Improving US Forest Service trails

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - The Caribou-Targhee National Forest regularly seeks opportunities to work with volunteer groups to complete needed work on the forest. Recently, the Palisades Ranger District teamed up with the Idaho Single Track Alliance (ISTA) to improve the Garden/Nelsen trail.

“The Idaho Single Track Alliance is a nonprofit organization who exemplifies the meaning of shared stewardship through their actions by maintaining single-track trails on the forest,” recreation manager Colby Jacobsen said. “They are instrumental in finding volunteers and invoking other similar groups and companies to help with various trail projects.”

ISTA worked with Switchback Motorsports to obtain a grant from Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative. The grant totaled over $10,000 and was used for supplies and materials for the Garden/Nelson trail project. This section of trail had issues with water crossings and was seeing significant damage from non-designated uses. Volunteers accounted for over 600 hours of labor where they constructed a restrictor gate, 210 feet of jack-fence and installed six bridges for a total of 100 feet.