Trail Ambassadors
With federal budgets dwindling, our local Inyo and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests have less and less ability to adequately staff our trails. Coupled with the millions of visitors to each forest every year, and our public lands are seeing adverse effects in the form of trail maintenance backlogs, trash strewn about, and habitat degradation.
In the summer of 2017 we launched our current iteration of the Trail Ambassadors to educate trail users on how to best recreate responsibly, provide interpretive talks and hikes, engage the public in volunteer public lands stewardship events, and provide a presence on the ground.
The Trail Ambassadors are making a big impact! In the summers of 2018 and 2019 alone, the Trail Ambassadors have amassed some staggering stats:
- 5,452 visitor contacts
- 1,597 pounds of trash removed
- 233 logs removed from trails
- 128 campsites cleaned
- 196 interpretive hike participants for 633 hours
- 1,034 miles of trail monitored
- 130 miles of trail maintained
Support the Trail Ambassadors
Updates
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.
Resource List: Celebrating the Owens River Headwaters Presentation Owens River Headwaters + Wild and Scenic River Info: ORH National Wild and Scenic Page https://www.rivers.gov/rivers/owens.php Mammoth to June Ecosystem Management Plan, 1996 https://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-43/VOL_II/VII_C50.PDF Forest Service Owens River Headwaters Planning, 2020 https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=57325 Summary of Initial Wilderness Proposal, 2009 https://friendsoftheinyo.org/book/owens-river-headwaters-proposed-wilderness-addition/ The River Network https://www.rivernetwork.org/about-us/ More info on LADWP and Owens River: Podcast on the Owens River and LADWP: Series of Stakeholder Interviews https://thereitistakeit.org/ Info on First People in the Owens River Headwaters: Northern Paiute Language Project http://paiute.ucsc.edu/#three Bishop Paiute Tribe http://www.bishoppaiutetribe.com/ The Archaeology of CA-MNO-2122: A Study of Pre-Contact and Post-Contact…
September Stewardship Update & Highlights The dog days of summer are here, and our Trail Ambassadors are out and about doing a doggone good job! Whether it’s picking up trash, working with the Athenian School, or heading out on trips with our Forest Service partners, August has been one heck of a month for our Stewardship team. Here are some of the highlights of the month: Lindsay and I (Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud) got to head into French Canyon, just over Pine Creek Pass and the Sierra Crest to spend four days working alongside Tim Crosby and Michael Sax from…