“Richards Avenue” Trail Constructed Between 3/2/2021 – 3/20/2021
BLM Trail Segments 1984 and 18P
Tree cut down during illegal construction of BLM trail segment 18P, known as “Richards Avenue” on Trailforks and Strava.com.
This new, illegal, trail, named “Richards Avenue”, was constructed between 3/2/2021 and 3/20/2021. The image on the left is high-resolution aerial imagery collected on 3/2/2021. The image on the right is the same aerial imagery with the ground truth GPS track data recorded on 3/20/2021. This illegal trail heads north from the existing trail segment (green) BLM 61.
Drag the white image slider back and forth to see that there is zero trace of the trail in the 3/2/2021 imagery, the red track is the ground truth GPS data recorded on 3/20/2021.
The 3/2/2021 aerial imagery shows no traces of BLM Trail Segment #1984 that is found in all Alternative Plans in the BLM published 2019 NEPA Environmental Impact Statement.
In less than 18 days a 1.1-mile trail was illegally constructed across terrain where no trails existed, trees were cut down, and trail beds were cut with picks and shovels into sidehill sections of the trail – and illegal signs were installed!
(Note, you may need to wait for the aerial images to load above)
Elevation profile of the new illegal trail, “Richards Avenue”.
BLM trail segment 1984 shows up on maps, surveyed field data, and alternatives from the Draft Travel Management Plan published in May 2020, however, it does not exist on the ground, and imagery analysis indicates that it never existed on the ground. This photograph was taken from an elevated vantage point on 11/28/2021 over the area where BLM trail segment 1984 could be seen if it did exist.