We got a lot of great work done with enthusiastic volunteers earlier this fall during National Public Lands Day with Bishop BLM, Eastern Sierra Land Trust, and others. Check out the attached write up on the specific work. And take a look at a few pictures: Volunteers planted 500 bitterbrush seedlings in an area burned during the February 2015 Round Fire. This is critical winter range for migratory deer, so replacing bitterbrush is crucial to providing a food source for deer. Volunteers also maintained the Lower Rock Creek trail.
Stewardship
Check out the finished work by Friends of the Inyo’s Stewardship Crew on the Alabama Hills Trail. The crew is done for the season. We really appreciate the fine work they did not only on the Alabama Hills Trail- a new trail that connects the town of Lone Pine to Whitney Portal by way of the Alabama Hills – but accross the Eastern Sierra, from the Golden Trout Wilderness to Black Canyon in the White Mountains, on up to the Bridgeport Area and everywhere in between. Check out below for more pictures of their great work.
Friends of the Inyo’s Mammoth Lakes Trail Stewards just completed a few weeks of work on the Duck Pass Trail out of Coldwater Trailhead. As you’re hiking this fall, take the time to notice all of the steps and other trail structures that look new. They put a lot of careful thought into each foot of that trail. Check out pictures of the process of placing one step below:
Friends of the Inyo’s Stewardship Crew is in their 4th week building part of the new Alabama Hills Trail. This multi-use trail (hiking, mountain bike, equestrian) will link the town of Lone Pine to Whitney Portal. This trail runs on BLM and Inyo National Forest Land through the Alabama Hills. The Stew Crew came back tired last week. The work involved a LOT of heavy lifting and moving rocks to place as steps for the new trail. They built 22 steps in two days last week- incremental work. Check out some pictures of their great work (photos by Tristan Kadish):
We had a great day for BLM National Public Lands Day on Saturday, October 1. Friends of the Inyo really enjoyed working with the Bishop BLM, the Inyo National Forest and Eastern Sierra Land Trust. It was amazing to see the nearly 30 volunteers plant 500 bitterbrush seedlings to help rejuvanate an area impacted by the 2015 Round Fire and critical to deer winter habitat. Volunteers also worked on the Lower Rock Creek Trail. Thank you to all of the event sponsors including Paradise Fire Station, Sierra Eastern Mountain Bike Assocation, Patagonia, Michell Mather Massage, the California Deer Association and…
Thank you to the 7 volunteers that helped out on the Humphreys Basin Volunteer Project. This was a partnership between Friends of the Inyo and the Sierra National Forest to conduct restoration at Lower Golden Trout Lake in the John Muir Wilderness from August 23-27. In all, the group restored nearly 40 illegal campsites, 40 illegal firerings and removed over 40 lbs. of trash. Check out some pictures below: Photo by Ben Wickham Arianne “scrubbing” a boulder scarred by fire, which can remain on rock for decades. Photo by Ben Wickham Not a bad view for a work site….
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”959″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”270″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”480″}}]] On January 18th, Friends of the Inyo, in cooperation with the Inyo National Forest, celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a volunteer cleanup at the Buttermilk Boulders in Bishop, CA. Despite a snowy, overcast start to the day, 17 hardy volunteers picked up trash and delineated parking areas contributing more than 51 hours of service valued at $1,150 to the popular climbing area. Between November and March the Buttermilk sees peak usage by rock climbers from all over the world, and this high use is especially hard on the vegetation in the Buttermilk, which is fragile and can…
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…