Friends of the Inyo’s 2020 Backcountry Ranger Intern for the US Forest Service Each year Friends of the Inyo funds an intern for the Sierra National Forest with a generous donation from Rick Kattelmann and Sally Gaines. We are proud of the work and perspectives gained by David Carpenter in 2020 through his participation in the program. Read more about David and his experience with the Sierra National Forest below: Reflections on 2 Months in the High Sierra I always was a man of the wilderness. I was born in Denver, Colorado, and grew up not far away in Golden,…
Volunteer Events
Friends of the Inyo was onsite to lend trash bags and tools for a socially distanced volunteer clean up day organized by the Bishop Area Climbers Coalition. Click here to see beautiful pictures by Gayla Wolf featured in The Sheet on November 21st. Thank you again to the Bishop Area Climbers Coalition for inviting us to take part in their creative and fun clean up event.
What Can I Do? Join us in picking up trash at your favorite spots! Going on a day hike? Bring a grocery bag to fill. Going into the backcountry? Bring an extra ziplock for the trash you find. Want to be like our Trail Ambassador Lindsay? Bring heavy-duty garbage bags and fill them up! Join the Eastern Sierra Trash Eliminators on Facebook! The Sierra Trash Eliminators is a group dedicated to eliminating trash here in the Eastern Sierra. Friends of the Inyo proudly supports them, having donated a dozen trash grabbers and hundreds of trash bags. Join the group to…
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…
In early March of 2020, Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud sat down with Adam Barnett, the Inyo National Forest’s Assistant Public Services Staff Officer. This conversation dives deep into the ins and outs of the two organization’s working relationship. It is always a pleasure to chat with Adam and I hope you enjoy! Alex Ertaud, Stewardship Director: I am here with Adam Barnett, of the Forest Service. Thank you for sitting down with me Adam. Just to start things off, when was the first time you came to the Eastern Sierra? And I guess in this case, the Inyo National Forest….
Thank you volunteers for helping Friends of the Inyo make a difference Friends of the Inyo volunteer projects in 2019 engaged 457 volunteers for 1,316 hours of work on our Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. We removed a total of 1,615 pounds of trash, restored 52 improper fire rings, cleaned trash from 24 campsites, and restored 40 illegal campsites. Thank you to all of our public lands volunteers, We couldn’t do our important work without you!
Introducing the Bishop Area Climbing Rangers This winter and spring, the Bishop Area Climbers Coalition, the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, and Friends of the Inyo are thrilled to introduce the two Climbing Rangers who will work on our public lands this coming climbing season. These positions were created in partnership with the local Bureau of Land Management and United States Forest Service offices and staffs, and these rangers will be able to do a great deal of tangible, valuable, and much needed work. They will be a presence on the ground in the climbing areas in and around Bishop, taking…
The last two times I volunteered for Friends of the Inyo on backcountry stewardship projects, I unearthed a strong sense of purpose and a deep connection with nature. This time, however, I felt myself making a connection with a rich past….
Summer Stewardship Season Goes Out with a Bang on National Public Lands Day Mother nature sent our stewardship events calendar out in style with moody skies and a clear indication that summer was indeed over. Saturday, September 28th was National Public Lands Day, and we celebrated with two stewardship events. We partnered with the Bodie Hills Conservation Partnership and the Bureau of Land Management to rehabilitate some fencing to let-down fencing that is friendlier to sage grouse, deer, and pronghorn antelope. Further south on the 395, our Stewardship Crew partnered with the Inyo National Forest, the Eastern Sierra 4WD Club,…
Whew, the month of March has been a doozy for us and our stewardship and education programs! We started off with SnowSchool with the Bishop Elementary School fifth-graders up at Cardinal Village in Aspendell. In partnership with the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, Winter Wildlands Alliance, the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center, and the Eastern Sierra Land Trust, we engaged 150 students over three days in snow science, creative activities, and fun games. A mere week later, we headed a bit lower to our high desert ecosystem in the Buttermilk Country, for a morning of Stewardship with the Flash Foxy Women’s Climbing…