NSA TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT 2006

NSA TRAIL MAINTENANCE REPORT 2006
To
NSA BOARD of DIRECTORS
Annual Meeting
October 7, 2006 Wenatchee, Washington

Overview: This was the program’s eighth year. Created by the late Art Jukkala (Missoula ‘56), it continues to expand in popularity and demand. During 2006, we sponsored or provided for 18 projects with 172 one-week volunteers, a 16 percent expansion.

Production: Projects were completed in Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Colorado on the Flathead, Helena, Idaho Panhandle, Lolo, Lewis and Clark, Clearwater, Bitterroot, Chugach and Pike-San Isabel National Forests plus the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. We also participated in one project on private land, restoration of the Hudson’s Bay Fort Connah near Ronan, Montana.
• Our volunteers cleared more than 150 miles of trail, reroofed a guard station, repaired and upgraded three historic structures and rebuilt major corrals and fences.
• They also repaired numerous water bars and check dams, cleared brush, cut hundreds of trees and logs, rebuilt sections of many trails, and hacked out miles of tread.
• In the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, they cut through three quarters of a mile of 30- to 40-inch logs with crosscuts to open a trail that our scouting crew reported as possibly “not doable” in the scheduled one week time frame.
• They built three major bridges in Colorado, two of which were on a rerouting of the Continental Divide Trail. The Colorado program continues to expand thanks to the leadership of Bill Ruskin (CJ ‘58) and Warren Pierce (CJ ‘64).
• Our volunteers built another bridge in the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.
• Two one-week crews rebuilt and restored for use a lookout near Seeley Lake.
• Roger Savage (Missoula ‘57) and his scouting teams continue to be a major factor in our success in opening long abandoned trails in wilderness. Two such remote trails, which hadn’t been maintained in 25 to 30 years, were opened in 2006, one in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and one in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. The work required GPS navigation, and entailed crawling through brush and log blowdowns, and flagging trail.
• Our scouts utilized horses and rubber rafts. They also took a three-day 30-mile-plus hike across the Bitterroot Range to scout two projects, one in Montana and one in Idaho.
• In June, our scouts hiked 16 miles during a reainstorm on Sergeant Creek in the northern Bob Marshall Wilderness.
• Roy Williams (Missoula ‘60) and Bill Ruskin transported the 10-man Dirty Face Crew across the flooded Middle Fork of the Flathead River near the southern tip of Glacier National Park on rubber rafts. They repeated the process one week later in to get the crew out of the woods.

Funding: Funding this year came from the Bob Marshall Foundation, Sawtooth Society, Lolo and Clearwater National Forests and ExxonMobil Corporation. Morgan Stanley also donated thanks to Bruce Montgomery (McCall ‘69) and Johnson’s Corners (a truck stop on Interstate 25 near Fort Collins, Colorado) thanks to Stan Linnertz (Missoula ’61). In addition, we were successful in obtaining grants from Montana’s Ravalli and Flathead County Resource Advisory Committees for projects in those counties. In addition, we received donations from the following jumpers: Dan Hensley (Missoula ’57), Charlie Brown (McCall “56), Jim Anderson (Missoula ‘58), Jack Benton (Missoula ‘59) and Fred Donner (Missoula ‘59). We express our sincere thanks to all.

Tools: We maintain a large tool cache and we’re able to provide tools for all projects with the exception of the saws, hammers, levels, squares and other hand tools needed for cabin rehabilitation projects. Those are provided by our volunteers. The Missoula Aerial Fire Depot continues to loan us crosscut saws when they’re needed. Tool certification is also provided by Missoula AFD and the Forest Service in Colorado.

Scholarships: The NSA Trail Maintenance Program has undertaken the sponsorship of two scholarship programs:

The Art Jukkala Scholarship Program. A program sponsored and funded by the Trail Program, interested members of the NSA and the general public. This program provides a $2000 yearly scholarship to children of smokejumpers killed in the line of duty. Two scholarships have been awarded in 2006.

The NSA Trail Maintenance Smokejumper Chair Scholarship Fund at the University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation at Missoula. A program sponsored by NSA Trail Maintenance and funded by interested members of the NSA. This program provides one yearly scholarship to a smokejumper forestry student or a forestry student child of a smokejumper.

Advisory Council: The NSA Trail Maintenance Advisory Council, formed in May 2002, meets at least once each year. Its members are advisers to the Trail Maintenance Coordinator. They review operations and financial accounts, recommend policies and serve as an oversight committee.


Jon H. McBride (Missoula ‘54)
NSA Trail Maintenance Coordinator