Road decommissioning proposed across National Forest

Hot Springs, Va. – Road decommissioning is proposed across the National Forest. This is District Ranger Patrick Sheridan with the monthly report from the James River and Warm Springs Ranger Districts.

The James River and Warm Springs Ranger Districts are requesting comment on a proposal to decommission thirty nine Forest Service roads totaling approximately twenty seven miles. All of the proposed roads are currently closed to the public and are no longer needed for administrative purposes. Decommissioning a road permanently closes it and removes it from the transportation system. Our goal is to provide safe roads that are affordable to maintain and are environmentally sustainable. Road maintenance funding has decreased while public use is increasing. Increased use and a deteriorating infrastructure escalate safety risks, impact wildlife and degrade water quality. We will continue with proposals to reduce our miles of road on the George Washington-Jefferson National Forest.

Things are back to normal after the April fires and the James River and Warm Springs Ranger District employees are working on a number of projects to include: road maintenance, trail maintenance, road and campsite maintenance at the Walton Tract, pre-commercial thinning of timber stands, marking and cruising the Mare Run Timber Sale, seeding and erosion control work on the Alleghany Tunnels and Rich Hole fires, biological and archaeological surveys on the Border Project prescribed burn proposals, and stream fish structure surveys.

Kids Fishing Day 2012 took place on Sunday, June 3, from 1 to 5 pm at the Dominion Power ponds. Approximately 80 children participated in this event which was brought to you by the Warm Springs Ranger District and the Hot Springs Volunteer Fire Department, as well as the very generous support of our area businesses