Trail bill encourages more volunteer efforts

A bill that would encourage more volunteer efforts and could potentially allow outfitters to do trail work on national forests in lieu of paying some fees has found support in Montana.

The National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Steve Daines, directs to the Forest Service to create a strategy to “significantly increase the role of volunteers and partners in trail maintenance.”

The goal of the bill is to increase trail maintenance by volunteers and partners by 100 percent within five years.

Locally, volunteer organizations like the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, the Montana Wilderness Association and Back Country Horsemen of the Flathead volunteer thousands of hours each year for trail projects.

Even so, the bill “might help streamline some things in prioritization on where we need to be focused,” Montana Wilderness Association executive director Brian Sybert said.

The bill also calls for creating a pilot program that would allow outfitters to offset some user fees for trail work.

Outfitters and guides already maintain thousands of miles of trails each year, Montana Outfitters and Guides Association executive director Mac Minard said. His group supports the bill.

But fees paid by outfitters are used to hire professional Forest Service trail crew workers. How those funds would be made up remains to be seen.

The impetus for the bill comes from a Government Accountability Office report last year that revealed the Forest Service nationwide has a $314 million backlog of trail maintenance work and a $210 million backlog in annual maintenance, capital improvements and operations.

The Flathead National Forest has 2,257 miles of trails, including motorized and ski trails but only maintained about 57 to 70 percent to Forest Service standards over the past few years.

“Like most Montanans, I love to hike, I love to hunt and I love to fish. Unfortunately, the maintenance of trails isn’t always as good as it could be, making some areas difficult or even impossible to access,” Daines said. “The National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act allows the Forest Service to leverage their existing resources and give Montanans more opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors by improving the upkeep of our vast trail system in national forests and wilderness areas.”

The Forest Service had no comment on the bill, Flathead National Forest spokesman Wade Muehlhof said.