As many of you are aware all trails in the Sam Houston National Forest are closed because of an order related to the dead trees. The number of dead trees in close proximity to the trails has caused for the forest service to prohibit all use of trails (including Double Lake) due to the perceived hazard that the falling dead trees may pose to users. The background to the closure is due to recent natural events which resulted in injuries occurring on National Forest property, particularly the flash flooding in the Ouachita NF in 2011. GHORBA cannot say enough good things about our Sam Houston NF district ranger though – he’s working very hard to coordinate with the user groups and re-open the trails.

So what does that mean for you? For the time being please stay off the trails in the SHNF. A huge effort is being rapidly mobilized through to get the hazard tree assessment done, with the help of trail users, by Friday 4/13. Once the plan is in place there will be a call for volunteers to travel the trails and record the location of dead trees on GPS devices. We are hopeful that the trails will be re-opened after the completion and consideration of this risk assessment and posting of additional warning signs. A strong showing from GHORBA in the assessment process will go a long way in getting the trails open.

Please respect the current closure and work with us to get through this issue. Your support will be greatly beneficial to the re-opening of the trails, if you have any questions please discuss in the forum link below or email myself.

-Justin Dunn
VP Trails, GHORBA
Forest Closure Order:http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5361496.pdf