The trails program on Forest Service lands will be taking a serious cut in 2009 with overall funding down 33% for 2009. The overall Forest Service budget is facing a decrease of 8% from 2008 with Wildland Fire being the only program with an increase in appropriations. Some more data on trail maintained:

2007
Miles Maintained: 25,696
Miles Improved: 1,594

2008
Miles Maintained: 20,790
Miles Improved: 956

2009
Miles Maintained: 11,650
Miles Improved: 500

This is an enormous cut to a relatively low cost program that provides over 50 million visitor days per year. These budgets simply mean that organizations such as the SCA will play a larger role in the future trail needs of public lands.

Forest Service 2009 Budget Justificaion - pdf Trails is on page 284

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