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
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…
August Stewardship Update & Highlights Holy smokes it’s already August! They say time flies when you’re having fun, and that certainly applies to our stewardship activities this summer. Along with Trail Ambassadors Lindsay Butcher and Julia Tawney, our trio has been out and about lopping overgrown trails, bucking logs off of trails, interacting with and educating the public, and packing out all trash we find on trail or at the trailheads. Some highlights include: I (Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud) just got back from two days of crosscutting downed logs with students from the Athenian School’s Athenian Wilderness Experience, a 26-day…
Additional Trail Ambassador for the Owens River Headwaters Wild & Scenic River Area Friends of the Inyo has received a grant to do some great work around the Owens River Headwaters Wild & Scenic River Area. Our grant entails doing restoration work to aid in ecosystem, riparian habitat, and stream quality, as well as sharing the area with a wider audience, particularly in the local schools. FOI has had an exciting hand in the history of this area, protecting it from development and promoting its designation as wilderness. Our Trail Ambassador, Julia Tawney, will be putting together a series of videos…