Volunteer Events

rock creek boardwalk volunteers

Trail Ambassador Stewardship Round Up: Season Finale 2024

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…

afterrockcreek

Help Friends of the Inyo Restore the Rock Creek Boardwalk!

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…

rock creek boardwalk volunteers

Trail Ambassador Stewardship Round Up: August 2024

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…

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Trail Ambassador Stewardship Round Up: July 2024

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…

The Juniper Social Media 2

Summer is Better with Friends…of the Inyo—And we’re just warming up! Read all about it in the June issue of The Juniper!

Meet this season’s Trail Ambassadors! Buy your dad (or grad, or anyone you love, for that matter) some Fat Trout brand coffee from Black Sheep Coffee Roasters and help Friends of the Inyo at the same time! Get ready for June Lake Trails Day on Fourth of July Weekend! And soooo many more news and happenings: But if you don’t read “The Juniper,” you’ll never know! Happy reading…Happy sharing!

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Ah, the Solitude of Wilderness! Help Us Monitor It: Call it Citizen Science with a Meditative Twist!

Can you hear the solitude? Help us monitor it: It’s citizen science with a meditative twist! You enjoy your moments alone in the Eastern Sierra, right? So do many others. Millions of others, actually. Every year. Well, the U.S. Forest Service wants to make sure everyone visiting our wilderness areas has opportunities for solitude. It all begins with research, and Friends of the Inyo is assisting. And for that, we need YOU! Help Friends of the Inyo conduct visitor data collection for the Forest Service in various designated Wildernesses on the Inyo National Forest.  What you will be doing: Hiking…

The Juniper Social Media 2

A Combined October/November Issue of Friends of the Inyo’s Juniper E-Newsletter is hot off the press!

A quinceañera, a mild case of COVID, Friends of the Inyo’s partnerships and more! We have lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! Read all about it in the combined October/November Issue of The Juniper.

TAs of 2023

Trail Ambassadors’ Stewardship Roundup for End of Season 2023

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…

colt july 2023

Stewardship Roundup: July 2023

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…