With cuts to U.S. land management, volunteer hikers pick up the slack in local trails

The trail to Lower Stevens Lake is surrounded by a thick wall of tall pine and fir trees. The ground is covered in verdant green and ripe huckleberries. In fact, the whole ground there seems ripe and fertile.

But it wasn’t always that way.

Abandoned entrances to mine shafts and an occasional rusty railroad track leave hints to what purpose this land once served: a stomping ground for miners and others looking for fortune at the cost of the nature around them.

The once almost barren woods left more than a century ago are a far cry to what remains today, and without proper attention and maintenance, avid hikers like the Spokane Mountaineers worry about what could become of these lands.

Wide-sweeping federal cuts to the U.S. Forest Service have caused many hiking trails to go untouched. Without federally paid seasonal trail workers, the burden is largely placed on volunteer hiking groups.

“People have come out here since the 1800s,” said Chic Burge, photographer and historian for the Spokane Mountaineers. “To lose that part of our life just infuriates me.”

The Spokane Mountaineers is just one group cleaning up and building trails all over the Inland Northwest. The members are walking slowly and picking up trash, digging trenches to reroute water and cutting fallen trees. On June 28, they set their sights on Lower Stevens Lake, a trail that starts a tad south of Interstate 90 in Shoshone County, Idaho, an increasingly popular destination for campers and hikers alike.

Lynn Smith, a 76 -year-old retired science teacher, led the hike and said he’s frustrated by President Donald Trump’s cuts to forestry.

“We’re the only ones up here doing this,” Smith said. “We do all the work up here.”

The Northern Region of the U.S. Forest Service has 25 million acres of public land across Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana and the Dakotas, including the Stevens Lake trail.

After Trump’s Deferred Resignation Program, which gave federal workers a choice between resignation or reforms to their work contract, the Forest Service laid off around 3,400 employees in February. Exempt from the layoffs were firefighters, but employees who worked on trail maintenance were especially affected, according to reporting from the New York Times.

The 3,400 layoffs represent about 10% of the Forest Service’s workforce of around 35,000. In August, the chief of the Forest Service said in a statement that the budget could be limited in the future and in preparation for that, he froze all seasonal hires, including people who help maintain trails.

The Spokesman-Review reached out to the Idaho Panhandle National Forest and the Colville National Forest to ask how the cuts affected them but were directed to a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson.

The spokesperson said 15,182 employees across the Department of Agriculture, which includes the Forest Service, chose to resign due to the Deferred Resignation Program. The email from the spokesperson said former President Joe Biden and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “left USDA in complete disarray, including hiring thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them.”

The spokesperson also said current Secretary Brooke Rollins is working to reorient the department to be “more effective and efficient at serving the American people.” The email noted Rollins exempted 52 positions from the federal hiring freeze, most of which emphasized public safety like firefighters and emergency responders, but trail workers did not make the list.

“I think it’s really short -sighted,” Ken Delanoy, a member of the Mountaineers, said. “To be out in nature for the betterment of your own mental health, there’s just so many positives to it. Once you stop maintaining these trails, people are going to be cut off.”

The latest national visitor use report from the U.S. Forest Service in 2023 also estimated that national forests have seen an increase of almost 10 million visitors since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for 245 million acres of land across the United States and also does work to maintain its trails. Like the Forest Service, the bureau saw a 41% increase in visitors since 2012.

However, last year, the bureau’s budget was reduced by $81 million from a total of $1.7 billion. The Trump administration also laid off 2,300 employees of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.

The federal cuts stem from the Trump administration’s goal to lessen government spending and increase efficiency, but hikers like Smith argue that the upkeep of natural land is far too important to cut out, especially with their growing popularity.

“What frustrates me is it’s like having a car: ‘I’m going to cut corners to save money and not change the oil,’ ” Smith said. “Somewhere down the line it’s going to kick you in the butt.”

Despite their frustrations, the Mountaineers decided to do what they knew would make a difference: trail work. Walking up the trail to Stevens Lake, it didn’t take long to see the impact the mountaineers had made.

A small, calm stream trickled through a trench dug out by Burge. He explained that without a proper route to direct the water, it can flow in unexpected directions making the trail harder to cross and slowly eroding it.

Just a little further up the trail 21 logs 2½ feet wide lined the woods that Smith cut years prior when the giant red fir fell across the trail.

“Every tree you see cut, that was him,” Burge said. “Maybe only 5-10% wasn’t him.”

Delanoy, a 68-year-old retired diesel mechanic, tagged along wearing a Washington Trails Association hard hat, and leather gloves to help pick up sticks. Delanoy said he picked up hiking in his retirement.

“I wanted to get out of there while I had something left,” Delanoy said. “I was so busy during my adult life I didn’t get to do a lot of stuff I probably wish I had done when I was younger.”

Bob Peragoy, 68, said he likes the community the Mountaineers bring on top of enjoying the outdoors.

“When you’re old you become invisible,” Peragoy said. “It’s nice coming out here and getting to hang out with everybody.”

As a historian, Burge liked telling the history of the mines and railroad, but said he wasn’t always like that, thinking it was a waste of time in high school. Burge also adopted the Stevens Lake trail as well as others nearby to help with the upkeep.

“When I adopted it I knew it would be a lifelong thing till I couldn’t get to the trail anymore,” Burge said. “I just want to keep it open so people can come up and see the beauty.”

Burge nominated Smith to become an honorary member of the Mountaineers 15 years ago after Smith had led 672 hikes over many years.

“He’s done more than all of us combined,” Burge said.

Smith said that doing trail work just makes him happy and gives him purpose.

“When you retire you have to do something that’s larger than yourself,” Smith said. “Trail work, that’s everything.”

Walking up the trail, Peragoy used a handsaw to cut down overhanging branches and trees blocking the trail, Burge and Delanoy helped pick up debris and trash and carried it off to the side, and Smith, with his 16-inch bar chainsaw, cut through six fallen trees.

Around halfway up the trail a fallen fir almost 30 feet tall with a diameter of about 20 inches was blocking two parts of the trail at a switchback. Smith began sawing the tree but the weight of it pinched the bar causing it to get stuck. Peragoy, who had the wedges that could be used to free saws in situations like this, was further up the trail picking huckleberries , unable to be reached.

Burge and Delanoy were resourceful, finding a long dead pole-like tree to use as a lever lifting up the giant fir and freeing the bar. From there the tree was easily cut into smaller logs that Burge rolled off the trail after admiring the age shown by many warped rings.

The group had success, but with them all approaching old age, they said they hoped the next generation would pick up the saws and follow suit.

Smith and Delanoy said most of the volunteers in the Mountaineers and the Washington Trail Association are retired but they do have some younger members. Most younger members are busy with jobs so they only have weekends to help with trail work.

Smith said as he gets older the longer treks get harder for him, noting he did his final backpacking trip last year.

“I’m slowing down,” Smith said. “I’ve never been a superman, but I could stay ahead … but that’s OK .”

He said he can see himself doing smaller trails with a walking stick the rest of his life. Smith even joked to the others that if he ever dies on the trail, he hopes he has a heart attack just five minutes away from the trail head so they wouldn’t have to drag him far.

Burge had a similar sentiment saying he’d be walking trails the rest of his life but hopes a new generation will take over after him.

“That’s my worry, I’m 79, who’s going to do this after me,” Burge said.

Smith said the Mountaineers has seen growing interest among younger people especially with the more extreme climbing programs. Smith also counted 73 people among the trail and even more at the campsite of all ages, including children.

The Mountaineers agreed that in recent years Stevens Lake has become a popular trail due to the great view, and since its 4.6 miles long with an elevation gain of 1,600 feet it makes a good testing ground for prospective hikers. Both Burge and Smith said they can remember a time when they’d rarely see anybody using the trail.

“More and more people are using these trails every year,” Smith said. “We have got to take care of it.”

Around 3½ hours into the hike, the group reached Lower Stevens Lake. The green -sided mountains seemed to cup the deep blue pool and looking over it all was a crown of rocky peaks with small patches of cornices.

“There’s not a lot left,” Burge said, looking at the snow on the mountain. “Five weeks ago that was all white.”

Delanoy recognized the impact climate change has had on the trails, noticing things like less snow and certain berries and flowers ripening early. Delanoy worried that with less snow to melt in the summer, there would be less water leading to an increasingly dry cycle.

“It’s a chain,” Delanoy said. “You break the chain and there’s going to be an adverse response.”

With the effects of climate change taking place, Delanoy said, it’s even more important to maintain the trails.

Burge added he used to come up to the surrounding area frequently when he was younger to backcountry ski. He would lay down and listen to the booming sound of the cornices falling. And in the summer he’d take a canoe and said it was so peaceful and quiet he could fall asleep.

Now campsites dot the area surrounding the trail and the air is filled with the noise of happy campers. Unfortunately, the camping takes a toll on the scenery. Abandoned campfires and litter scattered the land surrounding the lake.

Burge pulled a plastic grocery bag out of his pack and rushed to the lake to fill it with water which he then poured on an abandoned fire pit that was still hot. Because of the amount of fires and litter Burge has seen in recent years, he urged hikers to carry plastic trash bags as one of their now 14 essentials. It used to be 10 but things like plastic bags, signaling devices, paper towels and a shovel for burying excrement were added.

“If this all burns away, we’re not going to live long enough to see it come back,” Peragoy said.

After around a half hour of picking up the campsite, the group began to head back down the trail.

“I like to look at all the work I’ve done and pat myself on the back,” Burge said as he passed the large logs that once blocked the trail.

After what felt like a shorter trip on the way down, the group sat at a picnic table with drinks and snacks to reflect on the day.

“It’s an interesting world,” Delanoy said. “The longer you live the more you see things change.”

Although the four might not be able to change things like federal budget cuts, the occasional expression of thanks from a fellow hiker and the satisfaction of a hard day’s work out in nature seemed to be enough.

In an email sent to the Spokane Mountaineers about the day, Smith said, “I think if we don’t do it, it won’t get done. The Agency has gotten budget cuts for a long time but nothing like this year, and I fear the next four. On a positive note, we had blue skies, great scenery, and our work made an obvious improvement on the trail.”

After thanking those that participated Smith signed off with the same quote he’s been using for years, “Days spent on the trails are not deducted from one’s lifetime.”