private vehicles can better connect to the national forest in the future. The current planning process is focused on modernizing the forest’s existing trail systems, but there may be opportunities to pilot some of these ideas in places where new facilities or trail connections are being considered.