4 April, 2000
Ruth Monahan
WCNF, Ogden Ranger District
507 25th Street
Ogden, Utah 84401
Dear Ruth:
This letter is in response to your request for comments on the Wheeler Creek Trail Improvements Scoping Document issued in late March, 2000. The comments herein represent the official position of the Ogden Group Sierra Club, which has more than 300 dues-paying members living throughout Weber and North Davis Counties.
In brief, while we endorse much of what is proposed in this document, we have some very serious concerns with other parts of the plan.
We wholeheartedly endorse your proposal to improve and rehabilitate damaged sections of the popular Wheeler Creek and East Fork trails. As you know, these trails cross numerous small streams and seasonal wetlands where heavy traffic (especially from horses) has been causing extensive damage. These crossings need to be better engineered to avoid such damage.
We also endorse the idea of paving (but not enlarging) the heavily used Art Nord trailhead, hardening a small portion of the trail for wheelchair access, and building a new trailhead at the point where the East Fork trail crosses the new Trapper's Loop cutoff highway. We would encourage the installation of interpretive signs at these trailheads to help visitors better appreciate the streams and wetlands in these areas.
The other "existing" trails that you propose to improve (namely, Middle Fork, Wheeler Cutoff, and the Overlook Trail) are currently seldom used and largely overgrown. While we do not oppose the reconstruction of these trails for increased future use, we feel that this work should be a lower priority than the maintenance of trails that already receive heavy use.
We have more serious reservations about the approximately ten miles of entirely new trails that you are proposing to build. None of these trails can be justified by existing demand, or even by foreseeable demand within the next few years. Only after a major four-season resort is built at Snow Basin might there be enough demand for these trails, and the success of that resort is by no means certain at this time. Rather than subsidizing the resort by building trails to encourage people to come, the Forest Service should wait and see whether the demand for more summer trails ever develops.
Furthermore, many existing trails in other parts of the Ogden Ranger District are in very poor condition and badly in need of reconstruction or realignment. A case in point is the Beus Canyon Trail, designated as part of the Great Western Trail and constructed only about six years ago. Large portions of this trail are already becoming eroded or overgrown, while the uppermost part of the trail was never really constructed in the first place. The current condition of this trail (and of several others in the District) would seem to indicate that the Ogden Ranger District is unable to adequately maintain its existing system of trails. In light of this fact, we question whether it is prudent to add to the system approximately ten miles of new trails that climb steep, erosion-prone slopes to high alpine destinations.
Among the proposed new trails, we most strongly resist those that would climb above 7500 feet elevation: the connector trail between Strawberry Ridge and the Beus Trail, and the major trail climbing from the Sardine Canyon overlook southward up to Allen Peak. With their connections to existing ski lifts, and the likelihood of downhill traffic from users who would ride the lifts up the mountain, these trails would have the effect of extending the region of motorized recreation beyond the ski area boundaries. Downhill mountain bike traffic would be particularly destructive in these alpine areas, and would make the trails very difficult to maintain. Instead, the high-speed mountain bike playground should be restricted to the boundaries of the ski area (or to private property).
The very extensive network of existing ski area maintenance roads is already adequate for most summer recreation within the ski area. We are not necessarily opposed to the creation of a "single-track" path paralleling some of these roads, but it should be for multiple users (including hikers and equestrians), not "specifically for mountain bicycles." Since any such path would be of immediate commercial benefit to the owner of Snowbasin Ski Area, we feel that the path should be constructed at the expense of the ski area owner, and that it should be located in the privately owned southern portion of the ski area. If any such paths are to be built on Forest Service property, their precise alignments should be mapped in the forthcoming Environmental Assessment for this project.
The least objectionable of the proposed new trails are those connecting Cold Water Canyon to the Sardine Canyon overlook, and extending from this point eastward to Sardine Peak and beyond. Again, these trails should not be built until there is both a demonstrated demand for them and a feasible plan for maintaining them over the long term. In addition, the alignments of these trails should be chosen so as to minimize their visibility from other parts of the area. The mapped routing across the south face of Sardine Peak, for example, would produce an unnecessary prominent scar and would probably be ignored by hikers who would head straight up the ridge to the summit.
What is needed in any high alpine areas where ski lifts will operate during the summer is a plan to prevent damage from foot traffic to alpine flora. We would like to see such a plan in the forthcoming Environmental Assessment.
We are strongly opposed to Item 5 in the Scoping Document, which would authorize temporary winter structures and use of trail grooming equipment for Nordic skiing. None of this area is remote enough to necessitate back country structures of any kind to serve Nordic skiers. Motorized equipment should be restricted to designated roads; most Nordic skiers prefer ungroomed routes in any case. It may be appropriate to mark suggested Nordic routes with flags of some sort.
Finally, we oppose your plan to reopen the Maples area to overnight car camping. Past experience indicates that it tends to attract the wrong sort of campers, and that law enforcement problems would be very frequent. We recommend that motor vehicle access be limited to daytime only, and that camping be permitted only for those who arrive by foot or by bicycle (such as Great Western Trail users).
Thank you for considering these comments. We look forward to seeing the Environmental Assessment for this project.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel V. Schroeder
Chair, Ogden Group Sierra Club
1444 Binford Street
Ogden, UT 84401