Mark Twain National Forest - Southwest Project

The Mark Twain National Forest's Houston/Rolla/Cedar Creek Ranger District "Southwest Project" is still open for debate. Last May the Columbia Tribune reported on the issues and the Missouri Wilderness Coalition commented on the proposal. KOMU has their own twist to the arguments. My favorite article is Ken Midkiff's Service can’t see forest for the trees on the topic. The Missourian also published this informative article On the path to preservation. Now the Mark Twain National Forest proposal appears to be in the middle of a 30 day written comment period.

Lesser Known Trails

Capen Park Trail

1600 Capen Park Drive

Length: 0.5 mile

Type: Dirt

Selling point: The park is home to limestone cliffs that draw rock climbers and sightseers alike.

User comment: “I come here every day because I can let my dog off the leash. I like that it’s in the woods,” MU student Shana Pauley said.

Hinkson Creek Trail

2011 S. Old 63

Length: 4.25 miles

Type: Limestone

Selling Point: The trail crosses the Hinkson Creek in several places, where you can find rust-colored bridges designed to look like the old railroad bridges along the Missouri River.

User comment: “I come here every day because it’s the only place you can bring your dog and not get a ticket,” Columbia College student Randi Robinson said. “There are places to bike, places to run and lots of trees.”

Cosmo-Bethel Park Lake Trail

4500 Bethel St.

Length: 0.46 mile

Type: Limestone

Selling Point: The trail circles the Cosmo-Bethel Lake, which offers fishing and wildlife-viewing.

User Comment: “I love how you see the families fishing. I think that’s really neat,” said Katie Brown as she chased her 16-month-old son, Abner, away from a flock of geese.

Excerpt from: Thursday, June 5, 2008 Missourian, Lesser-known trails, by Ashley Simpson.

GPS trails on Google Earth

Google Earth has mixed with Wikiloc to combine GPS trail coordinate with a 3D view. There are not a whole lot of trails in the Midwest on Wikiloc but this is the coolest thing I've seen for a while. I have not broken down and bought a GPS yet. Map (and rarely a compass) is all I've needed. But this technology plus a GPS unit may be a good excuse to rehike previously completed trails.

Google's announcement can be found here.

Ozark Highland Trail article in October 2008 National Geographic

A wonderful read with amazing photos... as you would expect from National Geographic. Tim Ernst is also interviewed. Check out the article here and the photos here. Make sure you scroll through the photos. There are 18 total.

Sponsored backpacking trip on the Ozark Trail

The Gateway Council of Hostelling International USA is sponsoring a backpacking trip on the Ozark Trail. The dates are Saturday, Oct. 11 to Saturday, Oct. 18 (half week trips are available). They will backpacking 30 miles on the Current River section and 20 miles on the Between the Rivers section. This is their 20th year of promoting the Ozark Trail through our backpacking adventure. More information can be found here.

Wilderness groups to hold conference focusing on forest protection

Friday, August 29, 2008 | 10:08 a.m. CDT

BY CHERYL WITTENAUER/The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Wilderness advocates will gather next week in Salem to plan the next steps of an effort to win federal protection for 50,000 acres of public land in Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest.

The Missouri Wilderness conference on Sept. 6 is aimed at starting to build public awareness and support of the proposal before approaching potential sponsors in Missouri's congressional delegation.

"We feel confident they will want to do this good deed for Missouri," said John Karel of the Missouri Wilderness Coalition, an assortment of conservation groups working for the designation.

Currently, 4 percent of the Mark Twain forest is designated wilderness, meaning it is free of roads, all-terrain vehicles, mining and logging, but open to hiking, camping, fishing, horseback riding, hunting, canoeing and picnicking.

The additional acres would bring the amount of land in the state with that kind of protection to 7 percent. Missouri's last wilderness designation was 24 years ago. The first was in 1976.

While 50,000 acres sounds like a lot, it's "an incredibly modest proposal," organizer Scott Merritt said. The entire forest is 1.5 million acres.

"They're a rare resource worth protecting," Merritt said.

The coalition's proposal is for seven wild places that advocates say are vulnerable - Big Spring, Lower Rock Creek, North Fork, Smith Creek, Spring Creek, Swan Creek and Van East Mountain.

Karel said the areas were identified by conservation groups years ago, and, until recently, had special protection as "sensitive areas" under a settlement agreement with the U.S. Forest Service.

But the 2005 Forest Service plan dropped the sensitive area status, prompting conservationists to seek federal wilderness protection.

Karel said the wilderness areas are very popular with the public and heavily used.

The biggest hurdle may be winning over the Republican congresswoman for southeast Missouri where five of the proposed wilderness areas are located.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said she strongly opposes the proposal and believes it would hurt her constituents.

The group wants to meet with Emerson to discuss the proposal.

Mark Twain Deputy Forest Supervisor Paul Strong said the Forest Service did not recommend the areas for wilderness, but instead designated them as "semi-primitive, non-motorized."

He said the "semi-primitive" designation would allow the agency to do limited burning and logging to permit the growth of plants that would naturally grow in the environment.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said he would look at the proposal and consider the views of all stakeholders.

"I cannot support any proposal that does not have the clear support of local citizens and all affected members of the delegation," he said.

"Also, many have expressed concern with the impact this plan would have on good forestry management."

In 1976, Missouri's first wilderness legislation was passed, designating Hercules Glades in Taney County and the Mingo Swamp in Wayne County.

Between 1976 and 1984, about 100,000 acres, most of them in the southern Ozarks, were declared wilderness areas. Almost 64,000 acres of Missouri's wilderness areas are already in the Mark Twain National Forest.

Besides Hercules and Mingo, the state's other existing wilderness areas include Bell Mountain, Rockpile Mountain, Devil's Backbone, Paddy Creek and Irish Wilderness.

Strong said that because wilderness requires a hands-off management approach, Hercules Glades are at risk of being overrun by Eastern red cedar trees.

"That's the trade-off," he said.