Washington's Top 10 Threatened Hiking Trails
As the hiking season kicks into full gear with the first day of summer, some of Washington’s most fantastic hiking trails are getting extra attention today with the release of Hike It – Ten Threatened Trails in Washington State. The new report by the state's leading hiking organization, Washington Trails Association (WTA), names the state's top 10 threatened hiking trails and offers common sense solutions to help them. The report encourages hikers to get out and experience the beauty and importance of these trails firsthand, and urges policymakers to act for their recovery and protection.
The full report is available as a PDF document at http://www.wta.org/hikeit
"Trails are vulnerable to a number of threats, from intense weather, to neglect, to management decisions that compromise the experience of hikers," said Jonathan Guzzo, Advocacy Director for WTA. "How our trails endure these threats often comes down to funding. For the past several years, Congress and the state legislature have not stepped up to the plate and adequately funded outdoor recreation. You can see evidence of this on almost any park and forest in Washington. The ongoing decline in public funding for trails can no longer be hiked around."
That's why the Hike It report is aimed primarily at the state's hikers, a number which is estimated to be in the millions.
"Our mountains and forests can provide us with a lifetime of exploration, but we need trails to get us there. Each of the ten trails in the Hike It report is a unique wildlands experience, and each one needs the support of committed hikers," said Guzzo. "The most powerful advocate for a trail is a person who has been there and experienced it and developed a passion for it. Forest Service staff and members of Congress will listen to them."
According to the report, the ten most threatened hiking trails in Washington are:
- Goat Mountain Trail, Gifford Pinchot National Forest
- Barclay Lake, Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
- Upper Mad River Trail, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
- Dosewallips River-Road Trail, Olympic National Forest
- Rachel Lake Trail, Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
- Thorp Mountain Trail, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
- Big Greider Lake, Washington state DNR land, near Sultan
- Juniper Dunes Wilderness, Bureau of Land Management, near Pasco
- Crater Lakes, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
- Gothic Basin, Washington state DNR land, near Sultan
Threats to these trails range from an imminent mine proposal near Mt. St. Helens, to a lack of state commitment to our Natural Resource Conservation Area system.
Among the most threatened is the Goat Mountain Trail, just outside the Mount St Helens National Monument. The 10-mile round-trip hike combines high, scenic views and lush carpets of wildflowers with an up-close lesson in geologic history. Idaho General Mines, Inc. would like to locate a 3,000 acre copper and molybdenum mine on Goat Mountain, destroying the mountain and trail, and potentially causing untold harm to fisheries and water supplies in the area. The Hike It report urges hikers to explore this trail and see its value up close, then contact the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to tell them that Goat Mountain is not an appropriate site for mining.
The Thorp Mountain Trail near Cle Elum is situated in the Thorp Roadless Area, though not according to the current reinventory of roadless areas conducted as part of the Wenatchee-Okanogan-Colville Forest Plan. This reinventory cuts a whopping 150,000 acres from the roadless base across the Forest, and 11,422 from the Thorp Roadless Area. That means those acres will be open for new development. WTA’s report emphasizes the solution is for the Forest to take a new look at the reinventory, because the criteria used was inconsistently applied, and in many cases arbitrary.
Gothic Basin and Big Greider Lake are two of 112 Natural Resource Conservation Areas (NRCAs) in Washington state managed by the state Department of Natural Resource (DNR). Both hikes are easily accessed by nearby urban areas and provide excellent opportunities for short day hikes or backcountry overnight hikes. The problem is these lands are woefully underfunded by the state legislature. Funds are needed to preserve the high country environment in these areas and to bring both of these trails up to standard for hikers.
"Our trails don't exist in a vacuum," said David Schoenborn, Advocacy Chair for WTA and an avid hiker in Vancouver, Washington. "Trails are part of the landscape through which they thread. They are sustained by the combined efforts of thousands of volunteers and dedicated land management staff, and many of them live or die by the funding decisions made in Washington, DC and Olympia."
Right now, these trails need boots on them, so that hikers will be moved to protect them.
Since 1993, WTA volunteers have performed 542,102 hours of trail work on public lands in Washington State, from the Olympic Peninsula to the Okanogan National Forest. This equals an in kind contribution of almost six million dollars. Hikers wishing to volunteer to help restore a threatened trail can learn more at www.wta.org, or call (206) 625-1367.
