This season, our continued post-Dixie Fire maintenance work on Mount Hough will be supported in part through $9,681 from the Polaris Trails Grant program, which will fund crew for five work days to clear five ATV/4×4 trails on Hough. The goal is maintaining essential OHV routes by clearing fallen trees and debris, ensuring that double-wide ATV and 4X4 trails remain safe and accessible for both recreation and emergency use. Our crew’s work will also improve riding conditions by addressing fire-damaged terrain, stabilizing eroded sections and mitigating hazards that pose risks to OHV users, such as hazard trees. We’ll conduct targeted tree removal throughout the dry season, logging out fire-affected trees to prevent blockages and reduce the ongoing risk of falling debris.
Since the 1-million-acre Dixie Fire burned through Hough in 2021, we’ve cleared thousands of fallen and dead-standing trees—last year alone, we removed 1,164 trees in 510 hours of work.
Independent grants such as this one are more important than ever in light of budget cuts at the federal level that stand to impact government grants (~6% of our annual budget), as well as a reduction in Forest Service crews available to work on local trails, leaving SBTS as the only crews working to maintain and keep open trails throughout the Lost Sierra. Thank you to Polaris for helping to fund this important work!