INTO THE WILDERNESS: Title II Funds and Wilderness Trails
The Southwest Idaho RAC recommended some Title II funds be used to improve trails in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area. This recommendation came in the spring of 2011 and the money reached the ground this summer with a trail crew using skill and brawn to improve many trails.
This project funds 159 miles of patrols and deferred trail maintenance/heavy maintenance on trails within Elmore and Boise Counties. The project is needed to address a critical backlog of trail maintenance due to years of fires, wind events, beetle-kill trees and neglect. Forest Service crews, youth crews and volunteer groups have been used to work on the trails but these efforts have barely been able to scratch the surface. In 2010 a large Federal earmark was given to the Sawtooth NRA to address declining trail conditions. Much headway was made; however, many of the trails were in such poor condition (in some burned locations there were up to 400 trees/mile) that progress was slow and many miles of trail are still in need of attention.
With the proposed funding these trails can be brought up to standard, will be easier to maintain in the future and will be made available for the public. The trails being addressed include, but are not limited to the following:
- Baron Creek Trail #101,
- South Fork Payette River Trail #101,
- Mattingly Creek Trail #034,
- Little Queens River Trail #454, S
- cenic Lake Trail #456,
- Queens River Trail #458,
- Joe Dailey Creek Trail #469,
- Middle Fork Boise River Trail #450,
- Benedict Creek Trail #462,
- North Fork Baron Creek Trail #478,
- Trail Creek Trail #453,
- North Fork Boise River Trail #465,
- Ten Mile Ridge Trail #467,
- Johnson Creek Trail #459,
- Bayhouse Trail #457,
- Pats Lake Trail #494,
- Neinmeyer Trail #455
Funding will also support patrols by a trained Wilderness Ranger to perform light trail maintenance, clean and naturalize campsites and contact approximately 400 visitors with the objective of improving visitors’ stewardship of the wilderness/backcountry and their safety.