Tahuya Forest Closure

Message from the Northwest Motorcycle Association:


VOLUNTEER TRAIL WORKERS NEEDED!

The recent severe storms have caused a lot of flooding and damage to our western Washington riding areas. Tahuya Multiple use area is closed until further notice. This closure is being actively enforced.
The Department of Natural Resources is working on assessing the damages and determining what will be needed to get the Tahuya trails open again.
Capitol Forest will also need a lot of work to get things in shape for the spring opener.
We are asking everyone to please get your name on the Volunteer Trail Worker Email list. Now more than ever we need your help to repair our riding areas for regular use.

Please send an email to:

pokerruns@nmaoffroad.org
re: Volunteer trail work.

As soon as work parties are scheduled an email notice will be sent out with all the What, Where, When info.
We greatly appreciate your participation in helping to keep our riding areas open.

The following is From Sam Jarrett, Department of Natural Resources:

would first like to say ‘Thank You’ to all who volunteered, during their weekends, to help DNR gather the crucial information to compile and complete our trail and campground storm damage assessment. As you can imagine, our Trail Crew is very busy working to fix the damage and improve our trails one mile at a time. We are currently coordinating our trail work with the Mission Creek Correctional Crews to improve our efficiency and to help speed up this long and difficult process as best we can. However, we need your help to get the job done as quickly and effectively as possible.

This Saturday, December 15th, @ 9:00 AM the DNR will be hosting a trail rehabilitation demonstration and work party. We may disperse from the meeting locations depending on the number of volunteers who turn out. The focus will be on check dam and rolling dip water bar installation, as well as clearing the trail corridors. These preventative trail erosion maintenance techniques are an important step towards reducing further erosion to our trails. The DNR will provide a limited amount of tools (shovels, pulaskis, rock bars, hard hats, etc...) Please bring gloves, chainsaws, and any other tools you have. The DNR will not be able to provide everyone with the necessary personal protective equipment and work tools. Also, please fill out the volunteer sign up form when arrive at the work party staging area. This is required before doing any volunteer labor on trails or in campgrounds.

In the mean time, for those of you that are interested in volunteering immediately we have lots of downed trees on our trails. Feel free to remove downed trees and clear the trail corridor, if you are already signed up as a volunteer and feel comfortable bucking trees out. I do not recommend riding an ORV on the trails at this time, I recommend hiking along the trails with a saw if you wish to clear the trail corridor. Many hazards still exists and will remain, until our Trail Crew can fix problematic areas utilizing heavy equipment. The Mission Creek Trail has the most trees down at this time. Thanks for your help.

Again,


Locations: Tahuya State Forest (Eflendahl Staging Trail Head)
Date: Saturday, December 15th
Time: 9:00 AM

Sam Jarrett
WA DNR- SPS Region
Recreation Manager- Belfair/Hood Canal Units
sam.jarrett@dnr.wa.gov


The Northwest Motorcycle Association will be providing coffee / pastries in the morning and hot dogs / Wired energy drinks at lunch time thanks to John Castaneda, NMA Poker Run Coordinator.

Any new info on Tahuya? I was hoping to go riding next month over there.

mgouras said:

Any new info on Tahuya? I was hoping to go riding next month over there.

Click to expand...

Tahuya is still closed.

Here is an update from the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

++++++

Hello, Tahuya/Green Mtn. Focus Group Members and others interested in recreation in these areas.

I just wanted to update everyone on this list that all trails, trailheads, and campgrounds in Tahuya and Green Mountain State Forests are still temporarily closed due to the unsafe conditions from the severe flooding caused by the storm damage. Our trail crew and volunteers are working hard to fix the problem areas. Our goal is to re-open the trail system by the last weekend in January. This is not a guarantee and the trail system will be offered with some limitations due to several trail bridges and sections of forest roads being severely damaged.

I have received many requests for ways you can help fix the trail problems associated with the flooding from the storm damage. Last Saturday the DNR hosted trail work parties at both Tahuya State Forest and Green Mountain State Forest. We had a good turnout considering the harsh weather conditions. Most of the trail damage is related to erosion of the trail tread resulting in deep rutting. Heavy equipment, utilized by our trail crew, will be the only way to fix some of the problems. They are working hard at this time to fix these areas, but they can only cover so many miles at a time.

For those interested we are going to have another work party beginning at 9:00 AM on January 19th, 2008, located at the Elfendahl Staging Trail Head in Tahuya State Forest and Gold Creek Trail Head in Green Mountain State Forest. The goal will be to install some culverts, waterbars, check dams, fill ruts, and re-route short sections of trail. The DNR has a limited capacity to coordinate a lot of volunteers, so please only attend if you have trail maintenance and rebuilding experience. We do not have enough equipment and personal protective gear to outfit you either, so please bring shovels, pulaskis, gloves, hardhats, chaps, saws, etc…Attached are the mandatory volunteer sign up sheets, please have these filled out for the day of the work party if you plan on attending. Also, I have included some good trail maintenance technique drawings for your reference.

For any questions concerning this work party please contact Ray Minish, at the following email address: ray.minish@dnr.wa.gov

Again,

Locations: Tahuya State Forest (Eflendahl Staging Trail Head) and

Green Mtn. State Forest (Gold Creek Trail Head)


Date: Saturday, January19th

Time: 9:00 AM


Sam Jarrett
WA DNR- SPS Region
Recreation Manager- Belfair/Hood Canal Units

Per Sam Jarrett w/ the DNR, the grand reopening of much of the riding area will be this Saturday, Jan. 12. Many of the trails adjacent to the Tahuya River are still closed pending repairs and/or re-route.

There is the closure map:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/Tod701/TahuyaTempClosures.jpg

And the message from the DNR:

The attached map displays the temporary closures due to the December 3rd flooding damage. Even after hard work by volunteers and the DNR Trail Crew a few areas remain temporarily closed. Most damage is located on sections of the Mission Creek, Overland, and Howell Lake Trails. Trail bridge closures are located on the Tahuya River Horse Camp Bridge, Kammenga Campground Bridge, and the Mission Creek Trail Bridge on the Overland Trail. The attached map incorrectly depicts the Twin Lakes Rd. concrete bridge as being closed. This is not accurate. The black box indicating the closure should depict the Tahuya River Horse Camp Trail Bridge closure adjacent to Tahuya River Horse Camp spanning the Tahuya River. We apologize for this inaccuracy, but due to time constraints we are sending out this map.

Please periodically check the DNR web site for an improved map displaying the closures. Olympia personnel are working to update the existing Tahuya State Forest Trail Map with the changes displayed on this email’s primitive trail map.

Thank you for your patience

Sam Jarrett
WA DNR- SPS Region
Recreation Manager- Belfair/Hood Canal Units