French Pete Trail

French Pete Trail
Map of French Pete area and surroundings
Length	9.9 mi (15.9 km)
Location	Cascade Range, Lane County, Oregon
Designation	Three Sisters Wilderness Willamette National Forest
Trailheads	French Pete Trailhead (west) Pat Saddle Trailhead (east)
Use	hikers, horses
Elevation
Elevation change	about 1,000 feet (300 m)
Hiking details
Trail difficulty	easy to moderate
Season	late March to mid-December
Months	about 9
Sights	French Pete Creek old-growth forest
Surface	natural

The French Pete Trail is a 9.9-mile (15.9 km) hiking trail in the valley of French Pete Creek in the Three Sisters Wilderness of western Oregon. The trail passes through low-elevation old-growth forest that was a nationwide political issue in the 1960s and 1970s because of conflicting plans for logging and for wilderness designation, respectively. In 1978, the U.S. Congress passed a bill adding the French Pete area to the Three Sisters Wilderness.

The heavily used trail is in an old-growth forest in the western part of the Three Sisters Wilderness within the Willamette National Forest. At the trailhead at the path's western end, the elevation is 1,850 feet (560 m). Open for hiking from spring through fall, the trail climbs about 1,000 feet (300 m) over 5 miles (8.0 km) and ends 9.9 miles (15.9 km) from the trailhead. French Pete Creek flows beside the trail for the trail's first five miles, approximately. The forest is made up of "gargantuan Douglas firs and 1000-year-old cedars," with an understory that includes sword fern, Oregon grape, and twinflower.

In 1938, the U.S. Forest Service added 55,620 acres (225.1 km²), including the French Pete area, to the Three Sisters Primitive Area, which had been established in 1937. In 1957, the Forest Service reduced the size of the protected area, removing French Pete from protection, so that more land could be available for timber sales. Conservation advocates sought to regain protection for French Pete. Their frustration with the Forest Service's level of authority over timber production and wilderness areas contributed to the inception and enactment of the Wilderness Act in Congress in 1964. The law created new wilderness areas and controversy over the management for the new areas. It marked the establishment and growth of an activist environmental movement at a time when both logging and recreation were rapidly increasing. The movement is best known for the controversy surrounding management of French Pete.