Enhancing Recreation Opportunities
Lake Pillsbury has been the most popular recreation attraction in the MNF for decades. In addition to boating and other water-based recreation, the area’s campgrounds serve as staging areas for visiting other parts of the MNF. Lake County and nearby communities derive substantial economic and other benefits from these recreational visitors. The potential impacts of losing Lake Pillsbury as a recreational resource should be mitigated by enhancing other recreation opportunities.
Immediately actionable
Develop a Recreation Management Plan
If dam removal goes forward, PG&E should work with the USFS to fund the completion of a recreation management plan under NEPA for the Eel River watershed above Cape Horn Dam. Key issues that the recreation management plan should address include:
- Trail enhancement. Note that while there are a plethora of foot and horse trails in the nearby Snow Mountain Wilderness and an abundance of OHV trails outside of the Wilderness, there are no official, maintained non-motorized trails outside of Snow Mountain in the entire Eel River headwaters region. This means that there are quite literally no trails that are legally open to bicycles. Opportunities exist to build new non-motorized trails that are open to mountain bikes, horses, and hikers that can connect Gravelly Valley to existing trails such as those at Snow Mountain. There is also great interest in rebuilding the ancient trails that once ran along both the Eel River and Rice Fork that connected Indigenous people in Gravelly Valley to the Central Valley to the east and downstream to the west. These ancient paths were destroyed by the development of Lake Pillsbury and subsequent road construction elsewhere, but portions of them still exist at Bloody Rock and along Cold Creek in the Snow Mountain Wilderness. A network of designed and maintained trails for bicycles, horses, and pedestrians throughout the basin would discourage the development of unauthorized trails. There is also a need for high-quality trailheads, including staging areas that meet the needs of equestrians.
- Enhanced camping opportunities, including proposals for the disposition of current campgrounds managed by PG&E at Lake Pillsbury and the need to increase the camping opportunities provided by the USFS.
- Access points for swimming, fishing, picnicking, and other recreation opportunities on the restored Eel River. Note that currently there is only one trail (the Bloody Rock Trail in the Snow Mountain Wilderness) that provides non-motorized access to the Eel River above Cape Horn Dam.
- Wildlife viewing areas such as through the installation of bird platforms and interpretive signage such as information on the tule elk and anadromous fish.
- Shade and cover in recreation areas to help visitors cope with the summer heat.
- Interpretive facilities that educate visitors on the Indigenous cultural heritage, ongoing restoration efforts, and Euro-American heritage of Gravelly Valley and the surrounding region.
- Designated boat launches for whitewater boating. Whitewater boating currently occurs on the Rice Fork above Lake Pillsbury, between Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam, and below Van Arsdale. If the reservoirs are removed as proposed by PG&E, such boating opportunities should be expanded and enhanced. The boat launches could also double as day-use areas for picnicking and swimming, interpretive sites, wildlife viewing areas, and trailheads.
Longer term
- Road improvements recommended under fire resilience, above. Please note
that the MNF is the closest national forest to the Bay Area and yet–due to poor road conditions–it is the least visited forest in our state. Improvements to the two most popular ingress and egress routes to the Pillsbury basin would help mitigate adverse economic impacts to Lake County. Again, the two routes are Mendocino County Road 240/Lake County Road to Potter Valley and USFS Road M1/Lake County Road 301 to Upper Lake. - Ensure that any replacement water source for fire suppression and other needs also serves recreational purposes such as swimming, fishing, picnicking, flatwater boating, wildlife viewing, and other activities.
- Modify Navy Camp into a fly-in camp that interprets the World War II heritage and fire management history of the airstrip. The Gravelly Valley airstrip was a back-up landing site for military aircraft during World War II when airports in the Bay Area were fogged-in, and after the war it became the first forward attack air base for fire suppression used by the USFS in the United States.
