In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System, Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness will continue trail work this summer for 11 days in the proposed Wilderness on the Idaho/Montana border. The schedule begins June 2, National Trails Day, ith a crosscut saw and trails skills training day on Historic Star Peak Trail #999. The season ends with a workday on National Public Lands Day, September 29. Clearing and tread work will occur on Morris Creek Trail #134 and Regal Creek Trail #556 in the Lightning Creek National Forest Foundation Treasured Landscape.

The National Trail System Act (NTSA) was signed into law in October of 1968 by the same president who signed the Wilderness Act four years earlier, Lyndon B. Johnson. The NTSA was inspired by Johnson himself in a 1965 State of the Union address, in which he said, “The beauty of our land is a natural resource. Its preservation is linked to the inner prosperity of the human spirit. . . . Our land will be attractive tomorrow only if we organize for action and rebuild and reclaim the beauty we inherited. Our stewardship will be judged by the foresight with which we carry out these programs.”

Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness volunteers and staff, including FSPW backcountry ranger interns, have worked to keep trails in the Scotchmans open and in good shape since their first trail project in 2010 with the Sandpoint District on Scotchman Peak Trail #65. Since then, FSPW staff and volunteers have provided thousands of hours of human power — and FSPW has provided the tools— to repair tread, build water bars, cut brush, clear blow downs, and build entirely new sections of trail to replace old alignments that were unsustainable or horrific to hike because they were not designed correctly in the first place.

Many of the trails in the Scotchmans are older than the National Trails System. In the early 20th century, trails were often built in a hurry — often with mules in mind — to accommodate the desire to fight all fires and fight them quickly. But many were also built that have stood the test of time. The trails that Granville Gordon, first ranger on the Cabinet National Forest, built to what we now call Star Peak, on Pilik Ridge and in Star Gulch, are fine examples of the craft of trail building.

The trails FSPW and other volunteer groups work on benefit hikers, hunters, berry pickers, anglers, backpackers and stock users on both sides of the border. The FSPW crew works alongside partners like youth crews from the Montana Conservation Corps and regular USFS trail crews. The help FSPW gives the Forest Service in maintaining trails on the Cabinet, Three Rivers and Sandpoint Ranger Districts has resulted in strong partnerships marked by mutual respect and cooperative effort on not only trails, but weed mitigation, white bark pine restoration, stream bank restoration and outdoor education.

Over the next 50 years of the National Trail System, trail work done by partner groups like FSPW, Backcountry Horsemen, Cabinet Resource Group and motorized recreation groups to keep trails open and sustainable will remain an important part of Forest Service plans for the National Trail System.

To find out about USFS volunteer opportunities, visit http://www.fs.fed.us/working-with-us/volunteers

To learn more about trail work in the Scotchmans, visit scotchmanpeaks.org/ events or write to [email protected].