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Pictured above is a clear cut completed in January 2008 on private land in Washington, 3.5 miles north of the Bridge of the Gods. The parcel, through which the PCT passes for approximately 1/2 mile, is owned by Longview Fibre, which has an office in nearby Stevenson, Wash. While unsightly and damaging to the trail’s tread, this timber harvest was well within Longview Fibre’s rights as dictated by the PCT’s current easement through the property. That easement (from 1982) affords the trail and its users the right to pass through the property but retains Longview Fibre’s privileges to conduct all logging activities so long as the trail is not blocked or littered. Soon after the timber harvest occurred, local PCTA volunteers conducted a work party to repair tread damage to the trail due to heavy logging equipment and to disperse leftover tree litter. More logging is planned on the parcel, near Gillette Lake, in the next few years.
The situation with this landholding and the PCT’s minimal easement through it is an excellent example of why the PCTA is working diligently to secure stronger easements for the trail and to, ideally, help the U.S. Forest Service or other land stewards acquire private parcels for long-term protection. An optimal trail location review (OLR) for this area was completed and signed earlier this year. “This means,” says Dana Berthold, PCTA's Regional Representative for Northern Oregon and Southern Washington, “that we have gone through the necessary process to determine the optimal route for the trail in the area, and this gives us the foundation we need to show that long-term protection is needed here.” Next steps, says Berthold, include incorporating this into the PCTA’s inventory of all privately held parcels through which the PCT passes from Mexico to Canada and prioritizing that list so that the PCTA and its partners can, when we have willing sellers, direct resources and efforts to those areas under the greatest threat. This process is already underway.
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Overview
