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Volunteers Help in Hiking Trail Work

MONDAY, 30 APRIL 2007

Septuagenarians Jim Knoke and Pete Dewell are hiking trail volunteers who dig the soil, chop trails, and transport boulders the size of small cars. They are both Washington Trails Association volunteers.

Last Thursday, Knoke and Dewell moved a chunk of granite as big as a baby grand piano using their engineering skills and a pair of five-foot steel bars with the help of a half-dozen other volunteers. "It's all muscle power," Dewell said. Volunteers like Knoke and Dowell are the most valuable resource that the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest has.

The forest has been damaged by the winter storms in 2003 and 2006, amounting to $5 million in loss. For more than a decade, the forest also suffers from decreasing maintenance budgets. This year, the forest got $15,000 of the budget for flood and fire damage repairs. A request for additional money has been filed at the US Senate, but none in the House.

Gary Paull, the trails coordinator for the national forest, will be using most of the budget in paying overhead costs for managing volunteer trail crews. Before, in less than two decades ago, trail work is done by professional crews. Now, the national forest depends on volunteers like Knoke and Dewell for trail work.

For more information, read the full news story at seattlepi.nwsource.com.

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