George Washington National Forest Planning Meetings

Here is a schedule of GW Plan Revision Meetings for this week

Please attend one if you can to represent your access to over 1,000 miles of bicycle trails

Email va.mtbc@gmail.com so we can send you a list of talking points and background info

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 (7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.)
Fairfax County Government Center
12000 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 (6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.)
Woodstock National Guard Armory
541 Hoover Road
Woodstock, VA 22664

Thursday, April 29, 2010 (6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.)
Augusta County Government Center
19 Government Lane
Verona, VA 24482

The process and terms can be confusing
here is the link to master GW Revision Page
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/gwj/forestplan/revision/index.shtml

here is a FAQ that clarifies some important terms;
Roadless areas, potential wilderness areas, recommended wilderness areas and designated Wilderness Areas
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/gwj/forestplan/revision/mtg-updates-2008/wilderness-roadless-area-questions.pdf

Katy Martin rolls one of the George Washington National Forest's finest trails, the IMBA Epic "Southern Traverse" on Shenandoah Mountain.

GW National Forest Plan - New Documents Posted

Please check out this new document released on March 25^th, 2010

There are a lot of links contained within the above document

Here are a few below that are good to take a look at

The GW Planning Team titled this one -
More Emphasis on Remote Recreation and Remote Habitat Alternative
This is the numbering system for the management prescriptions that will be used

This is the master page for the George Washington National Forest Plan Revision
The schedule of public meetings is subject to change – keep your eye on it!

USFS Volunteer Agreements 2010 & Trail Maintenance Handbook

The USFS has a great FAQ that details the process along with a nice long list of regulations that is required for clubs or individuals who wish to perform maintenance on their favorite trails. It involves an officially signed volunteer agreement. This still doesn’t mean one can just go out and perform work on your local trails. Site specific approval is required from your local ranger district.

 

Volunteer Agreements – The Forest Service completes a Volunteer Agreement with every volunteer to document the service he or she will perform. There are two types of Volunteer Agreements.

• Agreement for Individual Voluntary Services (Form FS-1800-7)
• Agreement for Sponsored Voluntary Services (Form FS-1800-8)

The Professional Trail Builders Association (PTBA) has a great resource page HERE for multiple sources of Trail Building books and DVDs

Here is a link to the 2007 USFS Trail Construction and Maintenance Notebook

The USFS wants to make sure you use the most current techniques when maintaining and constructing trails. Here is a great factoid from the handbook.

Dips Are In, Bars Are Out

For existing trails with water problems, we encourage the use of rolling grade dips or knicks instead of waterbars. Here’s why. By design, water hits the waterbar and is turned. The water slows down and sediment drops in the drain. Waterbars commonly fail when sediment fills the drain. Water tops the waterbar and continues down the tread. The waterbar becomes useless. You can build a good rolling grade dip quicker than you can install a waterbar, and a rolling grade dip works better.

Represent your favorite trail in the George Washington National Forest

George Washington National Forest Public Meeting Schedule for Management Plan Revision
Please come out and represent your favorite remote backcountry singletrack trail at these meetings

All Meetings will begin at 6:30 pm and end at 9:00 pm


Monday, April 12, 2010

Valley Elementary School
98 Panther Drive
Hot Springs, VA

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

East Hardy High School
Baker, WV

Monday, April 19, 2010

Rockbridge Co. High School
143 Greenhouse Rd.
Lexington, VA 24450

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Woodstock National Guard Armory
541 Hoover Road
Woodstock, VA 22664

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Augusta County Government Center
18 Government Lane
Verona, VA 24482

Summer jobs building trail on Virginia's National Forests

Last summer they announced $3.2 Million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) would go towards multiple trail projects in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest.

This summer the work will get done. They haven't posted the Feb 8, 2010 press release yet, but it goes something like this -

Title -U.S. Forest Service and SCA to Partner on ARRA Trailwork
Subtitle - National Forest Trails To Benefit from Federal Stimulus Funding

The U.S. Forest Service and the Student Conservation Association (SCA) will partner to improve numerous trails on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, using funding from the ARRA. SCA is currently recruiting to fill nine project leader positions and 37 trail team member positions for seven SCA trail teams. During the summer and fall of 2010, these teams will improve up to 175 miles of national forest trails in Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Craig, Highland, Montgomery, Roanoke and Smyth Counties.

This is for the Team Leader Positions:

This is for the Field Staff Positions: 

Detailed information and applications are available on the SCA website http://www.thesca.org/

Alert : Virginia State Forests permit required to bicycle on trails as of 1/1/2010

The Virginia Department of Forestry approved a fee for Mountain Biking on Trails on Department of Forestry managed property. The fee is for Equestrians (horses) and Mountain Bikers but not for Hikers. More information is available HERE on the Virginia Bicycling Federation website - http://www.vabike.org/

George Washington National Forest - Planning Process to Resume March 2010

Exciting news!

The Headquarters for the George Washington National Forest in Roanoke, VA is working hard so they can resume the collaboration with the public as they design the new GW Forest Management Plan.

They plan to publish a Notice of Intent (NOI) (to use the 82 regs and do an EIS) in the Federal Register in mid-Feb. That opens a 60 public comment period. They intend to publish in the NOI a 'proposed action' showing where they left off, preliminary issues and some alternatives that they will be looking at. Then we'll have some public meetings in mid-March.

Expect to see a lot of information on the GW Planning website in mid-Feb for reference to use in these March 2010 meetings. Please check this GW USFS Planning Link often to stay in touch with the process.


Mountain Bike Representatives have spent 2 years working on this revision previously using 2 different sets of planning regulations that the Bush Administration created. Both sets of Bush planning regulations were eventually stopped by US Courts. We will now be using the 1982 planning regulations.

EIS is an Environmental Impact Statement