The Pagosa Area Trails Council, formed in 1998 as a 501-C-3 non-profit trail advocacy organization, primary purpose is to promote local trails within the Pagosa area of the San Juan National Forest. The Trails Council serves as a roundtable organization bringing together various trail user groups in the community, helps to mobilize government and non-profit groups, resolve trail conflicts and provide communication and coordination between trail user groups and Forest Service officials. The Trails Council also serves as a platform to provide training in trail construction, maintenance and planning of new trails.
The focus and need of the PATC currently is to address the crisis due to severe spruce beetle die- off in the San Juan National Forest and the resulting downfall that in 2018 closed nearly 50% of the system trails in the SJNF. Approximately 200,000 acres of forest have been affected in the SJNF since 2010 and the resulting dead fall is threatening to close access to our important wilderness and forest access trail systems. It is currently estimated that between 9500-16,000 trees are down and need to be cleared to maintain that access. A task that the local USFS Pagosa Ranger District has been unable to keep up with. It is imperative that user groups, trail users and volunteers step up and help. The PATC raised over $30,000 in 2018 to help with this monumental task and several thousand trees were removed in 2018 with the assistance of the Southwestern Conservation Corps (Youthcorps). Much more needs to be done however, many wilderness and non-wilderness trails remain inaccessible and have been so for years. Popular trails like Cimarrona Creek, Hossick Lake and portions of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) to name a few. It has been estimated that after 3 -4 years of non-use that some trails alignment and tread could be forever lost. Trails and forest access are underestimated in value to a community’s economic and recreational well being. The SJNF brings in thousands of visitors to Pagosa country and with 50% of the system trails in jeopardy this crisis has been under funded, under estimated and the impacts could be felt for years unless we as a community act fast.
Additional Info
The PATC’s goal for 2019 and beyond is to raise funds, obtain grants, bring awareness and assist in clearing the epidemic size beetle killed trees which are now falling on our local national forest and wilderness area trails. According to the Forest Service there is an estimated 9,500 to 16,000 backlog of fallen trees on Pagosa Area trails. In the San Juan National Forest, according to the USFS Rocky Mountain Region Recreation Manager, there are 123 miles of non-wilderness trails obstructed and 160 miles of Weminuche and South San Juan Wilderness trails obstructed currently. This problem is just beginning and is predicted to continue for 10 to 15 years. It is estimated in statistics we have from 2018 cost/tree analysis that it costs approximately $50 per tree cleared from the Pagosa Area National Forest and Wilderness. Much of this cost is due to limitations in the wilderness areas where motorized chainsaw use is prohibited and time consuming, labor intensive cross cut saw crews are required. These crews can be out for weeks at a time in the backcountry and the logistics of keeping them supplied and supported is extensive.
The PATC meets regularly with USFS Pagosa Ranger District officials and the various trail user groups in the community. It is the consensus amongst this group that this is the number one threat to future trail access in our region and that extraordinary efforts and funding in the coming years is going to be critical in order to keep our forest trails open and accessible now and into the future.