Incline Flume Trail - Ponderosa land
Progress continues toward our goal of improving the Incline Flume trail. The Ponderosa Ranch is still working to donate the Bullwheel and 18 acres which include a portion of the trail. It appears that this will take the form of a donation to a non-profit organization which will then transfer the property to the USFS. And it's likely that the donation will be made by the end of this year. Once that happens we can start working on improving that section of trail before the FS takes the Bullwheel parcel and the rest of the trail goes through government review.
Incline Flume Trail - environmental studies begin
In May we learned more about the US govt required biological studies for FS adoption of the Incline Flume. They can be broken down into Wildlife, Aquatic Biology and Botany. The wildlife studies must be done over 2 summers, and during a very specific timeframe. In the hopes of being able to complete all the studies by next summer we set out to find a biologist to begin the wildlife studies this summer - not an easy task on short notice! Thanks to Garth Alling of Sierra Ecotone Solutions who stepped up and has started the studies. Garth is a trail user and supporter and has offered his services at a discounted rate.
So far nothing has been found to impede the trail project.
Funds are still needed to continue with the Botany and Aquatic Biology work - about $15,000, and around $10,000 for FS review of the bio studies.
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