House bill pushes Forest Service to improve trail maintenance

A bill encouraging the U.S. Forest Service to improve its trail maintenance received widespread support from Montana outdoors groups this week. The Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, The Wilderness Society and others heralded the introduction of the National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act by Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, and Tim Walz, D-Minnesota. The bill would expand the use of volunteer help on trail maintenance and codify how the Forest Service prioritizes its maintenance backlog. Last year, a Government Accountability Office report found the Forest Service had a $314 million deferred-maintenance backlog, along with $210 million in unfinished annual maintenance, capital improvements and operations in its trails program. The GAO reported the agency had done some maintenance on 37 percent of its 158,000 miles of trail in fiscal 2012. Only one in four of those trails met the Forest Service’s own standards, the report stated...more