Trail clearing

[Treeaddict]

It’s come to my attention that one of the side trails of a public (county owned property) trail system needs a few smaller blow downs cut up to open it up.

A state park needs a large, multi lead beech cut off the trail.

My uncle in New Hampshire just takes his electric chainsaw with him and does trail maintenance as needed. That’s probably acceptable up there.

I’m wondering if I’d get locked up, fined, have my saw and bike confiscated, or combinations of those options if I just went and opened the trails up. We’re a heavily regulated state. Obviously someone does this maintenance because I see evidence every 300’. There’s a trail club who does maintenance for the state park trails but I’m not trying to join a club at this point.

Has anyone here performed trail maintenance?

 

[Tree09]

I have, but it was usually through another organization doing that, and is worth the trouble. Boy scout eagle projects (others not mine since i dropped out when i was younger), key club, etc. I have also done work for homeowners who had a paved bike trail going through their backyard that was maintained by a crew driving a bucket truck down the trail, and they simply left everything where it fell. So i removed some other hazard trees and cleaned that up for them, paying job. The biggest problem i see is that the controlling entity doesn't have your insurance info, they will worry about you getting hurt and trying to sue, so they're not going to be super receptive to the idea. You could likely volunteer to do so for them, but if it's been bid they'll likely just make the guy who they're paying do a better job. If you are looking to do volunteer work like that check with some of the older cemeteries, they can easily be overgrown because there's less income because it's an older one so they have a smaller budget, and have probably fallen behind on it. I've done invasive stuff for a local one here, new locust trees were taking over the wooded areas so we went in and removed a bunch for them. The park districts would be another option, they have crews but could possibly be looking to sub out some climbing ones that they're not prepared to handle since most of their employees are likely bucket only, obviously depending on the size of the park district and location. Some smaller outlying communities would likely need more help than the larger and better funded urban ones, and as an added side benefit they often have a spot to dump chips that homeowners can use for mulch, so you might end up with a handy dump spot for your troubles. Then there's also an elderly and disabled population that needs similar work done but will never be able to afford it, churches can help assist you in finding the people most in need for that.

 

[flushcut]

I have not but I would call the powers that be first. Better than loosing your gear or worse.

 

[cory]

I've done it too. Low key stuff but the town workers were incapable. Yes, what Flush said

 

[Kaveman]

Often, I ask forginess, not permission. Trail needs opened, I'm here with the proper tools and know how, so I open the trail. Maybe an official isn't happy, oh well, Granny and her fluffy little dog can power walk her favorite route again, and she's grateful!

I do the right thing, I do a good job of it, and I've yet to suffer for it.

 

[Burnham]

With the US Forest Service on the Mt. Hood NF, it used to be not too difficult to make an individual volunteer agreement with a Ranger Station recreation staff to do trailwork. But you had to have attended and passed a chainsaw training/certification class the USFS would offer at no cost before using a chainsaw to do so, no matter what your experience level. All that was liability related, as volunteers get treated the same as employees if they get hurt on the job.

These days, I hear it's only through the auspices of a volunteer organization that this sort of thing is done. I don't know why.

Either way, there have always been folks who decided on their own to take on a trail clearing job, and mostly they didn't get into any hassles with FS peeps. But it has happened on a few occasions in the past, hassles that is...nothing ever of any real consequence, like losing their saw or other tools.

YMMV, as we say .