Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT) Closure Explained
You may have seen the signs on the south side of Tiger Mountain talking about a trail closure as logging begins. Logging is an important part of this working forest and helps pay for public education. In a future article we will talk more about the balance of recreation, logging, and public funding. In this article, we want to help explain what we have learned, thanks to the help from our friends at the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), about the closure and reroutes that are planned that will affect you on the trails.
The current sign that you see at a couple of trailheads and road intersections explain the whole project. This doesn't mean that the section behind the signs is closed, but rather that a section of trail in the area might be affected at some point by the forestry practice.
Image provided by Washington State DNR
Some of the work has been delayed due to the pandemic but we will continue to relay information about this project as we receive it. Currently they are working on the road and plan to start logging in the winter. This means only a small section of trail is closed at this time. There is a signed reroute of this closure that takes you on a short section of trail.
Image provided by Washington State DNR.
The red dash is the harvest area. The red line in the harvest area is the part of the TMT that is currently affected. Yellow is the new route while road work is happening.
The long term goal is that there will be a reroute of the TMT (shown in light green) that will avoid this area and resolve some long term maintenance in this section. The hope is that this route will be complete before logging operations start but it will depend on how trail work can progress this summer. We will work with DNR to keep you updated. The forestry and recreation team at DNR are committed to helping find routes when possible so that recreation can share space in this working forest.
Below is what the routing looks like on the Green Trails maps. Thank you to our friends at Green Trails for this great resource. You can purchase the whole map for Tiger Mountain from them here or from Mountaineers Books.
Image provided by Green Trails Maps.
Iverson-Closure
There is also logging planned near this trail that won't affect the long term use of the trail but might cause temporary closures when operations start.
You can find the most updated information at the DNR website here.
f you're interested in helping the IATC work with our public lands to ensure recreation access, preserve more public land and promote its use please consider volunteering here. happy social distance hiking!