GAO Report: 1/4 of USFS trails meet standards, maintenance backlog over $520 million

GAO Report: 1/4 of USFS trails meet standards, maintenance backlog over $520 million

July 8, 2013Matthew KoehlerLeave a commentGo to comments

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) titled, “Forest Service Trails: Long- and Short-Term Improvements Could Reduce Maintenance Backlog and Enhance System Sustainability” was released recently.

According to the report, one-quarter of the Forest Service’s 158000 miles of trails met the agency’s standards, and the estimated trail maintenance backlog is $314 million, with an additional $210 million for annual maintenance, capital improvements and operations.

Add this big-ticket maintenance backlog to the growing $8.4 billion maintenance and reconstruction backlog the Forest Service current has on it’s 380,000+ miles of roads (and the fact that the Forest Service only receives 20% of the annual maintenance funding it needs to maintain its existing 380,000+ mile road system to environmental and safety standards) and one gets a sense just how far the Forest Service (and Congress) has dug the Forest Service’s backlogged maintenance hole.

Click here for a copy of the GAO report. A Missoulian article about the report is available here.

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The rest of the blog post is http://ncfp.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/gao-report-14-of-usfs-trails-meet-standards-maintenance-backlog-over-520-million/