New Forest Service budgeting process could impact backcountry trails work

Some folks are getting fussed about how a new Forest Service budgeting process could impact backcountry trails work. Region 1, which includes the Flathead National Forest, is one of the regions trying out this approach . . .

A U.S. Forest Service cleanup program repaired or removed more than 1,000 of roads and trails in Montana over a recent five-year period. Now its advocates worry a new budgeting process could squelch that momentum…

But that momentum could be lost under a new budgeting system the Forest Service let some of its regions try. Missoula-headquartered Region 1 is one of the pilot sites for Integrated Resource Restoration budgeting, which combines money from five task-related budget pools into single buckets defined by landscapes or watersheds.

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