As many of you are undoubtedly aware, it has been a rough summer for the United States Forest Service. Before transitioning to work for Evergreen in 2022, for five seasons I was on the Wilderness Trail Crew for the Chelan Ranger District on the Wenatchee Okanogan National Forest.  For the last seven seasons the trail crew had between four and six paid crew and two interns from the Mountain Adams Institute that worked on trails roughly half time.  The trail crew's mission is to keep the 250 miles of maintained trail in the district as good as possible.  This year there is effectively no trail crew.  

Evergreen has a statewide grant with a general purpose to maintain whatever trail needs maintaining. For our organization this is usually used for multiuse forest service trails that we like to bike.  However, for one week, I was fortunate enough to accompany some of my former USFS coworkers on a backpacking trip to logout the PCT.  Our Adhoc crew consisted of; the FS Chelan Trails Coordinator whose job is supposed to be managing the non-existent trail crew and partner groups who are now more than ever heavily relied upon. The Entiat River Ranger District’s Trails Coordinator who has their own area of trails to look after and many dirtbikes with no crew to ride them. There was also a former Chelan Trails Crew Member but this year due to the hiring freeze they are an unpaid intern with Mountain Adams Institute, and there was myself, a trail builder for Evergreen. On this trip we were also accompanied for two days by two volunteer wilderness rangers. Their main tasks are patrolling the backcountry and doing light logout and reconnaissance on trail conditions.

The PCT in the Glacier Peak Wilderness of the Chelan Ranger District was not logged out last year due trail closures due to the Pioneer fire along Lake Chelan.  This trip was an opportunity for me to refresh myself on crosscut use and get recertified. More importantly this trip was a way for myself and Evergreen as an organization to help out the Forest Service who are arguably the most important partners we have east of the Cascade Crest.  These are not ordinary times.

We started our hike to the PCT from Holden Village stopping at Lyman Lake for a night. The only tree on that section was a cottonwood a beaver fell across a bridge.  However, on the PCT we cut dozens of trees, many of which were very large. The forest type, especially for the lower 2/3rds of the trail, is almost like an old growth westside type forest with trees up to 9ft diameters. It is almost a rainforest back there, and it felt that way weathering a night of heavy rain. The largest logs we had to cut with our cross cut were about 3 feet in diameter.  For two of our seven days, the wilderness rangers joined us, their presence made the difference in not needing to cut one of the large logs a third time.  Unlike most chainsaw logout where you can easily cut trees multiple times to make smaller pieces to remove from the trail, with a cross cut especially on a large diameter log the less you cut the less time it takes to clear the trail. For this reason it is not uncommon to have multiple people pushing pieces of trees in excess of several thousand pounds. Often we construct skids and use levers to clear the logs as well. It is strenuous and dangerous work but once you get a massive chunk of tree off the trail it is extremely satisfying. In addition to logging out the trail, I also dug a new toilet hole at a popular wilderness camp about 15 miles out of the Stehekin Valley, and we also restored the trail in places where brush was pushing users down onto steep sideslopes below creating erosion issues.

The amount of work that has been done in the district has been impressive in spite of the obstacles.  There is a heavy reliance on partner groups such as WTA, and the Northwest Motorcycle Association to name a few. A common misconception is that the amount of funding that the districts have has been severely cut, but the truth is many districts including Chelan have funding for trail maintenance. In many districts trail work is funded by grants, not direct federal funding. Some grants have been held up in the name of ‘efficiency’ but mostly it's the hiring freeze that's inflicting the most pain. Last fall there was a freeze on all non-fire 1039 employees, which is government speak for seasonal employees.  1039 essentially means a seasonal worker who cannot work more than 1039 hours in a season because at 1040 hours they would be eligible for year round benefits. The 1039 hiring freeze effectively prevents any district from having a trail crew with seasonal employees. 1039s have always been the majority of trail crews.  Seasonal workers are, and always have been the backbone of the USFS and they largely are who get the work done out in the mountains.  Their absence has been greatly felt this year.  Partner groups like Evergreen, The Methow Valley Trails Collaborative and WTA this year are employing many laid off field going USFS workers.  They are employed by these non-profit organizations to do a similar job that they were doing before, but with an extra layer of bureaucracy because the forest service is often restricted in who and how they can hire partners to do the work that their trail crews generally would perform.

I am very grateful for my time with the USFS and being sent out on hitch with them is a highlight of my season. In practical terms, being recertied at a high level for using crosscut saws will be useful for Evergreen, as there are many situations in remote areas or during firedanger chainsaw bans that large folding saws are a practical and effective tool in trail maintenance. With the recertification I received, Evergreen can expand its saw program to include non-motorized saws which will continue to become an important and viable option for the work that we do in many scenarios.

Thanks again to Evergreen admin, the Methow’s Evergreen Board, and those who remain at the USFS working extra hard with less resources.  It was wonderful working with them again deep in the Glacier Peak Wilderness.