GAO report: Flathead trails better than average

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, only a quarter of trails on national forests meet Forest Service standards, but trail conditions on the Flathead National Forest are better than that.

The Flathead Forest has 2,257 miles of trails, including motorized and ski trails, said Becky Smith-Powell, the Forest’s recreation program manager.

Last year, the Forest was able to maintain 1,300 miles of those trails to Forest Service standards, down from 1,600 miles in 2011. That’s about 57 to 70 percent of all the trails.

Trails that don’t meet standards can cause negative impacts on the environment —namely severe erosion and braiding, where hikers make smaller routes next to the trail.

Bad trails also can pose safety risks, from downed trees to lost hikers. Lesser used trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness might not be any better than a game trail, and they might disappear altogether.

While trail conditions in the Flathead Forest are better than the national average, the Forest hasn’t escaped budget cuts. The trails budget was $477,000 in 2012. A little more than half of that went to capital investment, and the rest went to staff. The budget this year was slashed 23 percent to $363,000.

A lot of money for trails never gets out of Washington, D.C. The GAO report found that about one-third of trail funds was held at the national level for overhead costs.

Nationwide, the Forest Service has about 158,000 miles of trails and a deferred maintenance backlog of more than $300 million. The Flathead Forest has more trails than it can maintain, the GAO reported.

The Flathead Forest has a two-pronged approach to trail maintenance. Several districts hire trail crews — Spotted Bear has the most with 25 to 30 trail crew members, Tally Lake has the least, a foreman but no crew, and Hungry Horse and Glacier View each have seven-person crews.

The Forest relies heavily on volunteers — off-road vehicle groups, bicycle groups, Backcountry Horsemen of the Flathead and the Bob Marshall Foundation all do critical trail work, Smith-Powell noted.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, for example, completed 176 miles of trail work in 2012, Foundation director Carol Treadwell said. About 300 to 400 volunteers work for the Foundation on trails every year.

In most cases, the Foundation trains volunteers right alongside Forest Service crews, Treadwell said. For every $1 the Forest spends on a volunteer, it gets back $3.50 in labor. Volunteers aren’t entirely free — they’re covered under the Forest Service’s workmen’s compensation program while they’re in the woods. The Forest Service also provides office space to the Foundation in Hungry Horse.

The Forest Service and the Bob Marshall Foundation have been successfully working together for 17 years, something the rest of the country could benefit from, according to the GAO. And with dwindling budgets, the Forest Service might not have a choice.