Sustainable Trails Coalition

06/05/2026

If accurate, this is very significant news about the future of America’s public lands.

No paywall.

The forthcoming order echoes President Trump’s decision to repeal executive orders that have protected other public lands from vehicles for decades.

05/17/2026

The Wilderness-management ice jam is showing hints of thawing. It's good news.

It's on a different trail-access issue from bicycle access, namely using chainsaws to keep trails open in an Idaho Wilderness area.

STC doesn't have a position on chainsaws. However Wilderness trails are kept sustainable for recreational use is fine with us, be it with the large crosscut saws the USFS currently allows, or with chainsaws, which the Wilderness Act also allows. (The National Park Service uses chainsaws in its Wilderness areas because the Act allows their use for trail maintenance. But the USFS doesn't.)

A recent Freedom of Information Act request shows that the USFS has been considering relaxing its strict no-chainsaws rule.

Among the 270 pages of disclosed documents, we noted this, in a draft document: "In situations where wilderness character is being degraded, impaired, or threatened due to standing dead, downfallen, and leaning trees which have significantly obstructed or closed system trails and the public purpose for which the area was designated [i.e., recreation] is not being met, administrative action, including the use of prohibited activities [i.e., chainsaw use, as the USFS has traditionally viewed it] may be necessary."

Elsewhere, we read, "The extent of the downed trees on trails due to the amount of wildfire and insect and/or disease killed trees that have fallen is having significant impacts to the primitive recreation quality, in many cases prohibiting use of trails in the Frank [Church–River of No Return Wilderness]. The loss of access is affecting hikers, backpackers, stock supported pack trips, and hunters who are not able to experience the outstanding primitive and unconfined wilderness recreational opportunities that the Frank has to offer."

In 2019, the USFS tried to open trails in Colorado's Weminuche Wilderness with chainsaws. Wilderness purists sued to stop the trail-clearing and the agency immediately backed off and dropped the plan.

This month, Wilderness purists reacted with the same demand after reading the language in the FOIA-disclosed documents: no chainsaws.

But this time, unlike in 2019, the USFS is resisting. It noted of an area surveyed in the Frank Church Wilderness, "Nearly all trails ... had significant levels of deadfall; particularly in areas affected by wildfire, insect and disease, and wind events. It was estimated that, in total, between 80,000 and 110,000 deadfall trees have fallen across the 155 miles of trail."

And it stated, "Gas powered chainsaws are more efficient at cutting deadfall trees than hand tools. They can cut through deadfall 2 to 5 times faster than hand tools and require significantly less energy to operate."

It also stated, "Battery powered chainsaws perform similarly to gas powered chainsaws and can be charged with solar panels." And they are quieter.

By contrast, the documents state, "The use of crosscut saw 'strike teams' ... to clear these trails with crosscut saws was considered [in the USFS's evaluation of alternatives for the Frank Church Wilderness]. This approach was tried ... [elsewhere] beginning in 2016 ... and [was] not successful in removing deadfall."

As stated, these are internal documents disclosed through an FOIA request. They constitute deliberations and analysis, not a decision. See the first link below.

The decision came last week. The USFS is going to go ahead and clear trails in Idaho's Frank Church Wilderness with chainsaws. See the second link below.

How does this count for STC and bicycle access?

First, many Wilderness trails nationwide have disappeared, in large part because the USFS has long refused to use chainsaws to maintain them. When we eventually gain access for human-powered bicycle travel, we'll have access to trails that currently are abandoned or impassible. (Wilderness will remain off-limits for e-biking, because the Wilderness Act of 1964 prohibits motorized travel.)

Second, the USFS, for the first time in our memory, is resisting the forces of purism. Wilderness Watch, which represents the perspective of Wilderness purists, is demanding that the USFS stop planning to clear trails with chainsaws. It argued, in a letter to the USFS, "If chainsaws are used to remove those trees, it is, by definition, no longer Wilderness."

In the past, the USFS has deferred to this perspective. That has now changed.

Links:

https://wildernesswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-FS-WO-03088-F-Final-Response-Records.pdf

https://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/article315713241.html

More information in this thread:

https://forestpolicypub.com/2026/05/09/foia-records-reveal-u-s-forest-service-considering-nationwide-chainsaw-use-in-wilderness/

[The following press release and letter to U.S. U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz from nearly 100 conservation organizations, trail groups, and respected U.S. Forest Service specialists with decades of wilderness administration expertise may be of interest to readers of this blog. - mk] For Rele...

04/14/2026

What is it with these people? 🤔

A group of environmental organizations has called on Missoula County to rescind a $250,000 grant it allocated to a nonprofit to construct a 30-mile mountain biking trail network northeast of Seeley Lake, Montana. The groups argue the trails would damage sensitive ecosystems and wildlife habitats in....

03/31/2026

This news is only tangentially related to STC's mission and efforts. But it is important public-lands news. And it could have an effect.

There should be no paywall.

More than half of the agency’s 4,600 Washington employees will be spread across five regional hubs. The agency is also shuttering regional offices of the U.S. Forest Service.

02/04/2026

This is just FYI. We're not well-informed about this area.

Forest preservationists in the nation’s Heartland are again pushing Congress to nearly triple the size of a Southern Indiana wildland complex in the

01/24/2026

Here's an important and informative article about the bad state of the nation's federal trails.

Many miles of trail have disappeared.

And maps don't reflect the reality of what's been lost.

This admin has seen this personally. Parts of the Continental Divide Trail on the Wyoming-Montana border aren't there anymore. The marker poles are there, but there's no trail. A trail that a NatGeo map says can take you from above Creede, Colo., over to the Wheeler Geologic Area has disappeared.

Probably readers can think of many other examples. For example, it has been said that stretches of the Pacific Crest Trail no longer exist in a way that's navigable.

It seems that little is being done about it.

Government-issued maps offer a promise for safely exploring our public lands, but they no longer reflect the reality of what’s actually on the ground.

11/12/2025

The Victor and Driggs, Idaho-based trail runner whom the president pardoned was interviewed this evening on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio. Forward to 37:10 in the podcast (link below, no paywall).

Highlights (see our previous post for context):

1. The trail, while unofficial, has been used since the 1930s with no issues.

2. The runner was competing in a competition in which everyone since 1939, with one exception, has run on that trail.

3. When charged with a crime for running on it, he and his lawyer offered to do community service that would entail helping keep the trail closed, but the prosecutor wanted a conviction at all costs, one that would leave him with a criminal record. It would also result in a five-year ban on visiting the park.

4. He doesn't know the president, doesn't seem to have any political leanings in his direction, and doesn't know how the president learned about this prosecutorial overreach.

This is, of course, one of the federal agencies that collectively have declared riding a bicycle to be a crime on a significant portion of our public lands.

This is why STC exists: to stop the nonsense. Five bills in support have been introduced in Congress. We continue to work behind the scenes.

Here's the link to the segment:

11/11/2025

The president has pardoned a runner whom the National Park Service prosecuted for going off a trail.

"'We’re not done fighting against unconstitutional regulations that give low-level park officials the power to criminalize harmless conduct,' Michael P**n, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement on Monday."

It may not be unconstitutional, but it is stupid. It's a reminder of the agencies' unwillingness to reconsider allowing bicycles, baby strollers, and game carts in Wilderness, which also would be harmless.

No paywall.

Michelino Sunseri broke a speed record for running up and down the Wyoming peak, but was convicted of using a restricted path.

11/04/2025

A reporter for the Arizona Republic newspaper rides as much of the Arizona Trail as she's allowed to.

In passing, she mentions: "... I rode into Payson well after dark on the bike bypass route around the Mazatzal Wilderness — bicycles are strictly banned from wilderness areas even where drilling, mining and logging operations find a way in ...."

STC remains active, in case anyone is wondering, and we're working on things. Stay tuned.

Hikers, hunters, ranchers and others share the Arizona Trail, but can their goals ever align?

11/27/2024

When Congress reconvenes in January we will have the best opportunity in a long time to advance the legislation we've been seeking since STC started in 2015. We are working on it. Stay tuned.

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