Would you like a daily stipend to roam spectacular Eastern Sierra wilderness areas this summer? Friends of the Inyo is once again hosting a volunteer wilderness monitoring program in search of campsites and to take stock of the opportunities for solitude. Under forest service guidance, volunteers will map and classify campsites to help land managers better understand use patterns, and they will also use forest service solitude monitoring protocol to help recognize use patterns, distributions, and number of visitors to the wilderness areas. Due to the massive blow down event this years (2012) program has been suspended and is…
FOI Admin
We were honored to receive an invitation to participate in the Mule Days Parade from our partners the Backcountry Horsemen of California and the Pacific Crest Trail Association. FOIers Todd Vogel, David Herbst and Drew Foster joined a robust crew of BCHC and PCTA folks on the wagon piloted by Alton Chinn, of Bishop. It was great fun and great to be recognized for our efforts. The thanks really go to all our volunteers who helped on backcountry trails this past year!
Click the attachment to view and download the Inyo National Forest’s Travel Management Record of Decision.
In early June we did a great trip down in the Golden Trout Wilderness, at the invitation of the Backcountry Horsemen and the Pacific Crest Trail Association, and with the Inyo National Forest. The adventure was in the middle of our gloomy June so we had great, cool, working conditions and even a bit of snow. After negotiating the lengthy drive from Bishop to the Black Rock Trailhead, near Kennedy Meadows we spent a night at the trailhead and then made the trek to Jordan Hot Springs. Some thirteen of us spent the next three days clearing MANY fallen trees…
[gmap markers=big blue::35.75866717724848,-117.37325191497803 |zoom=10 |center=35.985785076263035,-117.5372314453125 |width=700px |height=700px |control=Small |type=Physical]
Braving sunny wind-swept skies, temps hovering in the 50’s, and the possibility of missing the Superbowl, we managed once again to summit Chocolate Peak, in the Piper Mountains, on the FOI 2009 Chocolate Peak in Winter Expedition. Conditions made for easy walking – and challenging snowshoeing… Thanks whoever brought the chocolate torte!
Monday, January 12, 2009By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer Matthew Daly, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON – In a rare Sunday session, the Senate advanced legislation that would set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as wilderness. Majority Democrats assembled more than enough votes to overcome GOP stalling tactics in an early showdown for the new Congress. Republicans complained that Democrats did not allow amendments on the massive bill, which calls for the largest expansion of wilderness protection in 25 years. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democrats said the bill — a holdover from…
What is a weed? That’s the question I asked my group of high school students as we started a five day service learning program out at Eureka Dunes. Our work that week ranged from restoring illegal roads, helping to tune a barbed wire fence, campsite maintenance, and, yes, pulling weeds. I often wonder what the kids are expecting when they come on these trips. I the case of these kids, had they signed up only to fulfill a school requirement? Do the work, gimme my hours, thank you very much? The work done is what I think of as the…
For the second year in a row we worked for most of a week in Saline Valley with a group from Washington State University, out of Pullman, Washington. After an impressive two day “commute” from Washington to Bishop eight WSU-ers and three FOIers drove in the south way since the north entrance is closed by snow. FOI has now helped support four trips to Saline so we know that any trip to the valley is a fairly big undertaking. It’s remote, the roads are rough and it has a distinctly backcountry feel. It’s not quite as big a deal when…