On the Twelfth Day of Trail Work....

John Muir Wilderness, Inyo Nat'l Forest, CA (2006)

In the spirit of the holiday season, here's a look at what our volunteers accomplished in 2009 - all 502 of them. On 47 trips. Over the course of more than 14,442 hours of work. (Valued at nearly $292,000).

And that's only the beginning.

See for yourself. You won't find any maids-a-milking or pipers piping here. Just lots of workers working:

- 84 miles of trail repaired
- 6 miles of new trail constructed
- 35 rock waterbars created
- 39 log waterbars built
- 89 bermed waterbars created
- 194 waterbars cleaned
- 206 checkdams placed
- 13 checkdams improved
- 159 trees cleared from trails
- 25.5 tons of rock used
- 1.5 miles of trail removed
- 8 miles of fences removed
- 1 mile of fence placed
- 64 fire-rings removed
- 19 illegal campsites removed
- 7 campsites restored
- 1.5 miles of road restored
- 11,578 invasive weeds removed
- 4 miles surveyed for weeds
- 2700 plants planted
- 3 miles of river cleared of Russian olive
- 120-feet of elevated boardwalk built
- 150-feet of dilapidated boardwalk removed
- 125-feet of causeway built
- 41 stone steps placed
- 1 large culvert built
- 30 logs peeled and placed in steps
- 2 dangerous puncheon sections removed
- 1 wooden overlook station built
- many greenhouse seedlings potted
- lots of trash picked up on beaches
- and several signs installed.

Did we miss anything? I want to know who counted all those weeds.

Nice work everyone. It's inspiring to see how much we can accomplish when we work together and each do our little part. Thanks for "Giving Something Back" in 2009!

Also, a special thanks goes out to outgoing WV President Bill Sheppard, who stepped in to serve as president over the last year and guided the organization through another successful year.

Bill has served on the board for several years, most recently as president and vice president, and has been a trip leader since 1998. Bill is an experienced outdoorsman (that's him smashing rocks in the picture on the far right), having led his first Sierra Club trip in 1990, and he will continue to lead trips and serve on the board of directors. People like Bill are hard to come by, and Wilderness Volunteers is thankful that he has chosen to devote such time and energy to the organization.

From all of us at Wilderness Volunteers, thank you Bill and thank you everyone!