Below is an excerpt from Julia’s Jeffrey Pine Journal article. Pick up a copy of our Spring JPJ this April for more stories from the Racetrack Project. My first sight of Death Valley’s Racetrack Playa was like a glimpse of another planet. The ancient lakebed was the color of tahini, spread out smooth and flat between jagged desert peaks. At one end, the startling black rock pillars known as the Grandstand caught the eye like a pin on a map. At the other, the famous “racing rocks” lay scattered, each sitting in the furrow it had etched as a mysterious…
Stewardship
In 2007, a massive fire flared up along Oak Creek, just north of Independence in the southern Owens Valley. A catastrophic flood then scoured the creek in 2008, destroying much of the remaining riparian vegetation. Nearly a decade later, the creek is still barely vegetated and unprotected from future floods. We joined the Fort Independence Tribe, the California Native Plants Society, and the Inyo National Forest on December 14 to take a small step toward restoring Oak Creek’s streamside forest. With a troop of 20 volunteers, we worked until sundown and put over 250 locally grown native plants in the…
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…
Despite predictions of precipitation and howling winds, Sunday, November 5 was a gorgeous, sunny late fall day—perfect weather for celebrating the unrivaled climbing opportunities that grace Bishop’s backyard. As the culminating event of the American Alpine Club‘s Fall Highball climbing festival, we combined forces with the Bishop BLM to lead climbers in stewardship projects near our most popular bouldering areas. We planted native bitterbrush in disturbed areas in the Buttermilks and the Volcanic Tablelands, used local stones to delineate parking spots, trails, and campsites, picked up trash, and reduced fortress-like campfire rings to more appropriate sizes. Of course, it’s not…
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!
All I really needed were a few community service hours for school next year, which I just happened to put off until the last minute. However, like any fifteen-year-old nowadays, I despise heavy labor. Signing up for five days of backcountry trail stewardship in the Ansel Adams Wilderness would not have been my first choice, and I called myself crazy when I did so. Yet this week with Friends of the Inyo, the Inyo National Forest, and funding from the National Forest Foundation turned out to be one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had…
We had a great day out at Smokey Bear Flat working with Girl Scout troops from Mammoth. We spent the morning using native materials to restore areas where vehicles had driven off-road — kind of like an ecological art project!
The Ansel Adams Wilderness Project brought six volunteers into the Shadow Lake area for five days of backcountry trail restoration. Youth volunteer Thomas Zentmyer came along for the community service hours, but went home with an experience he’ll remember forever. Check out his words below, and stay tuned for more stories and photos from the trip. “I’m a frequent visitor to the backcountry, but this trip had scenery like I had never seen before. I would come back from a hard day of work and settle down for dinner, all the while surrounded by the sound of gushing water, golden…
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: