Why it is so important to keep your food & trash away from wildlife

Storing your food and trash properly can have life and death consequences to the wildlife in the area you are visiting. 

Let Wildlife Stay Wild

Squirrels, bears, raccoons, skunks, deer, etc. are wild animals who all have natural food sources that sustain them during the different seasons. They learn when they are little where to go look for these foods and may migrate during the year to feed on different foods depending on their abundance. When these animals find human food they learn that people can be a source of food too. This may lead them to revisit or seek out new areas with people in their search for food. The behavior can interfere with normal migration patterns, make them less afraid of people, and significantly increase the chance that they will have a negative encounter with a human that ends badly for the animal. Negative encounters for people may range from your lunch being eaten, your backpack chewed up, your tent nibbled on, to being bitten, attacked and injured or killed. Negative encounters for animals could include being hit by a car, being shot, getting injured by people or domestic animals, or being trapped, relocated or euthanized.     

Keeping your food stored properly can protect you as well as the local wildlife!

Food and Trash Can Kill

Some types of food can actually kill animals that aren't equipped to digest them. Deer and birds can die from eating too much food with a flour base such as bread. Empty containers, six pack rings, and other discarded trash can be a serious hazard to wildlife too. Animals can get their head or feet trapped in containers or trash leading to suffocation, serious injury or death. The packaging your food is in may also be eaten by hungry animals. This plastic, styrofoam, foil, cardboard, metal, etc. may still smell like food  enough to be appetizing to a wild animal. Unfortunately these items are indigestible and may lead to intestinal blockages, entangled limbs, lacerations, and death.  

Feeding a cute squirrel at the campground may seem harmless at first. That squirrel through will likely start looking to every visitor for a meal and when somebody doesn't feed him he will start getting into backpacks, tents, and cars looking for food. He could even get aggressive and attack somebody if he thinks they have food. 

Be a wildlife advocate and help educate others about the importance of properly storing your food and trash.

Tips on how to manage your food and trash from 

the National Park Service:

In Picnic Areas and Campgrounds

• Always keep your food within arm's reach and don't turn your back to your food.

• In some parks, food may be stored inside your car as long as it is out of sight, with windows completely closed, and only during daylight hours; never store food in a pickup truck bed or strapped to the outside of a vehicle. In other parks, all food must be removed from your car and stored in lockers. Remember to clear your car of food wrappers, crumbs in baby seats, baby wipes, and even canned food and drinks.

• Secure your food, garbage, and other scented items immediately upon arriving at your campsite.

• Do NOT store food in your tent or backpack.

• Wash dirty dishes immediately.

• Do NOT attempt to burn excess food, tea bags, or coffee grounds in a fire. Burning organic matter completely requires a very hot fire, hotter than most campfires. Partially burned matter will still draw wildlife into camps.

In Hotel Rooms and Cabins

• Keep all food inside your room. If you are not in the room, the windows and doors must be closed. Bears can easily break into cabins through an open door or window.

While Backpacking

• Check with the park before taking food into the backcountry. Some parks allow or require portable containers designed for backpackers; others provide food lockers.

• Choose foods that are compact, compressible, high calorie, and lacking in strong odors, such as rice, tortillas, jerky, pastas, nuts, dried fruits, peanut butter, and protein bars.

• Take food out of its original package. This allows you to fit more food in your canisters and reduce garbage. Use resealable bags instead of bottles, jars, and cans. Force air out of bags or packages.

• Carry food and garbage in plastic bags to contain crumbs and grease that can leave odors in your backpack.

• Bear-resistant containers only work if they are closed and locked. Be sure to keep the container closed and locked even while you're around your campsite.

• Place containers on flat, level ground 100 feet or more from your campsite.

• Do NOT place containers near cliffs or any water source, as a bear may knock the container around or roll it down a hill trying to open it.

• Do NOT attach anything to containers. Ropes attached to containers enable a bear to carry it away.

• Place pots and pans on top of containers as a bear alarm.

• Learn how to pack your container efficiently.

• Do NOT dispose of food waste in the wilderness. Pack out all uneaten food and food particles. Treat food wrappers and other garbage the same as food.

Leader Spotlight: Bill Sheppard

"Put the cut pieces uphill. People walking down paths tend to look downhill," says the sage leader of more than approximately 75 Wilderness Volunteers service projects.

While we are brushing trail in the middle of a wilderness area, Bill Sheppard makes it clear that we need to make sure it looks as natural as possible. That means carefully hiding our slash piles up the hill from the trail, not below the trail. Not in the line of sight of hikers and horse riders. Keep it as natural as possible.

Bill is meticulous about his placement of slash. Always uphill, always hidden from view.

And, he is someone whose advice should be followed.

Bill has led an impressive 110 or so service trips between WV and the Sierra Club since 1990 after having been a participant for six years. And then, in 1989 he was invited to the Sierra Club Midwest Subcommittee spring meeting, and was assigned to lead a second section of a full trip in late summer.  It was a canoe service trip in the Sylvania Wilderness, located in the Superior National Forest in Michigan.

In all his years traveling around the country and lending a hand to various national parks, forests and wilderness areas, Bill has seen a myriad of our public lands. However, Bill, who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, finds himself returning to his local favorite, Grand Canyon National Park. He also prefers leading trips that are within a day to a day-and-a-half drive from Flagstaff. Most of his most recent trips have been located in California, Arizona and New Mexico.

He has conducted nearly every type of trip imaginable, from building trails to eradicating invasive species, and most of them have been in the back country, where WV sometimes receives assistance from packers and their mules hauling in gear from the trailhead to the camp site. It lessens the weight on the packs for everyone, which makes an 11-mile hike into a site much more manageable.

“The packers always amaze me,” Sheppard stated. “They’re usually volunteers, and they really know how to load their stock with our food, kitchen equipment and tools. They make our work possible, and I’m always grateful for their service.”

It’s not only our national public lands that are on the receiving end of Bill’s selfless service. He volunteers for the City of Flagstaff one day a week, working a seven-hour shift doing graffiti abatement. And, he also conducts “unofficial litter pick-up hikes on trails in the forest near home several days a week,” which should come to no surprise to anyone who has ever crossed paths with Bill.

On his various service trips, Bill has enjoyed meeting and working with the volunteers who hail from across the country and sometimes from overseas. He says, “almost all the volunteers have been wonderful. They’re motivated, flexible, physically fit and good comrades.

“The hardest part of each trip was at the end of the week,” he added. “Saying goodbye to all my hard-working friends who had generously spent a week of their vacation time giving back to the wilderness.  We always hope to keep in touch and maybe meet up again on another WV project.”

As for the details that go into getting ready to lead a trip, many leaders, especially new leaders, feel that putting together a menu is one of the most stressful parts of the trip planning. If people aren’t happy with the food, they might not have enough energy needed for the work to be done.

Bill is not one of those leaders.

After planning as many menus as he has, Bill has perfected the process. It is generally the same from trip to trip, although he still tweaks his lineup – adding one or two meals to change things up. For example, when leading his final Wilderness Volunteers trip in 2017, his menu featured a new dinner. He served up Thai food, which featured Tom Ka soup, Backpacker Pantry Pad Thai plus shrimp and spiked mandarins for dessert.

As he retires from leading service projects for Wilderness Volunteers, Bill has one last piece of advice.

“Be flexible, because our plans must sometimes change due to weather, wildfires, packer problems, etc.”

After all, there always is work to be done somewhere.

Announcing the Winners of the 2017 WV Photo Contest

Wilderness Volunteers is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 WV Photo Contest sponsored by: 

  

We received nearly 200 entries and there were so many fantastic photos, picking a winner was not an easy job.

The grand prize winner for best photo is Eric Mak. He has won a gift certificate for a free Wilderness Volunteers project good for the 2018 project season.

Eric took this epic photo of Denali on the Denali National Park service project.  

The Landscape photo winner is Randy Meier. He has won a adventure sized Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve donated by Mom's Stuff, a LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy, and a MiiR Vacuum Insulated Camp Cup donated by REI.    

Randy took this photo of the Minarets on the Purple Lakes service project in the John Muir Wilderness, Inyo National Forest.

The Wildlife photo winner is Dave Rice. He has won an adventure sized Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve donated by Mom's Stuff, a LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy, a REI buff donated by REI, and a Wilderness Volunteers tri-blend tshirt. 

Dave took this photo of a Bald Eagle in the rain on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge service project. 

The Hard at Work photo winner is Laurel Casjens. She has an adventure sized Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve donated by Mom's Stuff, a LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy, a Coupon for 20% off one full price item donated by REI, and a Wilderness Volunteers baseball hat.

Laurel took this photo of volunteers doing trail work on the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness service project in the White River National Forest.

The On The Trail photo winner is Danielle Alling. She has won an adventure sized Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve donated by Mom's Stuff, a LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy, an Aloe Gator Sunscreen & SPF 30 chapstick donated by REI, and a Wilderness Volunteers Klean Kanteen.    

Danielle took this photo of the hike in on the Escalante River service project in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

You can see the rest of our great 2017 photo contest entries as well as photos from just about every 2017 service project online in the Wilderness Volunteers photo gallery.

Congratulations to our winners and thank you to our generous sponsors and everyone who entered!

Don't forget to bring your camera with you on your next service project so you are ready for the 2018 Wilderness Volunteers photo contest.

Announcing the 2017 Wilderness Volunteers Photo Contest

The 2017 season is nearly over, so let's celebrate all of the great work our trip participants helped WV accomplish this year by awarding some great prizes for a few fantastic photos!

A few of our great entries from last year:

Enter your favorite WV project photos by uploading your selections to the WV gallery in these categories:

• Landscapes (scenic photos of our nation's public lands)
• Wildlife (from slugs to bears, if it's a wild animal it's game)
• On the Trail (volunteers/hikers on trails)
• Hard at Work (volunteers working on projects)

Please add a description for each photo as well as your name and what project it was taken on.

One winner will be selected for each category as well as a grand prize winner for best photo.

Grand Prize:

• A gift certificate for a free Wilderness Volunteers project good for the 2018 project season

Best Landscape:

• Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve (adventure sized) donated by Mom's Stuff 
• LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy
• MiiR Vacuum Insulated Camp Cup donated by REI    

Best Wildlife:

• Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve (adventure sized) donated by Mom's Stuff 
• LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy
• REI buff donated by REI    
• Wilderness Volunteers tri-blend tshirt 

Best On the Trail:

• Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve (adventure sized) donated by Mom's Stuff 
• LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy
• Aloe Gator Sunscreen & SPF 30 chapstick donated by REI 
• Wilderness Volunteers Klean Kanteen    

Best Hard At Work:

• Mom's Stuff All-Purpose Pinon Salve (adventure sized) donated by Mom's Stuff 
• LifeStraw Personal Water Filter donated by Eartheasy
• Coupon for 20% off one full price item donated by REI      
• Wilderness Volunteers baseball hat

You can enter as many photos as you like, just be sure to do so before the deadline on November 30th! 

A huge thank you to this year's photo contest sponsors:

Mom's Stuff

Eartheasy

REI

Official Contest Rules:

• All photos must be taken on a 2017 Wilderness Volunteers Project and must comply with Leave No Trace ethics & principles.

• Each entry must include the photographer's name and the project it was taken on.

• The same photo cannot be entered in more than one category. Judges reserve the right to switch images to other categories.

• The contest is open to all 2016 WV project participants and leaders, except for Wilderness Volunteers staff, contest judges and their families. WV reserves the right to verify, in its sole judgment, entrant eligibility. 

• Photographs will be judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact and artistic merit. Awards will be selected by a panel of judges, and all decisions are final.  

• Entries must be submitted to the Wilderness Volunteers photo gallery no later than 11:59pm UTC on by Thursday, November 30th, 2017 to be eligible.

• Judges may exclude entries that do not meet the above criteria.

• Winners will be notified by email. Wilderness Volunteers is not responsible for lost or damaged prizes.

Photos From the Field: Never Summer Wilderness

In early July Wilderness Volunteers completed a service project in the Never Summer Wilderness of the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest in northern Colorado.

The Never Summer Wilderness shares its eastern boundary with Rocky Mountain National Park. This 21,000-acre wilderness includes landscapes from forested ridges to steep tundra ranging in elevation from 8,900 to 12,520 feet.  Spruce, fir and lodge-pole pine blanket the lower elevations.  This area receives large amounts of snow, and four of its peaks have names that hint at their cloud-topped heights: Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus and Nimbus.

The popular Baker Gulch trail leads to Never Summer's beautiful Parika Lake, however it has been suffering from a lack of maintenance for nearly a decade and the upper sections of the trail have become nearly impassable due to large fallen trees.

Our volunteers began the week with a Forest Service shuttle in to the Bowen Baker Trail head before backpacking about a mile in and setting up camp in a remote area. During the week the crew worked with a Forest Service wilderness ranger to clear and repair the Baker Gulch trail. Work included removing large fallen trees from the trail with a crosscut saw, clearing brush away from the trail, and placing over 76 rock steppers through marshy areas. 

Each day volunteers were treated to unique ridgeline views of the Never Summer Range and Rocky Mountain National Park as well as a few visits from a resident momma moose with her baby.

BEFORE

AFTER

Want to give something back with Wilderness Volunteers in Colorado's Never Summer Wilderness?

The Spring 2018 projects were released on our website October 2nd & the Summer and Fall 2018 projects will be released December 1, 2017.

Photos by WV Project Leader Benjamin Johnson.

Wilderness Volunteers Internship: Adventure #3

Inyo National Forest, Minaret Lake

My last project for the year as a WV intern was just outside of Mammoth, California at the base of the Minarets. Aside from LAX, this was my my first time in California. It had only been a week since my last WV trip and I was excited to be on another project in a new, very beautiful, location. We met as a group the night before and helped to pack food into the bear panniers for the trip. On the route to basecamp, we saw Devils Post Pile National Monument, crossed the JMT and the PCT, and got a few glances at the spires in the distance.

Necessary Work

The region we were working in received 200% of normal annual precipitation which made for about 20 downed trees over the trail, washed out bridges and overfull water bars. Before working on WV projects I never really new how much it took to maintain trails. The first two days we logged out the trail using the cross cut saw to clear trees and block secondary trails. For the second part of the project we did a variety of tasks such as campsite restoration, rocking the trail and building check dams.

WV Community 

Perhaps the best part of WV projects is the community that develops during the trip. Everyone is passionate about the preservation of these recreational areas and has a deep respect and appreciation for the environment. It is so refreshing to leave the phone behind and spend a week straight focusing on just what is present.

What I learned from WV 

Being an intern for Wilderness Volunteers was an awesome experience that will help to shape my perception of conservation and preservation and serve as a means to give something back. I learned about the process of caring for the environment and I met numerous people with such a passion for the outdoors they are willing to give time in an effort for the greater good of the environment.  Thank you to everyone who has participated on a WV trip and I encourage anyone who is interested to give it a shot! See you later.

Written by Kevin Graves; WV's 2017 Intern.