Upper Trinity River Watershed Recreation Improvement Plan (SNC1918-RT)

Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) would provide funding to the Watershed Research and Training Center to develop the Upper Trinity River Watershed Recreation Improvement Plan. The plan would identify, evaluate, and make recommendations for the highest-priority needs and improvements in three geographic areas: the Trinity Alps Wilderness, Trinity Lake, and 7,633 acres of recently acquired United States Forest Service (USFS) land in the Trinity River watershed. These geographic areas encompass approximately 300,000 acres in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, managed by USFS. Recreation sites to be evaluated in the plan include existing and potential new trails, trailheads, undeveloped campsites, developed campgrounds, day-use areas, boat ramps, and USFS roads, resulting in a catalogue of needed upgrades; a plan for sustainable and economically beneficial recreation development; and identification of eight design concepts. Plan goals include prioritizing deferred maintenance and modernization needs, identifying and prioritizing opportunities to address recreation-related impacts to habitat and water quality, developing sustainable management guidelines for overused recreation sites, creating shovel-ready upgrade designs, and conducting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance to move capital improvement projects toward implementation. No construction or ground-disturbing activities would be authorized under this action.