Allison Woods
11-18-2007, 04:34 PM
During the discussion about the Upper Stehekin road discussion at last week's WCC meeting, I mentioned that road funding for NPS and FS projects come out of the same congressional committee. I could not remember the name of it that night, but it's the Interior Appropriations committee, which is in fact a subcommittee of the Appropriations committee. Norm Dicks is the chair.
I know it seems counterintuitive that the NPS and the FS are ever competing for the same money as NPS is Interior and FS is Agriculture, but it is true in this case at least.
This is where the upper Stehekin issue gets really contentious for me. The road repair up there is estimated at $6 million dollars. Yes, that IS an outrageous sum of money. I would imagine every FS road from the southern boundary of the NCNP to Highway 2 could be fixed for the same money it takes to fix just this one short remote piece of roadway.
I was at a dinner later last week with three of the land managers from the Mount Baker Snoqualmie NF, and funding for things like the White Chuck Road and Boundary Bridge are still somewhere way off in the future.
I know it seems counterintuitive that the NPS and the FS are ever competing for the same money as NPS is Interior and FS is Agriculture, but it is true in this case at least.
This is where the upper Stehekin issue gets really contentious for me. The road repair up there is estimated at $6 million dollars. Yes, that IS an outrageous sum of money. I would imagine every FS road from the southern boundary of the NCNP to Highway 2 could be fixed for the same money it takes to fix just this one short remote piece of roadway.
I was at a dinner later last week with three of the land managers from the Mount Baker Snoqualmie NF, and funding for things like the White Chuck Road and Boundary Bridge are still somewhere way off in the future.