Loowit Trail makes Endangered List

Loowit trail No. 216, the loop around Mount St. Helens severely damaged by flooding two years ago, has made the Washington Trails Association’s list of the state’s endangered trails.

The Seattle-based group annually releases a list of 10 trails facing various threats ranging from lack of maintenance, flood or fire damage, logging or unauthorized off-road-vehicle use.

The Loowit trail is the only Gifford Pinchot National Forest route on this year’s list. In 2007, the Clear Fork (lack of road access) and Goat Mountain (proposed copper mine) trails in the northern Pinchot made the WTA list.

The 30-mile Loowit trail circles Mount St. Helens at about the 4,500-foot elevation level. There are big washouts on the southeast side in the Pine Creek-Muddy River area and a larger chasm on the west side near Sheep Canyon.

In early November of 2006, more than 15 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period on Mount St. Helens, wiping out major roads, too.

WTA identified the west side gully, which is about 2.5 miles north and west of the junction of Loowit and Butte Camp trail No. 238A.

“The gully is impassably steep on both sides, rendering the trail unhikeable,’’ said Jonathan Guzzo, advocacy director for WTA. “Losing the ability to hike around St. Helens in its entirety is not just a lost recreation opportunity but a piece of Northwest history, a bit of the extreme conditions that have made our state so beautiful.’’

The Forest Service is working toward fixing the Loowit trail, said Robin Rose, recreation program manager for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

This year, $9,000 is being spent to the required planning and environmental review for two reroutes of Loowit trail, she said.

About 1,000 feet of the trail will be relocated to connect with Blue Horse trail on the southwest side of Mount St. Helens. Crews from the Northwest Service Academy tentatively are slated to do the work later this year.

The other reroute is the huge washout south of Sheep Canyon. It is estimated the trail will be relocated for .75 to 1 mile, although neither the specific location nor the pricetag have been identified.

Because no bridges or blasting are involved, the work is not expected to have a huge cost, she added.

“Right now, we do not have a funding source identified for the reroute,’’ Rose said. “Our regular trails budget is typically used to accomplish basic reoccurring maintenance on our most popular and highest priority trails. We actually accomplish most trail maintenance through volunteers and partners.’’

Rose said she is optimistic about finding money for the Loowit reroute through a regional competititve process with other Northwest forests or other sources, such as grants.

“The staff out on the monument and other two districts have been amazingly successful finding resources and partners,’’ she said.

In the Pine Creek-Muddy River washouts, the trail tread will be reestablished, plus markers added to better define the route, Rose said.

There may be additional damage from this winter, but access to the Loowit trail is just becoming available as the snow finally melts.

Guzzo said in geologically unstable areas such as Mount St. Helens trails can disappear quickly without regular maintenance.

In January, the Bush administration’s annual budget recommendation to Congress contained a 35 percent cut in trail maintenance operations for the Forest Service.

“Razoring the Forest Service budget so sharply is a recipe for disaster on trails already stressed by a series of winter storms and eastern fires,’’ Guzzo said. “When we neglect our national forest trails and roads, they lash back by slumping, growing over, sliding down hillside and washing out.’’

In June, the House Interior Appropriations Committee approved national forest recreation increases of 6 percent over fiscal year 2008 levels.

Volunteers just from WTA have donated more than 600,000 hours in the past decade working on trails in the state, including extensive efforts in Southwest Washington.

Volunteers rallied to the aid of Mount Rainier National Park in 2007 in an unprecedented effort to get Washington’s crown jewel in shape for visitors, Guzzo said.

The administration’s budget would cut 1,200 staff positions on Forest Service lands nationally, he said.

“Volunteers can only do so much,’’ Guzzo said.