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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.

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

What a Year for kids to learn about snow: At SnowSchool with Friends…of the Inyo!

By Lindsay Butcher, Stewardship Director SnowSchool is the nation’s largest on-snow winter ecology education program, with more than 30,000 annual participants at 60 sites across the United States. Developed by Winter Wildlands Alliance (WWA) to introduce underserved K-12 students to snow science and the wonder of winter landscapes, SnowSchool combines hands-on science education with snowshoe-powered outdoor exploration. The kiddos learn what the water cycle is and the part humans play in it, what our local watershed looks like and where we get our water from, where it goes, winter adaptations of animals/humans/plants, water-snow equivalency, and how to dig a snow…

Stewardship Round-Up: Haiku Edition!

Throughout the summer, the Trail Ambassadors do a variety of things: clearing water bars and sawing out downed logs on trails, obliterating illegal fire rings, chatting with visitors, picking up trash, logging all these stats, even…penning haikus! Wait, what?! You read that right. Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud asked each Trail Ambassador to collect their thoughts after each day of work, and come up with a little poetic musing in the 5-7-5 syllable style of a haiku. While they found it a bit odd at first, the TAs came to enjoy plugging into their creative sides during and after long days…

Stewardship Round-Up: August 2022

Yee-haw: It’s time for another edition of Stewardship Round-Up! Though this is our penultimate issue of this monthly dispatch, never fear and shed no tear, for we have a great re-cap for you this month. Recap compiled by Alex Ertaud, Stewardship Director for Friends of the Inyo August is always a great month for the Trail Ambassadors (TAs) to sink their teeth into some meatier projects they may have been eyeing and scouting in June and July. So, without further ado, here are some highlights of what the TAs have been up to this month: From Bradley Olson, Trail Ambassador…

Stewardship Round-Up: July 2022

Read some exciting progress notes from our Trail Ambassadors, with an introduction and post-note from Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud. “We’re thick into the Dog Days of summer, hitting the midway point of our season, and the Trail Ambassadors (TAs) just keep on rolling! Alongside our Forest Service partners, our TAs have been up to some amazing work. But don’t take my word for it: Let’s hear it from the TAs themselves! Here are some highlights from their last month of work in north-to-south order depending on the Ranger District to which each of them is assigned.” From Bradley Olson, TA…

Coloring is better with Friends…of the Inyo! Introducing our new FOI Coloring Sheet!

Start your little ones thinking about the importance of “Caring for the Eastern Sierra” with a Friends of the Inyo coloring sheet! It features just a few of the critters they might see in the Eastern Sierra. We will be distributing them printed on thick stock in colors that are fun for kids – pink, blue, yellow, green and goldenrod – during our Latino Conservation Week event this Saturday, July 23 at 4:30 p.m. in Bishop City Park. But you can also download a plain white coloring sheet here. Have fun coloring! And come out and see us!

Stewardship Round Up – June 2022

June Stewardship Round Up Compiled by Alex Ertaud, Stewardship Director The solstice has passed and summer is truly here, which means  Friends of the Inyo’s Trail Ambassadors have a month of work under their belts and are firing on all cylinders out on the trails of the Eastern Sierra. I could tell you what our TAs have been up to, but why not let them tell you themselves? Below are some updates from the field where our TAs share some of the highlights of their season so far. Lindsay Butcher, Trail Ambassador for the White Mountain Ranger District of the…