Mt Hood National Forest Campgrounds

[forestkeeper]

Maybe the NWFP and the Discovery Pass had good intentions in the beginning, but it's time for a revision due to recent budget cuts, adding concessionaires with their own self proposed fees, etc.

I think other government departments, including Homeland Security, are sucking all of these funds and budgets dry with the wars abroad and on our borders.

[Guy]

OMG!!!!

The Forest Service is taken all the way to Appellate Court, then the Court berates them, the Forest Service decides to ignore the ruling, and the public defends them for violating the law. It's more than a matter of principle, it's an issue of disregarding the law by a federal agency. No wonder USFS decided to ignore the court, the public is so accustomed to corruption that it's viewed as being acceptable.

No one has debated whether or not the USFS is violating the law in these responses, just that it's okay to violate the law. So, how many laws can I violate and still have the public support me? If I could have a pre-approved list of acceptable torts that sure would take the guesswork out of which laws you all feel are acceptable to ignore. I've been ignorantly going though life thinking that laws should be obeyed. No wonder I haven't been as successful as I had once hoped.

By all means, keep this blog alive with your acceptance of corruption by USFG. I find it very, very interesting reading.

I'm with you on this one Big Bear. That being said I still feel coerced to buy & use the Forest Pass because I can't afford the expense & missed time from work to fight a ticket. I think the FS know that most people are in the same boat as me which is why they continue to demand use of the pass. I was ticketed about five years ago at the Top Spur Trailhead on a Labor Day Monday.

Id like to hear an official statement from either org.

Better not hold your breath on that one Koda

[justpeachy]

Why would the BLM or USFS need unpaid volunteers to maintain the trails, if there was money going specifically for trail maintenance?

I don't know about the other forests, but MHNF does have a four-man trail maintenance crew that makes the rounds in summer.

[drm]

Maybe the NWFP and the Discovery Pass had good intentions, but I have never seen any of that money.

Is that an assumption or a fact? Do you know for a fact that you have never hiked a trail that NWFP funds helped to maintain? As to the Discovery Pass, I share many people's criticisms of it, but Washington's state parks would mostly be closed without it. In fact, they were closed and gated briefly before the Discovery Pass was started.

Why would the BLM or USFS need unpaid volunteers to maintain the trails, if there was money going specifically for trail maintenance

Maybe because there are more trails than either can fix alone? Volunteer groups also cannot handle heavier-duty tasks. The WTA is not certified to use chain saws for example. Larger bridges require the kinds of equipment that volunteer groups cannot bring to bear. Otoh, miles of brushing and treading are well suited to volunteers, some of whom may not be physically fit for more intensive work.

I'm heading out in a few hours for a 4-day backpack, so no more responses from me on this issue.

[retired jerry]

"I don't know about the other forests, but MHNF does have a four-man trail maintenance crew that makes the rounds in summer."

I've run into a four-man crew above Mt Hood Meadows on Timberline Trail.

They cut this massive tree with chainsaw. I was impressed.

As if this thread hasn't already gone down the rat hole, they said if they could use chainsaw in wilderness area it would make it much eaiser. Make the limited funds for trail maintenance go further.

They could do what they could without chainsaw, then do one day that was less crowded and remove a few big trees. If I was walking through wilderness area and just happened to be there on the day they were using chainsaw it wouldn't bother me.

[Lumpy]

They could do what they could without chainsaw, then do one day that was less crowded and remove a few big trees. If I was walking through wilderness area and just happened to be there on the day they were using chainsaw it wouldn't bother me.

Act of Congress?

[retired jerry]

"Act of Congress?"

Yes

But it will never happen

[Koda]

They could do what they could without chainsaw, then do one day that was less crowded and remove a few big trees. If I was walking through wilderness area and just happened to be there on the day they were using chainsaw it wouldn't bother me.

this would solve a lot of trail clearing issues here in the PNW

[Guy]

They could do what they could without chainsaw, then do one day that was less crowded and remove a few big trees. If I was walking through wilderness area and just happened to be there on the day they were using chainsaw it wouldn't bother me.

this would solve a lot of trail clearing issues here in the PNW

Plus 1 on that!

[Koda]

Id like to hear an official statement from either org.

Better not hold your breath on that one Koda

not holding my breath at all I just think that any org that must work closely with the USFS to meet their objectives isn't going to verbally tell it like it is to most folks including their own volunteers.