Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

 

I hit the jackpot today in my quest to understand why we're

suddenly getting hit with all these equestrian trail closures

in the US Forest Service's Southeast Region (Northern Cherokee

National Forest, Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest).

 

The web site I'm referring you to is the US Forest Service's

home web site for something that they call "Meaningful

Measures."  This "Meaningful Measures" (MM) protocol is what

the regional forest service people mean when they explain

their actions in closing the Cherokee National Forest to

equestrian use except on designated equestrian trails by

saying they are only "implementing policies coming down

from The Chief."

 

It looks like this MM thing got started in the early 90's,

partially as the result of stern criticism from the

General Accounting Office on the Forest Service's lack

of rigorous management practises, such as having no

inventory of its assets (including roads and trails).

 

For the last fourteen years or so, the Forest Service

has been trying to implement this MM protocol, which

includes creating a database of its "inventory"

called INFRA.

 

In just these past five years, the regions have been

directed to "populate" the Trails Inventory component of

the INFRA database by, so it was ordered, surveying 20% of

their trails each year.  Part of populating this

Trails database is being *forced* to make a decision

on what is and isn't a trail, and what each trail's

"designed use," "managed use," and budget is.  What

was fuzzy and undefined (and therefore uncontrolled)

before has been forced to become clear and defined and

extremely controlled.

 

Once again, instead of modelling reality, a computer

database has been used to create reality.

 

Perhaps the sleeper in the INFRA database is the

"Prohibited Use" fields, which--so the policy says--requires

a citation of a legal finding before it can be filled

in.

 

Oddly, populating the INFRA database did not require

that the forest service employees convert any existing

trails inventory they might have maintained through

the 20-year old "dg" database system.  (As I said, run

the clock back to zero and start over from scratch.)

 

I'm still trying to take it all in and see how all the

different components of Meaningful Measures (INFRA, TRACS,

TMO "Trail Management Objectives" under the Inventory tab)

are interacting to get what was originally an effort to

improve recreational customer service morphed into

a "Close Everything and Claim Victory" strategy on the

part of FS staff.

 

So, make some tea, get a fast internet connection,

curl up in a chair with your laptop and observe this

incredible spectacle...

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/measures/index.html

 

Linda B. Merims

lbm@xxxxxxxxx

Norris, TN

USA

 

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P.S.:  Oh, and in case all you Bureau of Land Management types

out west are thinking "Whew, thank heavens that isn't happening

to us!" see:  http://www.nps.gov/gis/trails   BLM has agreed

to adopt the "Designed Use," "Managed Use," and "Trail Class"

designations into their own trail database system.