For the past nine months, scores of volunteers have pitched in at Reiter Foothills Forest to help get the area reopened for recreation. Here’s rundown on what’s been done to date:
- DNR has sponsored 12 volunteer work parties (with ongoing opportunities every first Saturday and third Sunday of each month).
- Decommissioned unauthorized trails.
- Stabilized stream banks at May, Hogarty, and Austin creeks and other tributaries and unnamed streams.
- Planted native vegetation in areas being restored.
- Installed signs and a kiosk.
- Started a forest watch patrol with trained volunteers.
- Trained volunteer crew leaders to help DNR staff with work parties.
- Helped design and lay out potential trails for motorized and non-motorized recreation, both in focus group sessions and out in the field.
It’s impressive to see the progress at Reiter Foothills Forest. We have come this far, thanks to the dedicated volunteers and user groups who show up—rain or shine—for work parties or give up their evenings to participate in focus group strategy sessions. And we’ve completed work on a recreation plan for Reiter.
As for the $64,000 question: When will Reiter reopen? Our original intent was to open sections of the existing forest roads this month. But we heard loud and clear from the recreation community that opening the roads—without the restoration and trail system completed—would not be the best approach.
In fact, a coalition of leaders and members of off-road vehicle groups and a mountain bike organization met last week with Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark to express their concerns about opening Reiter before trail systems are in place.
“We told the commissioner that opening just the forest roads would encourage and facilitate illegal use of the area and compromise the entire project,” said Neil Stamp, member of the Northwest Motorcycle Association and a Reiter forest watch volunteer. “We would like DNR to focus their resources on completing the restoration work and getting the trail systems developed before reopening the area.”
Stephen Morris, a volunteer with the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, agrees. He also attended the meeting with Commissioner Goldmark.
“There’s very little value to opening just a few miles of forest roads,” said Stephen Morris, member and advocate for the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. “We can ride on roads anywhere. So much is at stake for doing this right the first time.”
“I really appreciate DNR’s vision and their approach to listening to all the different users about the future of Reiter Foothills,” Morris added.
So what needs to happen before Reiter will reopen? DNR will need to apply for various permits, and many of the trails must undergo site-specific review through the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) process. You can learn more about the steps to reopen Reiter Foothills Forest from a fact sheet we prepared in March.
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