[Kim Brown]

Gifford Pinchot NF does a lot of active cutting; but they also do a lot of conservation experimentation and because of the big fires down there in years past, and that recent volcano blast, a lot of restoration experiments as well. It's a fine forest. I really really want to poke around down there next summer! Gifford Pinchot has a Facebook account.

[Ski]

you don't have to wait until summer. you can do Blue Lake #274 all year round (provided the snow isn't too deep to get up the road to the trailhead.) Kraus Ridge can be done in winter (if you can drive to the trailhead.) obviously South Point is out, but there are other peaks offering much better views that aren't as much work (although THs are a bit farther from roads.)(Pompey Pk., Hamilton Butte, Cispus Pk.)

[HitTheTrail]

One of the more interesting stories in the Egan book is about why Pinchot would never sleep around other people when they were camped out in the wilderness. John Muir thought he was totally weird. Even under the most adverse conditions Pinchot would go off in the dense forest by himself at night. Egan reveals the mystery toward the end of his book.

[treeswarper]

GP does not do a lot of timber sales in my opinion. Trees grow fast and well here, and more could be cut and still be "sustainable". 30 million BFa year is a drop in the bucket. I expect the mill to close in Randle, if there is no increase. And no, no old growth is cut except when it is a hazard tree in a campground or along a road, and then it either sits there or gets sold for....firewood. The GP has acres upon acres upon acres of healthy, second growth due to the big fires that ripped through it. Much was planted by the CCC, and the Wind River Nursery--(which no longer exists) was put in place to grow seedlings to reforest the area after the big fires. If you want to do a short hike in the winter, there is the Woods Creek Watchable Wildlife trail which is a short distance up the 25 road. The 25 road snow line is usually farther up, the usual transition area is about 11 miles up. Kraus Ridge has had snow on it the past few winters. Ditto for Blue Lake trails. However, Kraus is late to get snow and melts out early. That's where The Used Dog tweaked his leg. My friend that I brought along, pointed out that there were no longer good views because the trees had grown up. Such is life.

[Snowbrushy]

I've been studying the beginning's of the FS. It apparently started with the Organic Act of 1897 which tasked the government with identifying Forest Reserves - exactly where the woods were and all the resources that were in them. USGS with the Land Office would survey them while individual foresters would be in the field and making reports on everything they saw in the backcountry, some of which hadn't been fully mapped in the first survey. (Squatters, timber rustlers, Homestead Act ranches, etc.). Interesting reading. It had been anticipated that a more robust Forest Service would eventually grow out of the Forest Reserves after exact lines were drawn around the forests. And then the big forest fire. And the new Forest Service had a mission to fight wildfire. (Trivia: It was the original Forest Reserve USGS surveys that allowed the Forest Service to later pinpoint mountain tops to place fire lookout towers). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Act_of_1897 This Washington Wilderness area and National Forest (grazing forest) is giving away copies of it's original Forest Reserve report for the public to enjoy. I think the ranger stations are in Pomeroy and Walla Walla, Wa., Umatilla NF. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenaha%E2%80%93Tucannon_Wilderness

[Pyrites]

Squatters: Based on family lore apparently the barriers to starting the five-year process of homesteading land were low. On the backside there were some more costs, and at least in some places, the requirement to hire a legal surveyor. Many never bothered with finishing up patenting the land. (Speculation: Was reward for finalizing process going on the County tax rolls?) A couple branches of my family had finished all this up in the mid-80's. When the FS came along all those places that hadn't bothered to close the loop in a timely manner had the land revert to the USFS. After some further standoff my forebears kept their land. It's long since sold. But it remains a lone stripe of private land, with a State Hwy, and USFS on the east and west sides. This tale is from western Montana.

[Snowbrushy]

[Chico]

[Pyrites]

And they stopped the hiring of skid road types after the Sunshine Mountain fire, near Priest Lake, '67. Dropping dead on the fire line was considered no longer acceptable, and skid road types were no longer all guys that had worked in the woods. A lot of changes in the way the USFS does things used to come out of a few fires.