[Sculpin]

[Kim Brown]

I stand corrected about that trail not receiving maintenance. USFS staff member said it was logged about on a fairly regular basis (not every year, but about every 2) and contractors sent in for other work. This was up until the road closure after the mudslide.

[Roy Jensen]

All friends of trails should review the detailed project description posted by the Forest Service. The proposed project area is located in the southern portion of the "Finney Block" an area once covered by vast interconnected trail network. Today the area is essentially a large tree farm and logging has destroyed nearly the entire historical trail network. Now the Forest Service wants to eliminate the last remnants of the former trail system. The project proposes to decommission the Mt Higgins and Round Mtn trails and study expansion of the mountain biking trail network around North Mtn. I can see no reason to object to expanding the trail network around North Mtn. I am strongly opposed to decommissioning the Mt Higgins and Round Mtn trails. Removing these trails from the Forest Service administrative trail list will make it almost impossible to restore these trails in the future. The history of this trail system is a reminder how the collective trail community (users and managers) have failed to maintain and preservative our most precious resource. In 1939 there was about 110 miles of trail on the Forest Service books within the Finney Block. By 1970, the trail system shrunk to just four trails with less than 12 miles. If Mt Higgins and Round Mtn trails are lost, it will not be long before the remaining trails (Finney Peak and Gee Point) will be written off as well since they also in very bad shape. Please write and tell the Forest Service no to decommissioning the Mt Higgins/Round Mtn trails. If this trend continues, we will lose most of the non wilderness trails under Forest Service management. This despite the fact that the demand for hiking trails has never been greater.

[Sky Hiker]

Hate to see trails abandoned unless a more logical one could be used instead

[Sculpin]

Many of the biggest trees left are in the "Mountain Hemlock Zone" (which attests to the intensity of past logging), and the timber companies want to cut them. They ran into a problem in the past with the federal sustainable harvest requirements after biologists determined that trees would not grow back any time soon up there. What to do? Find a workaround of course! I actually think the FS is poking fun at us here, "let them eat huckleberries ha ha!:" [from the scoping letter] Proposed Forest Plan Amendment "The 1990 Forest Plan standards and guidelines for MA 19, Mountain Hemlock Zone, were developed to include a timber management study, and do not provide for silvicultural treatments for other resource objectives, such as huckleberries. The Forest Plan called for the development of a study plan to determine what portion of the mountain hemlock plant associations are tentatively suited for commercial timber production. The study plan was never completed, and the Mountain Hemlock Zone therefore remains unsuitable for timber production. However, these high-elevation areas can be well suited for native huckleberry species, which need moderate to full sun exposure for flowering and berry production. Huckleberries provide benefits to native pollinators and other wildlife, and are of social and cultural importance. A programmatic amendment to the Forest Plan is needed to modify plan components, removing the condition of consistency with the non-existent Study Plan to allow stand improvement thinning in MA19 across the Forest, when the primary objective is to restore habitat for huckleberries [...]"

[rossb]

I've never been on the Round Mountain trail, but I've been up to Higgins a few time. I just want to confirm what Kim wrote towards the beginning of this thread. The trail is truly outstanding as you get close to Higgins. It is excellent old growth forest (and I've never even been to the lake). It would be a shame to see the area logged, or the trail abandoned. To be clear, the section leading up to that point is not pleasant. You start by walking (or biking) the road. As you leave the road and get on the trail, it can be overgrown by blackberry bushes (although it does receive a little bit of trimming). There is an early view spot with what is now historical graffiti (a carving in the rock from 1917). This makes a nice turn-around spot. But the really good stuff happens later (even if you now have to go past a slide to get there). The potential is there to make this a very nice trail. You would have to do work on the initial section, but at worst it would be like the Ira Spring trail. That trail starts on a logging road, then goes through second growth, finally emerging into beautiful (and very popular) old growth. With some work, the same thing could happen with this trail. Given that so many people are hiking these days, it seems crazy to abandon a hike that is a relatively easy drive from Puget Sound (with a good parking area) and has a very nice existing trail section. I'm not saying that the initial section has to follow the current route (the Ira Spring trail doesn't follow the old Mason Lake path) but that makes the case for a new trail even stronger. Trail work closer to the road on second growth forest is much cheaper and easier to build than trails deep in the wilderness (or Wilderness). The Forest Service should keep the trail in the short term, and in the long term build a better one.