Mission 03 · Mark Twain National Forest · MO · 2026
Mark Twain trails and timber
The U.S. Forest Service is taking objections to a decision it has already drafted here. Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri.
The agency files it as “National Recreation Trails and Timber Management Proposal”
Record openthe agency stopped taking comments September 8 · what you find still counts
Places to check
1
People it would take
6
Said they’ll go
0
Photographs filed
0
Opened
September 4
Window closed
September 8
Evidence
Nothing filed yet.
No photograph has been filed on this mission yet. The first one lands here with its fingerprint, where its location came from, and how far inside the agency’s own boundary it was taken. The places to check are below.
The objective
What we are testing.
Mark Twain National ForestOld growth
“Over-mature trees adjacent to trails are dying, increasing the likelihood of falling trees, damage to trail tread, and safety concerns for visitors.”
The agency wrote that in its own document, under Purpose and Need: Why do we need to act?. Nobody has been out to check it.
Walk a National Recreation Trail on the Mark Twain and photograph the big old oaks right along the trail: whole trees, trunks and crowns, healthy and dead alike. Photos showing full green crowns on the large old oaks beside the trail, or showing them dead and dropping limbs, settle which picture is right.
Everything else the document says about the ground.
6 more sentences, in the agency’s own words, with where each one sits in the document. Any of them is fair game for a photograph.
“the Berryman Trail (approximately 24 miles), Ridge Runner Trail (approximately 22 miles), Crane Lake Trail (approximately 5 miles), and the Ozark Trail (approximately 260 miles)”
Under Purpose and Need: Why do we need to act?Where: Berryman Trail, Ridge Runner Trail, Crane Lake Trail, and Ozark Trail, Mark Twain National Forest
“existing standards for sensitive resources such as springs, sinkholes, and other areas where more restrictive buffers already apply”
Under Fire/Air QualityWhere: National Recreation Trail corridors, Mark Twain National Forest (closest the document gets)
“existing buffer requirements for sensitive habitats such as springs, seeps, sinkholes, caves, and bat hibernacula”
Under WildlifeWhere: National Recreation Trail corridors, Mark Twain National Forest (closest the document gets)
“are federally listed bat species that are known to occur on the MTNF, including: Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis)”
Under Federally Listed Species ConsideredWhere: Mark Twain National Forest (closest the document gets)
“These areas commonly include mixed hardwood forest landscapes, active recreation corridors, and settings where ecological resources such as wildlife habitat”
Under Potentially Affected EnvironmentWhere: areas adjacent to National Recreation Trails, Mark Twain National Forest (closest the document gets)
“logging is restricted to leaf-off periods, which in the Ozarks coincide with saturated soils at or near field capacity”
Under Ecology/SoilsWhere: timber harvest units near National Recreation Trails, Mark Twain National Forest (closest the document gets)
The decision
Who is deciding, and when.
Deciding
U.S. Forest Service
Kind of decision
Objection period
The agency’s title
National Recreation Trails and Timber Management Proposal
The window shut September 8. Evidence still counts: it backs the objections from people who did comment, goes to the lawyers, and outlives the decision.