In a recent conversation with “The Oxygen Starved Podcast” hosts Mono County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stacey Adler and Mono County Free Library Director Christopher Platt, Friends of the Inyo’s Executive Director Wendy Schneider talks about public land stewardship and protection, leadership, family and more. Take a listen. Begin at min. 32 of the podcast. Happy listening…And if you like what you hear, happy sharing!
Stewardship
By Lindsay Butcher, Lead Trail Ambassador, Friends of the Inyo Did you know that driving off road is illegal in Death Valley National Park? Even so, people get a thrill out of driving in the Park’s open spaces, and OHV-trespass all over the hundreds of miles of roadside terrain. In a matter of minutes, destructive, eyesore tracks that take years, or even decades to heal are left upon the land like scars. Friends of the Inyo, in partnership with the National Park Service and Great Basin Institute, has put together a restoration crew to expedite the healing process. November kicks…
FOI’s October Column on Page 4 of this week’s issue of El Sol de la Sierra features a discussion on the Seven Principles of “Sin Dejar Huella” (Leave No Trace), between FOI Communications Director Lou Medina and Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud. Happy reading…and if you like what you read, happy sharing!
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…
Inland or not, a “playa” needs two things: water and sand. National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15. Friends of the Inyo would like to celebrate with our community by sharing the meanings of just a few Spanish-language words that have made their way into English. Playa is one such word. In Spanish, it usually means beach. But according to the Royal Spanish Academy’s website, rae.es, in some South American countries, playa can also mean a flat, wide and clear space intended for specific uses in towns and large-area industries: e.g., playa de estacionamiento means…
In case you missed our Communications Director Lou Medina’s interview with KMMT FM Arts, Culture & Entertainment (ACE) Show Host John DeMaria on September 3, please use our media player to listen to the full interview. You’ll get an update on our backcountry stewardship work done in early August in the Cottonwood Creek Wilderness; learn about volunteering events and outings coming up in September and October; find out about the upcoming issue of our Jeffrey Pine Journal celebrating FOI’s 35th Anniversary, and how you can receive it by becoming an FOI supporting member; hear about our Spanish-language outreach and more….
Friends of the Inyo gives a hearty “Thanks!” to our friends at KMMT FM Radio (www.kmmtradio.com), for helping us to promote our Volunteer Stewardship Events in September: Bridgeport Trails Day on Sept. 18, and National Public Lands Day at Alabama Hills on Sept. 25. Take a listen: Please be sure to visit friendsoftheinyo.org/events to sign up for these volunteering opportunities, or any of our interpretive hikes and outings, and to stay up to date with any schedule changes due to forest closures because of wildfires. Join us! All our events are FREE.
By Lindsay Butcher, Lead Trail Ambassador Flowing southeast from White Mountain Peak, Cottonwood Creek is fed by numerous springs that pop up all the way into the Great Basin Desert. In 2009, as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act signed by President Barack Obama, Cottonwood Creek was designated as a protected Wild and Scenic River (WSR). Today, the creek’s comprehensive management plan is still under development; however, its WSR designation meant no more cattle grazing in the area. From August 6 through 9, Friends of the Inyo set out with a hard-working group of volunteers and Inyo National Forest…
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….
As the calendar page flips to July, we’ve completed our first official month of Trail Ambassador work in the Inyo & Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests! Our Trail Ambassadors (TAs) hit the ground running this year and have been out and about working hard. Here are just a few highlights of what they’ve been up to: Lily Emerson, our TA partnering with the Bridgeport Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, took two volunteers out to Eagle Creek in the Hoover Wilderness to monitor for invasive weeds in the area. Over their three-day/two-night trip, they found no weeds above 8,300 feet in…