Forest Roads: The Future (MBSNF meetings)

I can probably whip something together but I'm a little fuzzy as to what you want as an overlay. Lowell's list of roads? Or...?

I was at the REI meeting on Saturday.  The summary by "puzzlr" at the bottom of the page mentioned by Scole is very good.  Here is the link again:

NWHikers.net discussion on MBSNF Sustainable Roads process

There is an online questionnaire that you can (and should!) fill out, accessed through the following page:

mbssustainableroads.wordpress.com/questionnaire/

The link to the questionnaire is in the first paragraph on that page.  The questionnaire will guide you through the same process that we went through at the REI meeting. The in-person meeting was interesting because you could ask questions, interact with the other participants, and see what other people were thinking.

At the meeting, they allowed us to designate up to eight places that were important to us and explain why. (The online questionnaire gives you only five choices.) I picked locations from the list that I posted earlier in this thread. It was hard to pick just eight places. I was kind of amazed to be the only person at my table to pick the Coleman Glacier trailhead, Ruth Mountain, the N Fork Sauk River (Glacier Peak) and several other spots that I particularly like. But that's what the process is for.

Everybody should submit their ideas. The MBSNF staff will use this information to create a "human layer" to overlay the landscape, to better understand where people go and why and how they get there.

So I'm looking the MBSNF South map and I notice that the old Middle For Snoqulamie road is not actually in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.  I was always under the impression that they closed that road to vehicle traffic because it was in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and vehicular access didn't fit with that management plan.  But it's not.

So why did MBSNF close it?

Also, is WNF running a similar query?

So why did MBSNF close it?

I don't have an answer to that. I haven't paid much attention to the Middle Fork situation.

Also, is WNF running a similar query?

Yes.

According to Jennifer Eberlien, MBSNF supervisor, all the national forests have to address the sustainable roads issue. But they don't have to do it the same way.

Colville, Wenatchee/Okanogan, Gifford Pinchot and Olympic will all be addressing these questions, but I don't know how or when. I hope some of our Wenatchee friends will let us know when they hear more about it.

Thanks Lowell.

This all ties in to the access and BC skier advocacy issues so many of us are concerned about. I was dismayed when they closed the Middle Fork Road because it made tours, traverses, and summer trips around that drainage much more difficult. Also my inner hoon enjoyed the 4x4 aspect of that "road". I filled out the survey on MBSNF, hopefully something similar will develop for the other forests.

I like Lowell's list but I would include Canyon Creek Road and Middle Fork Nooksack (FSR 38) on the list.  There is some excellent terrain that can be accessed from both roads (but Canyon Creek is becoming a distant memory).  Check Red Fred for some of the climbs that start from CCR.  They are putting money into repairing it this summer so I have a hard time believing that it will no longer be maintained after that.

I would actually rather have CCR than Church Mountain because more terrain can be accessed from CCR than CM.