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 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.
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Stewardship Updates
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:
We went out with the Inyo National Forest and SEMBA (Sierra Eastside Mountain Bike Association) and repaired a section of the Lower Rock Creek Trail that was damaged by flooding this winter. Lower Rock Creek is a classic trail for mountain bike riding. While we had a beautiful day out there, and finished the job, it was really nice to spend a morning with really nice folks stepping up to care for a place they enjoy and love. Best way to make an impact on trails you enjoy? Join us on another trail event soon. Thanks to the Inyo National…
Check out Trail Ambassador Astra’s intellectual exploration of connecting to a place: While leading my third “Wild Harvest” interpretive hike for FOI this summer, one of the participants mused about what’s underfoot. We were three-quarters of a mile up the Parker Bench Trail, pausing in the ecotone between sage steppe and forest riparian corridor. The group had just come to a stand of aspen, and we were discussing the interconnectedness of trees: how a web of fungi in the soil allows trees across species to share nutrients and knowledge amongst themselves for the betterment of the forest writ large. “There’s…
