Maintenance for Colorado’s Trails Greatly Underfunded

That is what the Gazette’s OutThereColorado is reporting:

In Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, volunteers with the Rocky Mountain Field Institute have been working for years on projects in South Colony Basin, a stunning valley used by climbers to access four 14,000-foot peaks.

But after all of that time spent digging trails, moving heavy rocks and repairing the damage of thousands of boots a year, the nonprofit had a “tough fight” just to squeeze $7,000 from the U.S. Forest Service for this summer’s work. They had to increase the fees student volunteers pay to get course credit for their work.

“I’m really worried, looking forward into the future as to how we’re going to continue what has been an incredibly positive and effective partnership,” said Rebecca Reed Jewett, executive director of the Colorado Springs-based organization. “If they don’t have the funding to support us, I don’t know how we can continue to bring volunteers.”

Outdoors-loving volunteers across the country are in similar straits. A government watchdog agency has found that hiking trails in national forests suffer from a $314 million backlog in maintenance, with only a quarter of the 158,000 miles of trails meeting national quality standards.  [OutThereColorado.com]

You can read the rest at the link, but in my opinion so far despite the underfunding the trails in Colorado remain for the most part in good shape.  This could of course change depending on how long the underfunding continues.