FOREST SERVICE: Bipartisan House bill seeks to address trail maintenance backlog
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
E&E: Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.) have reintroduced a bill to enhance the capacity of volunteers, fire crews and outfitters to rehabilitate the Forest Service's eroding and overgrown trails.
The bill, which was first introduced last June, would seek to address a deferred trail maintenance backlog at the Forest Service that the Government Accountability Office has estimated grew from $224 million in 2007 to $314 million in 2012.
GAO's 2013 report found one-fourth of the Forest Service's 158,000 miles of trails met the agency's standards. It recommended the agency find ways to better leverage its nongovernment partners.
The Lummis-Walz bill would require the Forest Service to develop a national strategy for doubling within five years the amount of trail work performed by volunteers and partners.
It would also amend a 1972 law to ensure that volunteers for partner organizations are covered under the Forest Service's policy for liability and tort claims, which is aimed at increasing work on the ground.
The legislation also calls for studies into the use of wildland firefighters to conduct trail work during the offseason and allowing recreational outfitters to pay for part or all of their permits on public lands by constructing, improving and maintaining trails.
"As we look to stretch taxpayer dollars during these tight fiscal times, we need to make sure we maximize use of all our existing resources," Lummis said in a statement. "Refocusing on volunteers and partners to help the Forest Service is a sure fire way of making progress on the backlog and opening up these trails to public access."
The bill carries the support of the Wilderness Society, the American Hiking Society, the American Motorcyclist Association, horseback riding groups and the America Outdoors Association, a trade group representing America's outfitters and guides.
The bill last year did not receive a hearing.
