Planning for the Future of Trails Means Planning for Fires
Not every landscape or wildfire is the same. Depending on how hot the fire burns, there are different impacts to the environment. Just as each fire and landscape is unique, the on-the-ground response can be just as varied.
By LeeAnne Jensen
Many of us know the feeling of devastation that comes when you learn of a wildfire burning in a beloved area, an area that holds fond memories and transformational landscapes. Fires can mean a tragic loss of lives or homes. And we’re often left wondering what that area will look like once the flames are extinguished. Fire changes an environment; understory vegetation can be destroyed, trees can torch and trails can become ashy moonscapes.
Not every landscape or wildfire is the same. Depending on how hot the fire burns, there are different impacts to the environment. Just as each fire and landscape is unique, the on-the-ground response can be just as varied.
WTA crews worked to restore fire damage in the Noble Knob area near Mount Rainier in 2019. Dealing with wildfire damage is work that we increasingly have to plan for each year. Photo by Jeremy Tarife.
In the past several years, fire recovery has been an increasing part of WTA’s work to keep trails open and accessible. We have worked closely with land managers to ensure trail maintenance will have a positive impact on landscapes after a wildfire. While it takes years for a forest to rejuvenate, land managers prioritize an immediate response within the first 1–3 years post-fire. Year one is dedicated to stabilization. Without vegetation on hillsides, erosion is a problem, especially during heavy rain. Rebuilding drainage structures ensures a trail is able to make it through the initial years after a fire. The next few years focus on repair: assessing structures that may need to be repaired or replaced, restoring visitor access and removing fallen logs from trails.
Holly Weiler, WTA’s eastside trails coordinator, has years of experience working with volunteer crews to restore areas impacted by wildfires and sometimes even restoring the landscape after fire suppression techniques were used. A few years ago, she led work in Riverside State Park to restore a series of switchbacks on a steep hillside on the Knothead Valley Trail. Volunteers spent several days reestablishing the trail bench where it was crossed by the bulldozer line. They also helped rehabilitate the steep hillside. Volunteers used burlap netting to help stabilize the slope to prevent erosion damage and used native grasses, provided by Washington State Parks, to replant the hillside. These actions both gave hikers a clear path to follow and also facilitated the recovery of the surrounding landscape.
In the Southwest region, Ryan Ojerio and his team have worked similarly to restore trails across the region. At Bird Creek Meadows, the work consisted of, among other work over several years, rebuilding bridges that had previously burned, creating access into this area once again. Another impact wildfires have on trails is that removal of the treed canopy allows more light to filter down to the forest floor, which means more brush! Between seasonally cutting back encroaching vegetation from the trail and removing fallen dead trees, cleaning up and restoring a trail system after a fire takes years.
The scene of a recent burn along Andrews Creek. Photo by Rachel Wendling.
Also in the Southwest, WTA volunteers crossed the Columbia River to volunteer with our friends at Trailkeepers of Oregon and the Pacific Crest Trail Association to help with recovery after the Eagle Creek Fire burned across many popular hiking areas in the Columbia River Gorge. It took years of working together to get trails safe and stable enough to reopen.
In the Pasayten, one of WTA’s Lost Trails Found priority areas, we return year after year to clear trails as logs fall after fires — such as in the Andrews Creek area, which burned in 2017. Trees damaged in this event still fall each year. Even once trees have stopped falling, more maintenance is required in former fire areas as brush grows over the trails that now have more sunlight, like in the Chewuch area, which burned 15 years ago.
The reality of a changing climate, limited funding and a growing demand to keep these places accessible means that fire recovery will only become a more important part of our work, from the agility required when new fires are sparked to the long-term planning needed to bring these hikes back to life. This work will require a deep knowledge of trails and a close relationship with land managers, as well as a willingness on behalf of the government and the public to invest in the recovery of these special places.
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