Hells Canyon (and Eagle Cap) trails set for clearing

[Water]

BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) - Hikers might come across some things this summer in Northeastern Oregon's mountains that they've perhaps never seen there.

Workers.

They'll be wielding shovels and chain saws and assorted other implements, and doing their level best to clear trails of the most obnoxious obstacles.

Wind-felled spruce trees three-feet through the middle, for instance. One of those, sprawled across a two-foot-wide trail, can stymie the nimblest backpacker, and will turn back any horse rider.

The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest's most enthusiastic trail-maintenance campaign in more than a decade -- a campaign fueled by $1.6 million from last year's federal stimulus bill -- is progressing nicely, said Dan Ermovick, the forest's recreation manager.

Within the next few weeks, forest officials hope to hire contractors to remove logs, roll aside boulders and do other basic maintenance this summer and next on several hundred miles of trails in Hells Canyon and the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

Officials are reviewing bids that contractors turned in last month, Ermovick said Thursday.

"If things go right and the weather cooperates, the bulk of the trails will be maintained in one fell swoop," he said. "It's just a huge benefit to visitors, and to the local economy."

Ermovick said that although he hasn't perused the bids, the Wallowa-Whitman did receive at least one for each of the 15 or so trail-maintenance projects.

Forest officials divided the task, which involves more than 1,000 miles of trail, into more manageable chunks ranging from 17 miles to 67 miles.

In the past, the Wallowa-Whitman mainly relied on seasonal Forest Service workers to clear trails.

Some trails, mainly ones in Hells Canyon, have regularly gone without maintenance for three years or more.

But with stimulus dollars available, the forest can hire contractors to supplement seasonal agency crews, with the result that dozens more miles of trails can be cleared in a single summer.

There's also enough money to more than double the Forest Service's seasonal trail crews for the next two summers, Ermovick said.

Wallowa-Whitman officials also plan to hire contractors to work on trails in the Elkhorn Mountains near Baker City, and the Monument Rock Wilderness south of Unity, although not until the summer of 2011, he said.

But trails in the Elkhorns and Monument Rock will get extra attention this coming summer, as well.

A youth crew will be assigned to clear all the trails in Elkhorns, with assistance from a seasonal Forest Service crew, Ermovick said.

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[markesc]

Always good to hear of this! Maybe a return to CCC era thinking...