Friends of the Inyo’s Eastern Sierra 2018 Stewardship Work: The Year in Review

What a year it’s been! 2018 saw our Stewardship program tally some impressive numbers:

We put on over 20 different volunteer events,
which allowed us to engage over 400 volunteers for a whopping 1,919 hours of volunteer work!
Through those volunteer events, our Trail Ambassadors, and Stewardship Crews, we picked up over 2,000 pounds of trash from our public lands front and backcountries,
monitored 518.5 miles of trails,
and removed 105 logs from said trails.

Numbers are great, but why tell you what we did when we can show you? Here are some photos highlighting Friends of the Inyo stewarding in 2018:

racetrack playa volunteers — Friends of the Inyo volunteers work with Death Valley National Park staff to efface trespass marks from the Racetrack Playa. Photo by Joanne Hihn

Racetrack playa treatment — Photo by Joanne Hihn

Graffiti Removal — Volunteers from the Flash Foxy Women’s Climbing Festival helped us remove graffiti from the Buttermilk bouldering area. Before. Photo by Maura LaRiviere

grafitti removal scrubbing — During. Photo by Matt Ulery

Buttermilk clean up — After. All clean! Photo by Matt Ulery

trail volunteers — Partnering with the Mono Lake Committee and their Bird Chatauqua with a day of service in the Mono Basin.

trail crew and volunteers lemonade — Volunteers celebrating their work with watermelon and lemonade.

crosscut saw volunteers Yosemite — Sawing out logs at the Bridgeport Trails Day.

Convict lake volunteers — We partnered with MLTPA and MLR for volunteer day at Convict Lake. Photo courtesy of MLTPA.

trail work rock bar — Working with the Inyo National Forest to clear debris off the Pine Creek Trail after heavy rains caused landslides.

volunteer crew North Lake trailhead — A group of intrepid volunteers headed into Humphries Basin for a week of volunteering. Photo by Ken Miller.

intertube alpine meadow cleanup — You never know what you’ll find in the high country… Photo by Ken Miller.

owens river reed cutting — We worked on the Owens River Water Trail, removing tule reeds along the lower Owens River.

owens river kayak and paddleboard — We eventually hope to clear 6 miles of trail so as to make a navigable water way for boaters of all kinds!
Photo by Larry Freilich.

41 volunteers joined us for a Sunday of Stewardship in Buttermilk country, as part of the American Alpine Club’s Fall Highball event.

We partnered with Touchstone Climbing, the Access Fund, the Bishop Area Climbers Coalition, and the Inyo National Forest to set up some informantional kiosks in the Buttermilk bouldering area.

Check them out next time you’re up there!

A thousand thanks to all who joined us to give back to the public lands we love in 2018. We hope you’ll join us at one of our events in 2019.

Til then, happy ‘venturing!

-Alex Ertaud

Stewardship Director

Comments (1)

Lillie

January 10, 2019 at 4:48 pm

VERY PROUD!

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