Just a few miles away from Vancouver – Portland metro area, some big changes are planned for the Yacolt Burn State Forest.
The goal? Creating new opportunities for recreation.
A new management plan proposed by Washington DNR calls for a major expansion of hiking and off-road trails. This includes:
- Building 20-miles of new hiking trails, bringing the total to 55-miles.
- Increasing the miles of motorized trails by 500%, from 14-miles to 73-miles.
- Separating quiet users from off-roaders by giving them different zones in the forest. The goal is to reduce conflicts between these two groups. DNR says it’s also safer when hikers and off-roaders don’t share trails.
- Improving current campsites and trailheads and building new ones.
DNR says two million people live within 45-minutes of the Yacolt Burn State Forest. The western side, where all these new trails will be built, gets about 50,000 visitors annually.
All that attention has created some problems. DNR says it’s dealing with more vandalism, arson, abandoned vehicles and garbage dumping.
Another issue – some 170-miles of unofficial off-road trails that run through ecologically sensitive areas and across streams. Not only do they damage the environment, DNR says many of them are unsafe for riders. The new plan calls for decommissioning nearly all of them.
DNR is holding a public meeting on the plan in Vancouver on Thursday, June 3, starting at 6:30pm. The location is the Clark County Regional Wastewater Building at 8000 NE 52nd Ct, in Vancouver. Written and e-mail comments are being taken until June 1.
The Yacolt Burn State Forest covers about 90,000 acres in Clark and Skamania counties in Washington. This plan affects about 40-000 acres, nearly all of which are in Clark County.
For more information:
Washington DNR: Western Yacolt Burn Forest Recreation Plan
