In This Issue:
Announcing the 2010 Projects
Check out the new slate of service projects for 2010 that went up on the Wilderness Volunteers website yesterday. You'll notice many old favorites as well as several new locations in the lineup. Is this your year to finally try canoing in the Boundary Waters, planting in Hawaii, or exploring Alaska on one of three projects? How about trail maintenance the Raggeds Wilderness in Colorado where the wildflowers are world-class, or doing a trail survey in the Three Sisters Wilderness in Oregon with views of distant dormant volcanos?
Grab a friend or family member and get in shape for a real adventure Giving Something Back in the new year. Gift Certificates for a project will be a much valued present this holiday season, and remembered fondly forever.
Why not take a chance on a lesser known area, like the Lee Metcalf Wilderness west of Yellowstone, the Apache Kidd Wilderness in the wilds of New Mexico or the Mission Mountain Wilderness above the Swann Valley in Montana? While most folks seem to want to do trips in places that everyone has heard of, there is much to be said for the solitude of these special places. All possess outstanding beauty but haven't been "discovered" yet. Most are in really remote locations and are very appreciative of volunteers.
But shhh, keep them a secret so we can enjoy them without crowds a while longer.
Editors’ Note
Wilderness Volunteers gets lots of repeat participants on its projects, but we also get many new participants each year. Below is a sampling of experiences from several first time WV participants as well as some from repeaters. Wilderness Volunteers would love to hear about your experiences as project participants, so whether you are an old hand or someone who has joined us for the first time, please let us know what your experience was like.
First Timers Agree: WV Is Tops
North Fork of the John Day Wilderness
Yep, my husband and I are city dwellers who looked to Wilderness Volunteers to give us a mountain vacation this year. We had heard about WV from friends, but with my husband’s bum knees and my pleasure-seeking nature, we were not certain a “trail maintenance” vacation was a good fit. However, called by our love of wilderness areas, we decided to venture onto a “strenuous” trip to the North Fork of the John Day Wilderness in eastern Oregon.
Our 11-member team gathered in front of the Forest Service (USFS) office at 9 AM on a Sunday morning in late June in preparation for the hour’s drive to the trailhead south of Ukiah. There we met our other USFS leader who was loading mules with food, cooking supplies, and tools for our trip. We are former backpackers, but we had not touched our packs in about ten years. Although our fitness is good, we neglected to take good care of our feet and both got blisters on the five mile hike to camp. WV had communicated the importance of good fitness and correct equipment in all their pre-trip emails to us, but somehow we overlooked taping our feet.
Our first night we set up our camp, ate supper, and got acquainted. Following a 7 AM breakfast the next morning, the USFS crew and our WV leaders talked to us about the project, the tools we would be using, and wilderness safety. We then divided into smaller groups and set off to clear trees and brush from the trail. The highlight of that first day was using the 6-foot- long cross cut saw to clear thousand pound trees from the trail. There is real technique in sawing a tree that size and then moving it safely down the hillside. Over the course of the next week, we used loppers, small saws and the cross cut saw to clear miles of trail up and down river from our camp. The need for our project was clear, and we could see that our contributions were accomplishing the project’s goals every day. The work was hot and difficult but gratifying.
Some observations:
-The quality of the WV and USFS leadership was excellent. The trip was well organized, the tools were sharp, the food was plentiful and delicious, and we felt like our volunteer contribution was important and appreciated.
-Our fellow volunteers were good company, hard working, and flexible. Does WV screen out the prima donnas?
-With a maximum WV group size of 12, we enjoyed a large enough group to see significant work progress, but a small enough group to get to know everyone personally.
We especially enjoyed the camaraderie at the conclusion of the trip, when we came back to our car to find a flat tire. There was plenty of help in getting the tire changed and many jokes about the peril of driving 50 miles on a “donut” spare in hopes of getting a tire repaired on the 4th of July. Amazingly, the town of Ukiah has a fellow who repairs tires while his family fixes the holiday barbeque dinner a few feet away!
We are happy that we chose Wilderness Volunteers for our volunteer vacation this year. We hope to do a second WV trip this spring in another part of the country.
Diane Redd and Dan Wilson
Sawtooth Wilderness
The Sawtooth Wilderness experience in August 2009, was one of the most memorable adventures in my sixty-one years of being vertical.
As a first time backpacker and Wilderness Volunteers participant, I had some initial trepidation and concerns, but they were quickly allayed after meeting the group leaders, Gayle and Bunny Marechal, and the other seven participants. The diversity of backgrounds, ages, and experiences of the group and the willingness of others to answer my questions and provide assistance was helpful and reassuring. I couldn’t help thinking how fortunate I was to be with this group but later realized how the culture of WV, its leaders, and its volunteers work to integrate the uninitiated into the group. Of course, having wonderful weather in a beautiful setting at the onset was a real plus too!
The two Forest Service people and their pack animals provided more synergy, and heightened the excitement of this first timer. As the animals were loaded with gear, the breadth and scope of the week ahead came more into view.
The trek to our base camp in the wilderness, eight miles with 3,000 feet elevation gain, was challenging and rewarding, and I couldn’t help but smile after working so hard to get to camp. But more physically demanding work awaited me. In the days following, our reason for being there provided some of the most physically arduous and rewarding work of my life. The two mile daily “commute” to and from work was like no other I’d experienced. What a wonderful way to wind up and wind down a workday - immersed in majestic scenery and silence! As the week progressed and the weather changed, our group became more cohesive and relaxed. I felt fortunate to be part of a team with no conflicts and no shirking of responsibility.
I thank WV for providing me the opportunity to be a small part of the organization. I thank Gayle and Bunny for all their efforts and for making camping and backpacking so efficient. Yes, I’m glad I did it, and I would do it again. Randy Sweeting
Siskiyou Wilderness
The Siskiyou Wilderness trip in northern California was my first volunteer service trip. I had wanted to do one for several years but could not get the time off work. This trip exceeded my expectations. The leaders had everything organized so I never had to wonder or guess what to do. Not only were they organized, the leaders prepared wonderful meals and shared their past experiences with us. They were very open, friendly, and I felt welcome within the group.
The forestry people were also a lot of fun to work with, and I was impressed by their knowledge and leadership skills. They always explained what had to be done and how it should be done. My group cut trees to clear trails, and we built a causeway and cleared drainage ditches on the side of the trail. The work was physically demanding but not extreme. At the end of each day I felt satisfaction knowing what we had accomplished.
The trip was a rewarding experience, and I intend to do more such trips in the future. I hike and backpack quite often and to contribute to maintaining the trails is just the right thing to do. Pam Harrison
Veterans Agree as Well
Favorite Things
One of my favorite things about Wilderness Volunteers trips – besides the hard work, the great people, the good food, and the spectacular views – is the wildlife. I still remember the first time my brother and I saw elk – which for two teenagers from New Jersey was a big deal. We were building new trail along the Continental Divide Trail in New Mexico's Gila National Forest and were determined to see some bulls on our day off. We hiked for hours in the 95 degree heat, sun beating down on us as we crested 7,500 feet, yet the only signs of elk we saw were the pellets they left behind on the ground. It was getting late. We were getting tired. Our patience was wearing thin. It was the end of the road, and we turned to head back to camp. As fisherman say, we were "skunked."
And then we heard him. A massive twelve-pointer, just forty yards away in a hollow beneath us, had his heart set on running over a hardy young aspen with his antlers. We were spellbound, and stood there motionless on the trail above. Dropping to the ground and out of his sight, we army-crawled forty feet to a large rock that overlooked the hollow below and saw not one but five enormous bulls casually grazing. What a magnificent sight!
We watched them for twenty minutes, awestruck by their size, beauty, and antlers. We had hit the jackpot! Naturally, we snapped a few photos to document our trophy find (though we somehow failed to see the tall blades of grass in front of the camera lens, which, as seen below, are in perfect focus. If you look closely, you can make out the body of one of the bulls. Guess that’s a free photography lesson!)
On every WV trip since this one – my first one – ten years ago, I keep my eyes peeled wherever I go. There’s something magical about being in the wilderness knowing that I just might get lucky and see something – be it an elk, an eagle, a bear, a bobcat, a moose - who knows! It makes me feel alive and keeps me coming back – both to the woods and to WV. It’s hard to beat this kind of experience! Mike Leonard
Chaco Canyon
Step aside Globus Tours, the Wilderness Volunteer’s trip to Chaco Cultural National Historic Park in northwestern New Mexico includes an insider’s look at the culture of the ancient Chacoan people as well as a great opportunity to help transform most of the park into a wilderness area. Our work this year was removing about a mile of unneeded barbed wire fence. The accommodations, tent camping in a compound with indoor bathrooms and showers, an indoor kitchen, and indoor and outdoor eating areas, offer a full view of Fajada Butte and are within walking distance of the park’s visitor center. Pueblo Bonito, the most visited great house in the park, is a short ride from where we camped.
The park consists of broad valleys interspersed with sandstone mesas and many interesting side canyons. Because of our volunteer status, we were allowed into areas not open to the public in the company of well informed park staff, and on our daily treks to work sites, we found and examined many pottery shards and other relics. We even came upon an undiscovered ancient refuse dump, a midden, in one of our work areas. Volunteer archaeologists, astronomers, and other experts in Chacoan history give lectures in the evenings and on weekends. One lecturer told of jars discovered in Pueblo Bonito in the 1930’s but only recently shown to contain traces of chocolate, probably imported from Mesoamerica for barter. At least one Aztec chocolate salesman knew a good deal when he saw it. Peter Bergstrom
Acadia National Park
On Sunday, Sept. 27, nine Wilderness Volunteers set up tents and a cook shelter at the Blackwoods Campground in Acadia National Park, our country’s oldest national park east of the Mississippi River. For the next seven days this group worked and played in the cool temperatures and glorious fall colors on the Maine coast. Our work project consisted of improving trail drainage on trails at Great Head and rerouting a trail over the Tarn outlet where a park service crew was completing the replacement of a small hand-laid stone dam.
Our week in Acadia coincided with premier of the Ken Burns’ National Parks miniseries, and we had resigned ourselves to catching the re-runs when we got home. But on our first day in Bar Harbor, we were delighted to discover that the Criterion Theater would be holding free showings of all six episodes on its big screen during the course of the week with introductory remarks by various Acadia staff. What an opportunity, to be in Acadia NP and get to see the National Parks miniseries!
Acadia has the distinction of being the first national park whose land was donated entirely by private citizens. Many of America’s most socially prominent families—the Rockefellers, Morgans, Fords, Vanderbilts, and Astors --began summering in Bar Harbor and nearby Seal Harbor in the late 1800’s. They built huge summer “cottages,” in the area; yet it was they who helped preserve the natural beauty by helping to create Acadia National Park.
In the early 1900’s, George Dorr, the head of a prominent Boston family, was named the director of a public land trust formed by these summering residents to protect their island paradise. He spent the next 43 years and much of his own wealth working to protect and preserve Acadia for public use. By 1916, he had obtained national monument status for the trust, and in 1919 it became a national park known as Lafayette National Park. The name was later changed to Acadia, believed to be a Wabanaki word and first given to the area by Florentine explorer Giovanni Verrazano in 1524.
After George Dorr, the industrialist and philanthropist John D Rockefeller, Jr. was Acadia’s greatest benefactor, donating more than 10,000 acres of parkland as well as one of Acadia’s most picturesque features, the 45 miles of broken-stone carriage roads. Today, these carriage roads are enjoyed by hikers, bikers, and in the winter by cross-country skiers.
Ken Burns’ 12-hour series had increased our knowledge and love of the gorgeous natural beauty known as Acadia, and as we packed up our tents at the end of our week there, I know all of us felt a strong desire to return one day to this glorious park.
Carter and Robin Bland
Notable
Conservation and preservation of our wilderness has had many advocates over time, and John Muir comes to mind whenever we think of those in on the fight from the beginning, but two other significant figures, both wealthy aristocrats, Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, were as significant if not more so than Muir because without Roosevelt and Pinchot, the wilderness Muir so revered would not have been preserved. Two new books make this point emphatically clear. A new biography of Roosevelt, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, tells the story, among others, of how Roosevelt made the idea of conservation a universal endeavor by setting aside 230 million acres of wilderness between 1901 and 1909 with the help of his “Chief Forester,” Gifford Pinchot.
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan tells the story of an all but forgotten forest fire, the largest ever in America, in Idaho, Montana, and Washington in 1910, and how this fire changed public opinion about the Forest Service and shaped future Forest Service policy. In The Big Burn, Egan tells a compelling story, much of it at ground level with a cast of characters ranging from those who fought the fire such as Ed Pulaski, the man who invented the familiar tool bearing his name, to Teddy Roosevelt and wealthy robber barons.
Although Ken Burn’s latest effort, The National Parks, has already aired on PBS stations across the country, the series deserves a mention. If anyone hasn’t already seen this moving tribute to our national parks, she owes it to herself to do so. After viewing this series, no one could ever enter a national park without thinking about what they mean for us as a people.
News
-- At its annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, on October 31, 2009, the WV board elected a new slate of officers: Frank McMurray, president; Debra Ellers, vice-president; Gayle Marechal, secretary; and Rick Volpe treasurer. The board offered a formal “thank you” to outgoing president Bill Sheppard, who stepped in as president at a crucial time for Wilderness Volunteers. Bill will continue to grace the Board as a member, adding his invaluable experience to the mix.
-- Watch for the Wilderness Volunteers online auction taking place from February 26th - March 14th. This will be a great way to pick up some new gear and support WV at the same time. More to follow.