I looked at Fish Creek Mtn quad.

They should be embarassed. The same wrong and missing information from decade to decade.

The USGS really needs to go back to doing the maps with out the FS who are clearly utterly inept as partners in mapping.

Another symptom of a failed agency.

I guess it doesn't require embarrassment when they couldn't care less.

But thank you for loading them anyway Rob.

Donovan

I believe these maps are more for timber sales and road maintenance then trails. Anyway, trails aren't about making money, at least yet. I forget some trails ask for a trail permit to park at certain trailheads, like the CRT. For the most part, trails are a deficit to maintain. Which is why we always heard that the FS wasn't interested in any new trails or old trails brought back to life, just maintaining the mileage of what they had on the books. (I am sure there are a few of you out there that heard that line.)

I believe it is all about road maintenance right now, for we all know it takes more money to keep a road in service then a trail. Money is tight right now or non-existant, and the federal budget is on the plate. When they have a cross the board cut, all agencies are looking where to cut. You can only take a road off the budget if it is decomissioned. Pretty much the same for a trail, but they usually don't decomission a trail, just remove it from maintenance.

What has been going on in your woods lately? What I have seen is thinning projects and decomissioning of roads when they are done with the thinning. Come on, it isn't rocket science here. Some of your favorite little campsites off a main road on a spur road doesn't exist anymore, for the spur road got decomissioned. HELLO! It all happens so slug-like, a road here, a road there, but in the end we all loose. Without some of these roads we can't even get to the trails we want to hike. Well that is my rant.

Don

What irks me most is that when the info was being solicited for the last set of inaccurate maps, they actually asked me to note all the flaws in the District. I spent hours making color coded map and noting on each quad the errors and gave them to the staff that had requested them.

The big non trail is really silly. A key stroke and it should be gone. 

Accurate maps are essential in emergency operations. One rescue I am aware of would have taken a few hours if the trails we knew of were mapped, instead of a day.

One thing about the road de-coms is that they are in a way unknowing preserving the roads for quick punch outs in the future. A 40-60 year rotation it might be cheaper to drive a large cat in the old cuts and fills to get the cut rather than maintain a road for 60 years. Whatever grows in the roads will be junk anyway.

Whether another Tillamook Burn, climatic conditions, a cataclysmic Fir bug infestation (it's just a matter of time they say), we'll get the roads back eventually.

Don2

Donovan said 

A 40-60 year rotation it might be cheaper to drive a large cat in the old cuts and fills to get the cut rather than maintain a road for 60 years.

Thats the plan - and its much better than punching a brand new road, except when the road shouldn't have been there in the first place due to topography. Yes roads have been build that were doomed to fail, like a couple of sections up Fish Creek.

Bryon