Diverging approaches taken to Pacific Northwest Trail

Advocates for re-routing a regional stretch of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail said their stance isn’t driven solely by fears that the existing route affects a vulnerable population of grizzly bears in the Yaak Valley.

The Yaak Valley Forest Council and Friends of the Southern Route hosted a small gathering Feb. 16 at Cabinet Mountain Brewery in Libby to share updates about the re-route effort.

It’s not just about bears, they said.

They suggested the alternative route they favor for the regional segment of the 1,200-mile National Scenic Trail boasts other key advantages.

The roughly 160-mile alternative features more peaks, they emphasized, providing high elevation experiences in the Salish Mountains and Cabinet Mountains. It encounters the scenic Kootenai River Valley, they said, where “the river varies from big and broad to the rushing waters in the China Rapids Canyon and over Kootenai Falls.”

And they said their alternative route, which would travel east of Lake Koocanusa and south of U.S. 2, provides access for through hikers to Libby and Troy, towns where the backpackers can resupply, rest, shower, launder clothes and phone home.

A Yaak Valley Forest Council brochure refers to Libby and Troy as “trail towns.” Few would disagree that both communities could use even a seasonal economic contribution from through hikers and the family members and friends who might meet them for a brief rendezvous.

Robyn King, executive director of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, and other council staff said they believe the re-route would be a win-win-win: a win for hikers and grizzlies and a win for Libby and Troy.

That’s not the view of Jeff Kish, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Trail Association, based in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. He didn’t mince words.

“It’s a lose-lose-lose, especially for the hikers,” Kish said.

He said he spent a day last year with backers of the southern alternative and then, using maps and GPS coordinates, investigated the route. Kish said the bulk of the proposed route he traveled followed Forest Service roads, not trails. He said he was able to drive roughly 87 miles of the proposed re-route.

National Scenic Trails are supposed to be primarily non-motorized, Kish said.

He said the southern route proposed by the Yaak Valley Forest Council and others could be the greatest setback for the National Scenic Trail system since it was established in 1968.

Jane Jacoby, conservation director for the Yaak Valley Forest Council, responded to Kish’s criticisms.

“We’re sorry to hear that Jeff continues to misrepresent the re-route, and ignore the southern route’s benefits to hikers: public transportation, medical care, resupply options, additional high-points and scenic vistas,” Jacoby said.

“We did meet with him last spring, and offered to take him out on our route. He declined to take us up on that offer,” she said.

“Our proposed re-route does include some sections of Forest Service roads, but is not dissimilar to the current route, one third of which is on open roads, according to the U.S. Forest Service,” Jacoby added. “If the re-route doesn’t work for a National Scenic Trail, then perhaps the existing route doesn’t either.”

Anthony South, field crew leader for the Yaak Valley Forest Council, said the existing trail and the alternative have comparable paved mileage.

He said the alternative favored by the council offers encounters with 10 prominent mountains along its path, compared to six prominent mountains along the existing route.

South said the existing trail bisects more than 26 miles of core grizzly habitat and that the alternative cuts through only about 6.79 miles of such habitat at the northern edge of the Cabinet Mountains.

The Pacific Northwest Trail, established in 2009, travels from Glacier National Park to Olympic National Park. Portions of the trail remain unmarked and require skill with map and compass to navigate. As a result, the number of annual through-hikers has been small.

Kish said imperfect estimates suggest about 75 people completed a through hike in 2019.

But his organization and others anticipate use will increase in the years ahead.

And that’s a concern of the Yaak Valley Forest Council and supporters who fear the current route, which passes through core grizzly habitat, imperils a small population of the threatened species.

Doug Peacock, author of “Grizzly Years” and a renowned defender of grizzly bears, has expressed opposition to the Pacific Northwest Trail’s potential for funneling thousands of hikers through grizzly habitat in the Yaak.

“I happen to like grizzly bears and eventually cramming 4,000 or more hikers per year through this tiny corridor will destroy the Yaak grizzly population; encounters along the trail are inevitable and almost always settled with the bear losing her life,” Peacock wrote in June 2018.

Writer Rick Bass, chairman of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, wrote a related opinion piece in June 2017 for “High Country News.”

Like Peacock, Bass lamented the impact of the Pacific Northwest Trail’s current route on grizzlies and on the sensitive and diverse ecosystems in the Yaak Valley.

“There are still a few places in the world that are simply not appropriate for high-volume industrial recreation,” Bass wrote.

He too cited the figure of 4,000 hikers a year, a number that the Yaak Valley Forest Council no longer believes accurately reflects what the trail’s allowable carrying capacity would be per the U.S. Forest Service if the trail continues to pass through core grizzly habitat.

“The good news is 4,000 hikers would not be able to use the trail as was initially feared,” Jacoby said.

“The bad news is no one might be able to; that even locals’ and outfitters’ use would require a lottery system,” she said. “Clearly, a solution is needed.”

Jacoby said Kish and others who oppose the re-route “might do well to consider working with locals toward a solution.”

“Clearly, one is needed,” she said.

Bass and Peacock have noted that the late and much esteemed bear biologist Charles Jonkel had proposed a southern route alternative that Bass has described as better, safer and more visually appealing than the current route.

Meanwhile, in August the Yaak Valley Forest Council filed suit in federal court against the Forest Service “on behalf of the Yaak Valley’s last 25 grizzly bears.” The council’s suit alleged that the federal agency failed to adequately assess the impacts of the Pacific Northwest Trail’s route through designated core grizzly habitat in the Yaak.

The lawsuit noted that that Forest Service has not completed a Comprehensive Management Plan required by the congressional legislation authorizing the trail as a National Scenic Trail in 2009 and has not established a related advisory council.

Less than two months after the Yaak council filed suit against the Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, of which the Forest Service is an agency, filed notice in the Federal Register that it “intends to renew the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail Advisory Council.”

The notice said the council will provide advice and recommendations during the development of the Comprehensive Management Plan for the trail.

In a Feb. 19 email, Becky Blanchard, the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail Administrator, declined to comment about the status of an advisory council, citing the litigation. Blanchard is based in Portland, Oregon.

Recently, the Yaak Valley Forest Council has reached out to businesspeople in Libby and Troy and secured signatures that express the businesses’ support for at least continuing conversations about the potential re-route. The businesses in Libby that signed on included a hardware store, grocery store, laundromat, restaurant and a motel.

The Pacific Northwest Trail Association’s website lists potential resupply towns along the existing route for through hikers. Included regionally are Eureka, Rexford and Yaak.

King said Yaak is not really a viable option for most hikers seeking resupply because of the distance from the trail.

During the Feb. 16 gathering at Cabinet Mountain Brewing, Jacoby encouraged people to attend the upcoming meetings in Libby of the Governor’s Grizzly Bear Advisory Council to express support for the alternative route.

Attendees at the Feb. 16 meeting included Ron Catlett, a Kalispell-based field representative for U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, and Sonny Capece, a Missoula-based field representative for U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte. The men said they were simply gathering information for their Republican bosses about the issues involved in the proposed re-route, which would require an act of Congress.

Later, Jacoby said the Yaak Valley Forest Council will continue to do what it can to build support for the southern alternative.

“We are committed to providing a scenic, safe route for those — including local businesses — who want it, despite increasing calls from other Montanans to deauthorize the route altogether,” Jacoby said.