---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 583k"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "583k"
heading: "Findings"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/583k"
units:
  - "Chapter 3 — Forests; Forest Service; Reforestation; Management"
  - "Subchapter VI — National Forest System Trails Stewardship"
---

# §583k. Findings


Congress finds as follows:

- (1) The National Forest System features a world-class trail system with over 157,000 miles of trails that provide world-class opportunities for hiking, horseback riding, hunting, mountain bicycling, motorized vehicles, and other outdoor activities.
- (2) According to the Government Accountability Office, the Forest Service is only able to maintain about one-quarter of National Forest System trails to the agency standard, and the agency faces a [trail maintenance](/usc/16/583k–1.md?p=8) backlog of $314 million, and an additional backlog of $210 million in annual maintenance, capital improvements, and operations.
- (3) The lack of maintenance on National Forest System trails threatens access to [public lands](/usc/16/620e.md?p=7), and may cause increased environmental damage, threaten public safety, and increase future maintenance costs.
- (4) Federal budget limitations require solutions to National Forest System [trail maintenance](/usc/16/583k–1.md?p=8) issues that make more efficient use of existing resources.
- (5) [Volunteers](/usc/16/583k–1.md?p=9), [partners](/usc/16/583k–1.md?p=3), and outfitters and guides play an important role in maintaining National Forest System trails, and a comprehensive [strategy](/usc/16/583k–1.md?p=7) is needed to ensure that [volunteers](/usc/16/583k–1.md?p=9) and [partners](/usc/16/583k–1.md?p=3) are used as effectively as possible.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 114–245, § 2, Nov. 28, 2016, 130 Stat. 990.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 114–245, § 1(a), Nov. 28, 2016, 130 Stat. 990, provided that: “This Act [enacting this subchapter and amending section 558c of this title] may be cited as the ‘National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act’.”