Playing catch-up

Work to fix overgrown trails, failing roads and aging campground infrastructure will start soon on the Nez Perce-Clearwater and Umatilla national forests.

Long delayed maintenance on national forest infrastructure across the country is being funded by the 2020 passage of the Great American Outdoors Act. The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District but opposed by Rep. Russ Fulcher and Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho, steers $285 million over five years to the agency to help it address a backlog of deferred maintenance.

On the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest, 10 projects were funded for fiscal year 2021 that started in October. They include things like clearing trails, repairing problems along the Lolo Motorway, Magruder Corridor and the Elk City Wagon Road, fixing crumbling wilderness trailhead facilities and beginning work to repair access roads to the trailheads for the Selway-Bitterroot and Gospel Hump wilderness areas.

Several campgrounds will get needed attention that will include things like repairing failing water systems and upgrading weathered signs, bathrooms and picnic tables. Water access sites along the Lochsa and Salmon rivers will see similar work, and Forest Service facilities at Lolo Pass Visitor Center, Lochsa Historic Ranger Station and the Moose Creek Ranger Station in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness will have lingering problems addressed.

“This is all deferred maintenance,” said Carol Hennessey, who oversees a wide range of recreation programs for the forest. “This isn’t new construction. If we have to add something new to address the maintenance we might be able to do that, but that is not our focus at all. Our focus is getting stuff back up to standard.”

Some of the projects funded for fiscal year 2021 are part of what is likely to be several years of funding. For example, Hennessey said this year’s spending will include design and engineering studies that will pave the way for fixing the Indian Hill and Big Fog roads. Both roads provide access to wilderness trailheads high above the Selway River. They have suffered landslides and are closed to full-sized vehicles. The engineering and design work will guide requests for future funding.

On the Umatilla National Forest a 25-year-old bridge on the Burnt Cabin Trail will be replaced, and about 33-miles of the Blue MountainsScenic Byway on the John Day Ranger District will be chip-sealed.

The act was passed in August 2020 and took effect immediately and right before the end of the fiscal year. That meant officials from forests across the country had to race to meet tight deadlines as they applied for projects under the first year of funding. Then they had to turn around almost immediately and apply for projects to be funded in fiscal year 2021. That meant public comment periods for the first two years of projects were truncated.

But Hennessey said the agency did receive good public input including strong support for both trails and wilderness trailheads.

“That really encouraged us,” she said.

Each year, officials at the agency pick the projects they think best meet the spirit of the act and forward them to the secretary of Agriculture for approval.

“Millions of people each year enjoy forests and grasslands, and these investments will promote public-private partnerships, tourism and recreation, protect public lands, and ensure our national forests are accessible to all,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak. “These investments will also serve as a catalyst for rural economic development and employment opportunities.”

The projects chosen by the agency and the secretary are forwarded to Congress for final approval.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

“This is all deferred maintenance. This isn’t new construction. If we have to add something new to address the maintenance we might be able to do that, but that is not our focus at all. Our focus is getting stuff back up to standard.”

Carol Hennessey, who oversees a wide range of recreation programs for the forests