Forum Index > Public Lands Stewardship > New logging roads / Upgrade old logging roads?
 Reply to topic
Previous :: Next Topic
Author Message
Stefan
Member
Member


Joined: 17 Dec 2001
Posts: 5084 | TRs | Pics
Stefan
Member
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 3:28 pm 
Hey I have a question about logging roads. I am a mountaineer dude who does a lot of climbing. I NEED LOGGING ROADS for my activity. There are certain mountains out there that are best accessed by a logging road. There is no way I would like to climb a mountain this year, only to find out that next year they will reopen the road for more logging thereby making the road driveable--and easier for me to climb a mountain. Does anybody (maybe LOGGERMAN) have information about which roads that have been abandoned will be upgraded for logging sales in the future? Where do I go for information like this? Do the National Forest Service Management Districts make public notice about which areas will be logged in the future?

Art is an adventure.
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
aestivate
Member
Member


Joined: 19 Mar 2004
Posts: 199 | TRs | Pics
aestivate
Member
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 4:42 pm 
The likelihood of federal logging helping you to get closer to some summit is very close to zero. There is little logging on federal lands anymore, and little federal money to maintain roads. Generally, you should expect federally maintained roads to get worse over time, not better. Don't sit around waiting for a timber sale to fix your favorite bad forest service road, or you'll never go. Private logging roads are, with rare exceptions, gated. State (DNR) lands situation a bit more mixed, but generally I would expect motorized access to decline on state lands. So you're out of luck, Stefan. Feds aren't logging anymore to speak of, and everybody else gates their logging roads. A situation I, for one, am not in the least sorry about. Your confusion regarding logging on federal lands is not uncommon. It is due to ignorance about land ownership. All those fresh clear cuts you see driving up the Skagit valley or the Skykomish are on private or state land. Ranger district maps indicate federal land ownership.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Lagerman
UnAdvanced User



Joined: 07 Mar 2004
Posts: 1314 | TRs | Pics
Location: Crab'n on the Hood Canal
Lagerman
UnAdvanced User
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 4:50 pm 
The best way is going to the land owner. Forest Service or the state. Where logging is going to be taking place is usually public information. Private land owners might not give that information out. We even get satiliate maps of the area, I am not sure if public can get that, even with a fee, but they know about where they want to put a sale up awhile before they go up for bid. Just nice asking should do it for you. Remeber though, the trucks are coming out of the hill loaded, so figure out the CB channel before you go in there, or if you dont have a CB then be very careful. I have just recently moved here to Washington though, so I aint real familar with the differances between Oregon and Washington. I know when there is a Federal job in Oregon(Usually thinning) they are real paticular about there roads, and make you upkeep them really well.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker



Joined: 16 Dec 2001
Posts: 23956 | TRs | Pics
Location: Cle Elum
Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 5:02 pm 
I think that it's a safe bet to assssssssssooooooooome that if there ever was a logging road there (there can be a wilderness area) there is the possibility of it REsurfacing in the future. I mean come on, they have to keep their options open. The trees are going to grow back you know. They'll want to be cuttin them again in 60 years. TB doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif doh.gif

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Lagerman
UnAdvanced User



Joined: 07 Mar 2004
Posts: 1314 | TRs | Pics
Location: Crab'n on the Hood Canal
Lagerman
UnAdvanced User
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 5:23 pm 
Ya, the best times anyway are after they are done with the sale. Having 4-10 trucks rolling out of it two times a day, then machines walking around cutters and crews driving in and out, beats the road up pretty good, they fix it now and then, but once the job is done, they have to fix that road up before they leave so that would be the safest and best time to use it.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Stefan
Member
Member


Joined: 17 Dec 2001
Posts: 5084 | TRs | Pics
Stefan
Member
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 5:45 pm 
Where then where would I go to find ANY information on timber sales on Federal land? I understand the private people won't tell me.

Art is an adventure.
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Lagerman
UnAdvanced User



Joined: 07 Mar 2004
Posts: 1314 | TRs | Pics
Location: Crab'n on the Hood Canal
Lagerman
UnAdvanced User
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 5:55 pm 
They dont do a whole real lot of Federal timber sells, but you would go to the head office for the area in which the area in question would be in(atleast in Oregon) You might even be able to find something on the internet. On Federal land you get ALOT more protesters and hippies climbing the trees, so , I doubt they are trying too hard to shove that information in peoples faces, but, its all public info, so you should atleast get it in the areas head office

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
aestivate
Member
Member


Joined: 19 Mar 2004
Posts: 199 | TRs | Pics
aestivate
Member
PostTue Mar 30, 2004 6:38 pm 
Stefan wrote:
Where then where would I go to find ANY information on timber sales on Federal land? I understand the private people won't tell me.
Do you really want to know? Okay, you asked. Each forest publishes, or is supposed to publish, a "schedule of proposed actions" a few times a year. You can get on the mailing list for that; some forests, like the Wenatchee, put it on their web site. Most of what's in there is of no interest to you, or anybody else. Microwave towers, private easements, whatever, it's all in there. But there will be notice in there of any proposed timber sales. But a proposed timber sale is not a timber sale. It has to go through a public involvment process defined by NEPA, the national environmental policy act. From intent to cutting of trees usually takes years. Many proposals are appealed or shot down by conservation groups, or end up not selling. And there's no public notice of whether they sell or not, or, once sold, whether the purchaser has actually started cutting or not. On the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, last four or five years, they've cut pretty much nothing, zero. This year they came out with two proposals, the Sky Forks timber sale and the "Forgotten Thin Plus" timber sale. The first one got whittled down by the conservationists, the second one got dropped altogether. Sky Forks, the sale that survived, will involve reconstructing of some bits of road on Mineral Butte, up the N Fk Skykomish, which are now strictly high clearance standard. And some road work in areas below the Barclay Creek road and in the Northtown area, a short distance off route 2. I don't know if Sky forks will sell, though. Very iffy. Situation on the Olympic and the Wenatchee is a bit more active, but not much. Sales on the Olympic tend to be in peripheral low areas of the forest. Not areas of interest to climbers. The roads that are of interest to you--high-elevation logging roads--went in for the most part, during the unrestrained logging boom (or,if you prefer "unsustainable orgy") years of the 60s and 70s. They wouldn't log in such places anymore. Federal logging in N Wa Is largely second-growth from the 20's and 30's, which is on lower slopes and valley bottoms. My advice to you, if you have a specific objective in mind, or a specific road, or set of roads, call the ranger district in question. The phone numbers are on the web. And ask about those specific roads or places. I can tell you, though, that what you will hear is, "no, we have no plans to log in there", or, "no, we do not know when, if ever, the Squire Creek road will be reopened"

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
   All times are GMT - 8 Hours
 Reply to topic
Forum Index > Public Lands Stewardship > New logging roads / Upgrade old logging roads?
  Happy Birthday speyguy, Bandanabraids!
Jump to:   
Search this topic:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum