Legacy Trails Program Awardee

Pomas Creek Trail and Entiat River Trail

Severe wildfires and increased demand for trails has led to an urgent need for trail maintenance in the Entiat Ranger District. Without immediate response trail conditions will continue to worsen, resulting in trails that are unable to support the growing number of recreators and causing negative ecological impacts on the surrounding area. Washington Trails Association (WTA) will mobilize our network of 4,500 trail maintenance volunteers, as well as our professional backcountry trail crews, to address the most critical maintenance needs in the Entiat. WTA’s volunteer and professional crews will spend 2,410 hours maintaining 20 miles of trails in the region. This project will support three multi-day volunteer trips, one multi-day youth trip and two professional crew hitches focused on annual and deferred maintenance on several trails in the Entiat River District.

Applicant: Washington Trails Association
Project Location: Entiat Ranger District, Okanogan-Wenatche National Forest, Washington
Amount Awarded: $20,000.00

To address the Entiat Ranger District’s' most urgent maintenance needs, WTA crews will complete a variety of maintenance tasks including brushing, tread restoration, log out, drainage improvement, tread reconstruction and wildfire recovery. These repairs will help reduce erosion, increase user safety and minimize the environmental impact of recreation. For this project specifically, crews will complete work on several trails, including but not limited to the Entiat River trail, Pomas Creek, Ice Lakes, and the Snow Brushy trail. Examples of work include:

1) The Pomas Creek trail is a five-mile trail that connects segments of the Entiat River trail, creating numerous route options and access in the Entiat River Valley. However, the trail has received minimal maintenance since the 2015 Wolverine Fire destroyed the area. Because sections of the trail have been completely damaged, recreators have begun to create unauthorized trails in order to bypass inaccessible sections. Many of these unauthorized trails are through riparian areas, causing negative impacts to the watershed and surrounding environment. WTA crews will work to restore the trail and decommission social trails, including conducting extensive logouts and repairing tread and drainage.

2) Similarly, the Entiat River trail, a gateway to the Glacier Peak Wilderness, offers backcountry access to alpine lakes, granite spires, an extensive variety of flora and fauna and is popular with a range of recreation uses. The trail also endured severe fire damage, with many sections inaccessible due to downed trees and unstable tread. There is a critical need for crews to re-establish the trail through the burn zones to mitigate unauthorized trails and the subsequent user impact on the environment. Crews will conduct extensive logouts to clear the trail of any obstacles and hazards.

The work that WTA’s crews complete are critical to supporting land managers in creating a sustainable trail system. The Entiat District Ranger shares their experience working with past WTA crews; “The work the WTA trails crews put in this summer leaves me almost speechless. The accomplishments they made were something I never thought I would see in the last five years I’ve been on the Entiat Ranger District. They were an integral part in regaining access to trails in the wilderness that have been covered with thousands of down logs for six years plus.”

Spring 2023

- Volunteer outreach and recruitment

- WTA Crew Leader College - weekend training for all crew leaders and assistant crew leaders

- Project scoping

- Collaboration with partners and Forest Service staff

Summer 2023

- Multi-day backcountry trips run from June - September, with all project deliverables completed by late September 2023

- Ongoing collaboration with partners and Forest Service staff (Southwest Regional Manager)

Fall 2023

- All backcountry trips in the region wrapped up by September 2023

- WTA Annual Volunteer Appreciation Celebration

- Ongoing collaboration with partners and Forest Service staff