Memorial Day is barely in the rearview mirror, and Friends of the Inyo’s merry band of Trail Ambassadors have already made a big impact on the Forest Service public lands of the Eastern Sierra. Partnering with Forest Service staff across two Forests (the Inyo and Humboldt-Toiyabe), and five Ranger Districts (from south to north, the Mt Whitney, White Mountain, Mammoth, Mono Basin, and Bridgeport), the Trail Ambassadors partner with the agency to bolster the on the ground presence through trail maintenance, visitor education and general information, leading volunteer groups and events, and sharing interpretive hikes and content. Working alongside FS…
Mammoth Lakes Basin
September Stewardship Update & Highlights The dog days of summer are here, and our Trail Ambassadors are out and about doing a doggone good job! Whether it’s picking up trash, working with the Athenian School, or heading out on trips with our Forest Service partners, August has been one heck of a month for our Stewardship team. Here are some of the highlights of the month: Lindsay and I (Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud) got to head into French Canyon, just over Pine Creek Pass and the Sierra Crest to spend four days working alongside Tim Crosby and Michael Sax from…
August Stewardship Update & Highlights Holy smokes it’s already August! They say time flies when you’re having fun, and that certainly applies to our stewardship activities this summer. Along with Trail Ambassadors Lindsay Butcher and Julia Tawney, our trio has been out and about lopping overgrown trails, bucking logs off of trails, interacting with and educating the public, and packing out all trash we find on trail or at the trailheads. Some highlights include: I (Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud) just got back from two days of crosscutting downed logs with students from the Athenian School’s Athenian Wilderness Experience, a 26-day…
Summer Stewardship Shaping Up for 2020 Hello from the wide world of all things Stewardship! Things have been touch and go as of late, with the pandemic throwing our plans into uncertainty since the beginning of March. Our plans have changed seemingly every couple of weeks or so, but now we’ve entered a welcome state of solid ground for what we can expect our work to look like this summer with regards to our stewardship program. Below are some updates of what stewardship and programmatic offerings will be this summer: Thanks to grants from the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance and…
On February 13th & 14th, Friends of the Inyo partnered with the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, Winter Wildlands Alliance, the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center, and the Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation to bring the SnowSchool curriculum to Mammoth Elementary School fifth graders for the second year. We were fortunate to get a quick dusting the night before our first day of SnowSchool. Perfect timing! The 2-3 new inches of snow provided a nice fluffy layer for the students to get used to their snowshoes. Though many had tried them out on the grass around campus during PE, this…
There’s an assumption that summer is our busy season, but in one week this past November, Friends of the Inyo’s staff illustrated how ambitious and inspiring we are at the following events: Presented about the connection between stewardship and advocacy at Winter Wildlands Alliance’s Grassroots Advocacy Conference in Lake Tahoe. Mobilized our members and the public to provide overwhelming opposition to the proposed gold mine at Conglomerate Mesa at the Inyo County Board of Supervisor’s meeting. Took 91 Mammoth Elementary students out for a Fall Field Day for SnowSchool to learn about watersheds and have fun in the Mammoth Lakes…
Partner Profile: David Page of Winter Wildlands Alliance Friends of the Inyo’s Ben Wickham sat down at Mountain Rambler Brewery in Bishop with David Page, Mammoth local and Advocacy Manager for Winter Wildlands Alliance, to talk about SnowSchool, a national education program designed by Winter Wildlands Alliance with 60 sites across the U.S. that educate 30,000 youth each year. For more about SnowSchool, visit SnowSchool’s website. What is SnowSchool? David Page: Snowschool is a program that is developed by Winter Wildlands Alliance and has expanded to about 60 sites, and reaches about 32,000 kids a year. The goal is to…
It was a gorgeous morning on the Crystal Lake Trail, and we’re glad these Mammoth High School volunteers got to spend some time there before the first winter storms transform the landscape. The students restored use trails and switchback cuts to keep visitors within the established trail tread. Thanks Mammoth High School, and see you next fall!
It’s been a lot of fun for us here in the office at Friends of the Inyo to come in on Monday mornings and see pictures and reports from the field. Looks like our Trail Ambassadors Alex and Astra had a particularly good time this weekend while working hard on the TJ Lake Trail in the Mammoth Lakes Basin:
Watching the Trail Ambassadors run the cross cut saw to remove a log from a trail in the Mammoth Lakes Basin put us in an old time kind of mood, so here’s pictures of them working in black and white. Look for the Trail Ambassadors on high country trails this summer, or join them for Trail Work Thursday or an interpretive hike.