What is Stewardship?
Careful and responsible management of public land in trust for future generations.
Friends of the Inyo’s important role
We work hard with federal agencies including the Inyo National Forest and Bureau of Land Management sustaining healthy public lands. Join us to ensure quality experiences for all by doing work on that needs to get done! Our stewardship includes a long history of trail maintenance, habitat restoration, facilities upkeep, and special projects with volunteers and paid staff.
Want to volunteer?
Join our email list so that you hear about fun ways to volunteer and give back to Eastern Sierra public lands.
Stewardship Updates
Inland or not, a “playa” needs two things: water and sand. National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15. Friends of the Inyo would like to celebrate with our community by sharing the meanings of just a few Spanish-language words that have made their way into English. Playa is one such word. In Spanish, it usually means beach. But according to the Royal Spanish Academy’s website, rae.es, in some South American countries, playa can also mean a flat, wide and clear space intended for specific uses in towns and large-area industries: e.g., playa de estacionamiento means…
In case you missed our Communications Director Lou Medina’s interview with KMMT FM Arts, Culture & Entertainment (ACE) Show Host John DeMaria on September 3, please use our media player to listen to the full interview. You’ll get an update on our backcountry stewardship work done in early August in the Cottonwood Creek Wilderness; learn about volunteering events and outings coming up in September and October; find out about the upcoming issue of our Jeffrey Pine Journal celebrating FOI’s 35th Anniversary, and how you can receive it by becoming an FOI supporting member; hear about our Spanish-language outreach and more….
Friends of the Inyo gives a hearty “Thanks!” to our friends at KMMT FM Radio (www.kmmtradio.com), for helping us to promote our Volunteer Stewardship Events in September: Bridgeport Trails Day on Sept. 18, and National Public Lands Day at Alabama Hills on Sept. 25. Take a listen: Please be sure to visit friendsoftheinyo.org/events to sign up for these volunteering opportunities, or any of our interpretive hikes and outings, and to stay up to date with any schedule changes due to forest closures because of wildfires. Join us! All our events are FREE.
By Lindsay Butcher, Lead Trail Ambassador Flowing southeast from White Mountain Peak, Cottonwood Creek is fed by numerous springs that pop up all the way into the Great Basin Desert. In 2009, as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act signed by President Barack Obama, Cottonwood Creek was designated as a protected Wild and Scenic River (WSR). Today, the creek’s comprehensive management plan is still under development; however, its WSR designation meant no more cattle grazing in the area. From August 6 through 9, Friends of the Inyo set out with a hard-working group of volunteers and Inyo National Forest…
The dog days of summer are here, and wouldn’t you know it, our Trail Ambassadors have hit full gear! We’ve hit the halfway mark of our summer season, and my goodness, things have flown by! From volunteer events and interpretive hikes to backcountry trail work and log-outs with Forest Service partners, our TAs have been busy. Here are just a few highlights of what they’ve been up to since our last edition of the Juniper: Lily Emerson, our TA partnering with the Bridgeport Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, has been getting up to a variety of different projects….
As the calendar page flips to July, we’ve completed our first official month of Trail Ambassador work in the Inyo & Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests! Our Trail Ambassadors (TAs) hit the ground running this year and have been out and about working hard. Here are just a few highlights of what they’ve been up to: Lily Emerson, our TA partnering with the Bridgeport Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, took two volunteers out to Eagle Creek in the Hoover Wilderness to monitor for invasive weeds in the area. Over their three-day/two-night trip, they found no weeds above 8,300 feet in…
