Partnerships make it possible

SONORA, Calif.— The scenic road trip is a time-honored tradition, as American as apple pie!  Driving allows us the freedom to explore lakes, recreation sites and vistas, all while admiring the beauty of our country along the way.  If you’re looking for stunning views and breathtaking landscape this summer, then look no further than our pristine Forest Service lands. While everyone enjoys the scenery, we often forget that there’s an unsung hero that makes all this possible.  Our roads—and more importantly, our road crews who maintain them!

In the Stanislaus National Forest, that duty often falls to just two employees that make up the road crew, Jennifer Miller and Don McHargue, equipment operators, along with a handful of engineers who oversee nearly 3,000 miles of roads across 898,000 acres of forest.

So, what is a forest to do when a road maintenance project is too large for a two-person team to handle and threatens road access and public safety?  Call on help from their sister forests of course!

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This spring, Stanislaus National Forest collaborated with road crews from the Mendocino and the Shasta-Trinity National Forests to fix a key portion of Merrill Springs Road (NFSR 3N01) near the Cottonwood Road intersection, after winter damage caused a landslide, saving the American taxpayers over $800,000 and completing the project in 14 days.

“A regional call to all the forests was made asking for assistance, with two workers from the Shasta-Trinity Forest, and one from the Mendocino brought in to assist with the project. The workers along with the facility maintenance worker, a fleet inspector, as well as some intermittent assistance from the fuels department, formed an 8-person crew,” said Greg Cox, a civil engineering technician with the Stanislaus and the project manager of the road repairs.

These roads are important not just for recreators, but also for the timber trucks that rely on these roads to carry over 6000 loaded log trucks of timber each year. In the Sierra Nevada, forest service roads are heavily impacted by environmental events, like after a series of atmospheric river events occurred which resulted in widespread damage to Forest Service roads in the Stanislaus.

“Road crews maintain the road for access, for fire, for public safety and large road improvement projects,” said Larry Arrington, the road maintenance supervisor for the Shasta Trinity who was part of the eight-person team on the Merrill Springs Road project.

The lack of road crew staff means that National Forests like the Stanislaus often rely on contractors to get roads fixed, which can be time consuming and costly depending on the season and the severity of the work that

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 needs to be done.

“When I have a road crew, they’re already paid for, we speak a common language and we are able to accomplish the work that needs to be done with flexibility,” said Cox.

In November of 2024 a deformation to the inside lane of the road began to appear. The inside lane (cutbank) was beginning to uplift, causing a safety issue to the travel way. The roadway continued to uplift approximately 3 feet making the lane impassible and eventually started compromising the outside lane (fill slope), said Cox.

Utilizing a team of 8 people, the road crews were able to complete the work in two weeks, allowing a road that serves not only timber sales but is also the route to the popular recreation destinations, in the Groveland Ranger District of the Stanislaus to reopen prior to the start of recreation heavy summer season.

The repair consisted of removing material from the slide and resloping the cutbank to stabilize the slide. Approximately 1,300 cubic yards of material was removed and placed on the fill slope and compacted. The cutbank was reshaped with a transition bench in the middle of the slide. The fill slope was then covered with jute mat, and native seed was placed.

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One benefit to using forest resources like road crews, is that they can adapt to changing conditions and address urgent issues quickly without the delays and bureaucratic hurdles associated with contracts.  During the repairs to Cottonwood Road, weather delayed the work for two days.  Instead of taking a day off, the dedicated crew put themselves to work on other projects.

“During the shutdown time, the crew focused on maintenance of Cottonwood Road. They managed to reopen 20 miles of clogged drainage and provided access to Cherry Lake,” said Cox.

Road crews not only possess intimate knowledge of the forest road network and can often identify and address problems more efficiently but also have a vested interest in maintaining the roads properly for long-term use. 

“I love it, I think we should be getting together and doing more with each other because I think we get a lot more done and nobody cares for the condition of these roads as much as the forest road crews,” said Arrington.