Angelina/Sabine National Forests Multi Use Trail System

[Tony Eeds]

Interested?

There was a small trail system proposed for the Angelina National Forest in the Broaddus Unit that went through the NEPA and EA/EIS process only to be denied at the regional lever because of lack of public input.

This system fell by the wayside because of some other issues as well, but in December 2008, a group began meeting at the Forest Service offices in Lufkin.

Over the last year we have looked at over a dozen units on the maps, narrowing the list to five that met specific criteria relating to topo, flora, services etc.

These five were visited on the ground during the summer and fall of 2009.

We are meeting with the Forest Supervisor in Lufkin soon and will then schedule a public meeting to discuss the five proposed sites. As this point the likely location for the meeting is the Library in Hemphill.

I will update this thread when I have additional information.

Sincerely,
Tony Eeds
President - 2007-2011
Texas Motorized Trails Coalition

 

[Tony Eeds]

We got the green light from the Forest Supervisor to have our first public meeting on the new trail system.

There are five areas that floated to the top of the discussions during the meetings. After identifying the five, cut from twelve that appeared to be workable in the beginning, we spent the late summer and fall visiting the various units.

They are

• North Toledo
• Boles Field
• Red Hills Lake
• Trail between the Lakes
• Broaddus

These five will be presented at a public meeting to be held in Hemphill. The date is still in the air, but we are shooting for the last week of March. We have to check for available locations.

This will be the first public meeting and there will be other initial meetings scheduled if needed.

This only begins the process as the end result of this exercise will be a decision by the committee as to which unit to select for the multi-use trail system

Following selection the real work begins ... the NEPA has to be completed on the selected unit.

This process will probably take a minimum of 6 months to complete with the decision/approval process taking a similar amount of time.

We still have miles to travel, but the road is clear.

 

[Tony Eeds]

After a false start or two because the meeting had to be "approved" by Washington, the first is scheduled for July 20th in Hemphill.

 

[BSWIFT]

Thanks for all of you hard work, Tony!