A summary of the Trail Ambassador’s 2024 season: Intro by Stewardship Director, Lindsay Butcher I am both sad, and slightly happy, to announce the finale of the 2024 TA season. The crew worked HARD this year, but hopefully they had some time to enjoy themselves in the backcountry. We had Nature Yoga, Snake Walks, Art Walks, Edible Plant Walks, Volunteer Events, Cleanups, Camping, lots of Hiking, Campsite Monitoring, and everything in between. This season was challenging: funding was scarce, projects were logistically difficult, injuries were sustained, cars decided to break down… but it was made all the more rewarding for…
Mammoth Lakes Basin
We have a special request for our Friends: We need YOUR help to restore the Rock Creek boardwalk! We are restoring a section of boardwalk on the Upper Rock Creek Trail in the Inyo National Forest and we need to raise $15,000 to tackle the remaining sections of the Upper Rock Creek Trail that were damaged and left in a dangerous condition by runoff in recent years. In August 2024, Friends of the Inyo finished a new section of boardwalk on the Upper Rock Creek Lake trail. It took 13 people ALL day on August 10th to dismantle the old…
A summary of the Trail Ambassador’s season thus far (time is flying!): Intro by Stewardship Director, Lindsay Butcher I said it before, and I’ll say it again: This season has zipped past, blink and you’ll miss it! The TAs are still out on trails clearing downed trees, collecting water quality data, educating visitors on LNT, picking up after folks who leave trash behind 🙁 and leading the last of thier interpretive hikes in September. Most of our Volunteer events have already happened: so far we’ve- installed a new section of the Rock Creek Boardwalk, deconstruted obsolete grazing fencing in the…
A summary of the Trail Ambassador season thus far: Intro by Stewardship Director, Lindsay Butcher How are we already almost to August?! This season has whipped past, blink and you’ll miss it. The TAs have been out on trails since mid June getting the good work done and we have a stellar crew this year spanning from Lone Pine to Bridgeport. They have already hosted a handfull of volunteer events but if you want to get out and get your hands dirty alongside our TAs we have ample volunteer events coming down the pike: Golden Trout Backcountry Work Week, Rock…
Wrapping up the 2023 Trail Ambassador Season: Intro by Lindsay Butcher, FOI Stewardship Director Here we are, yet again. Somehow we’ve made it to the end of another trail season, despite this year continuing to pose new and adventurous challenges throughout the passing summer months, which were particularly wet, with trails remaining inaccessible until mid-late July! Once trails were melted out, downed trees rendered them impassible. Mid season monsoons washed roads away. Luckily fires were of little consequence (knock on wood, fingers crossed, hold you breath…. don’t jinx it!) Through it all the Trail Ambassadors persevered. Here’s what the All-Star…
Read some exciting progress notes from our Trail Ambassadors, with an introduction and post-note from Stewardship Director Lindsay Butcher. It is hard to believe, but here we are- already halfway through the Trail Ambassador season! My how time zips by… Despite the multiple false starts of summer and the ongoing damage control from winter, our TAs have been up to some awesome work alongside our Forest Service partners. Here are some highlights from their last month of work. From Logan, TA on the Mt. Whitney Ranger District of the Inyo National Forest: My Favorite day this month- Overnight in the Eastern…
English-Language Survey The Whitebark Institute of Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences is working on a multi-year project to address the threat of wildfires in Mammoth Lakes and surrounding areas through forest management, fuels reduction, stakeholder coordination, and outreach and education. Whether you live in the Mammoth area or not, please help by answering the following survey (Spanish information follows the English) by scanning the QR code, or by clicking on the graphic or on the corresponding link provided. The survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete, but will be helpful in understanding the public’s level of wildfire awareness, as well…
Read some exciting progress notes from our Trail Ambassadors, with an introduction and post-note from Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud. “We’re thick into the Dog Days of summer, hitting the midway point of our season, and the Trail Ambassadors (TAs) just keep on rolling! Alongside our Forest Service partners, our TAs have been up to some amazing work. But don’t take my word for it: Let’s hear it from the TAs themselves! Here are some highlights from their last month of work in north-to-south order depending on the Ranger District to which each of them is assigned.” From Bradley Olson, TA…
The aspen leaves are making their annual change from green to orange/yellow/red, electrifying our Eastern Sierra landscape. Sadly, that means the all-important summer stewardship work of our Trail Ambassadors has come to an end. September marked the last month our Trail Ambassadors (TAs) were out and about on the trails of our Eastern Sierra Forest Service lands, from Lone Pine to Bridgeport (a close-to-150-mile stretch of public lands). Here’s just a bit of what they have been up to during the past several weeks: Lily Emerson closed out the season with a super-successful cleanup at the fourth annual Bridgeport Trails…
The dog days of summer are here, and wouldn’t you know it, our Trail Ambassadors have hit full gear! We’ve hit the halfway mark of our summer season, and my goodness, things have flown by! From volunteer events and interpretive hikes to backcountry trail work and log-outs with Forest Service partners, our TAs have been busy. Here are just a few highlights of what they’ve been up to since our last edition of the Juniper: Lily Emerson, our TA partnering with the Bridgeport Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, has been getting up to a variety of different projects….