Have You Ever Seen A Forest Ranger In The Backwoods?

[Jane]

(Edit) Don't miss my point: More and more people want access to the mountains and trails but instead of access, we get restrictions, limits, fees - and few new trails - certainly not in keeping with the increase in demand. If more folks want to climb St Helens, for instance, why not establish a new route or two - and expand the parking area, improve the road access and facilities? Personally, I will never "run out of" places to go and new things to do but I consider what has been going on to be mismanagement - and its aggravating.

[/quote]


Oh of course not Don,I was totally giving you a hard time! The frustrations with the management and accessability is on-going, and many of them (the rangers) are frustrated too with their restrictions You have many good ideas, hopefully hikers and volunteers can help the system when they can.

[clarke187]

The forest service indeed still does hire volunteer , as well as some paid, wilderness rangers every year. They are just few and far between, thats all. There are a couple on the Mt Hood NF.

[Aimless]

It is unbelievably easy to criticize the Forest Service, but the root of the problem is that the agency has been handed a huge mess of conflicting policy mandates and cannot possibly please all the constituencies they work with. As the Congress and various administrations swing around between Democrats and Republicans, each change in the political winds adds a new set of laws and policies that must be layered on top of the old laws and regulations. The only thing both parties seem to agree on is cutting the FS budget.

I don't like everything the FS does, but often what I like least has been imposed on them from above.

[justpeachy]

In the nearly three years I've been hiking here since I moved back from BC, I've never seen a backcountry ranger. In July this summer we did see a ranger hanging out at the picnic table at the Marion Lake trailhead, making sure people got wilderness permits before starting their hikes. He had a big pack with him so he was either getting ready to head into the backcountry or had just come from there.

[greglief]

For what little it may be worth, I saw the same backcountry ranger on two consecutive days while backpacking at Pamelia Lake / Hunt's Cove (Mt Jefferson Wilderness) in early August. That is a Limited Entry area which requires a special permit. He said that he was in that area nearly every weekend.

[Grannyhiker]

Mt. Hood NF has a volunteer "Wilderness Steward Program," in which you are trained to "educate" people about proper wilderness behavior. You have to commit to 4 weekends per summer in the more popular wilderness destinations. The FS no longer furnishes gear, just a T-shirt, cap and name tag. And of course you aren't empowered to write tickets. Some experience in "Dealing with Difficult People" is probably a good prerequisite. They do include some role-playing in the training. Here's more about the program: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mthood/voluntee ... .shtml#Get