Interview with Brian Murdock of the Manti-La Sal National Forest

We recently caught up with Brian Murdock, the Recreation, Wilderness & Trails Manager for the Monticello/Moab ranger district of the Manti-La Sal National Forest to talk about our work in the Dark Canyon Wilderness; our next project there is May 11 - 14, 2014.

"The area that I am fortunate to manage is the Dark Canyon Wilderness. I have heard it referred to as the wild heart of the Colorado Plateau and I like that description. I believe one of its most unique qualities is the solitude it offers. As more and more of our wildlands are seeing increasing use, the logistics of getting into the area and the sheer remoteness of the canyon makes use relatively low in the Dark Canyon area. If you want a real wilderness experiences with a good chance of being completely alone and you are prepared, this is the place.

We are always in need of trail work. The wilderness is a dynamic system and keeping trails open and passable is a Herculean task that never ends. Wilderness Volunteers has put a lot of time into helping the US Forest Service remove tamarisk which we finished up in 2013.

Currently the recreation and wilderness staff on our district consists of two full time employees and 5-7 seasonal employees. The reality of our work is that we cannot meet all of the demands we have in managing developed and dispersed recreation, trails (non-motorized and motorized), outfitter and guides, and our winter recreation program on two different mountain ranges (the LA Sals and the Abajo/Elk Ridge) with the staff we have. Volunteers are a necessity if we want to fulfill our management responsibilities and Wilderness Volunteers has been one of our best partners in achieving our wilderness management goals. 

Our most recent projects with Wilderness Volunteers has included two annual trips each year for the past 8 years. In the spring we have conducted tamarisk inventories and removal and in the fall we do cultural inventories of the area. In 2013 we cleared the final tamarisk from the wilderness (that we know about). It was very satisfying to be able to clear all of the springs and wetlands of the invasive trees. I am sure there are still some lurking out there but  Wilderness Volunteers made the Dark Canyon Wilderness a much more natural and wild place with the work they did removing tamarisk. We also conducted a trail project this year in the La Sal mountains with Wilderness Volunteers that was very successful. The enthusiasm of the volunteers is always infectious. I love introducing people to new areas and watching them fall in love with Dark Canyon and the other areas we manage.

You can continue to give back when not on a WV project by educating everyone around you about the importance of public lands and in particular about wilderness. I think a lot of the American public have major misconceptions about wilderness. Having Wilderness Volunteers telling others about their volunteer trips and their accomplishments can go a long way in educating the public about wilderness and its management."

Join us on this spring's service project in Dark Canyon Wilderness May 11 - 17, 2013. 

Coming Back For More

We received this nice note from Glenn Thornton, a participant on WV's service project in Utah's Dark Canyon Wilderness of the Manti-La Sal National Forest, May 12 - 18, 2013.

Dave and Wilderness Volunteers,

Glenn conquering invasive tamarisk

Thanks for the fantastic opportunity to "give something back" on the 2013 service project in Dark Canyon. It truly was a rich and rewarding experience. This was my first WV trip and so I was not quite sure what to expect. Some volunteer/non-profit projects end up being a bit cobbled together logistics and communications wise. But with WV, I was very pleased to be able to have access to an up-to-date website with current info in the participants area, as well as the trip specific communications that were sent out to each participant. Then in the field you and Peyton had everything well planned and organized so that the hike in, and the camp-life was kept smooth and safe. And the food was quite good, varied and fresh, considering the remote location and all.

After all the hard work your crews have done in Dark Canyon and Woodenshoe Canyon, I felt honored to help WV and the USFS get one step closer to declaring victory over the evil tamarisk in Dark Canyon, at least in the wilderness portion of Dark Canyon. If all you guys offer is great volunteers, great leaders, great remote logistics, and seven days of hard and hot sandy work killing tamarisk while hiking in some of the most beautiful country around, then I'll definitely be back for more. Thanks again!

Glenn Thornton


While WV's next trip to Dark Canyon is already full, we'll likely be back in 2014. There are a just a few projects still in need of volunteers, such as a great project in the Moquith Mountain Wilderness Study Area by Kanab, UT and a neat one in the San Gabriel Mountains within the Angeles National Forest. Take a peek over on the WV project page for all the info on the service projects remaining in 2013.

Report From The Field: Sawtooth National Recreation Area

Report From The Field by Dave Pacheco

This past week, I co-led a group of intrepid Wilderness Volunteers into the rugged Sawtooth Wilderness to help the agency managing the Sawtooth National Recreation Area with some much-needed trail maintenance. We're proud to say this was WV's 15th project giving something back in the Sawtooths since 1999!

Under the long-time supervision of Liese Dean, Wilderness Program Coordinator, and Deb Peters, Assistant Trails Supervisor and expert packer, we backpacked in five miles to a campsite in the Stanley Creek area of the wilderness and immediately got familiar with our home for the week. Our first impressions were how incredibly clean the water flowed through this magnificent granite-based, Lodgepole pine forest -- some of the clearest water we had ever seen. And we couldn't help but be starkly reminded that the entire location, camp and work sites, were in a burned area from a 2007 fire.

For the next five days we made daily forays of up to eight miles round trip performing an assortment of

trail tasks. Volunteers took turns sawing out 55 downed trees across trails with a six-foot cross-cut saw, we lopped and brushed back overgrown vegetation from 5 miles of trail, and mostly we cleaned out debris and rocks from 244 water bars over that same distance. The water bar work was particularly important because of the unusual level of erosion from the past fire, and they are necessary to divert the water from gouging through trails.

Over the course of the week, we were thrilled with late night visits through camp by Mule deer and elk, and on the smaller scale we were entertained by pika, Clark's nutcracker, bluebird, and some very colorful Western tanagers. Thankfully, Thursday's storms that touched off wildfires across Idaho were well away from the immediate area, but they did make for some incredible evening red skies. The Sawtooth NRA is a place of many streams, deep glacial lakes, craggy peaks, and it's a place many of us will return to as we constantly explore wild America. If you're looking for a spectacular wilderness adventure, join us next year for another week in the Sawtooths!

See more pictures from this project and others via WV's online photo gallery.

Praise from the Colorado National Monument

"...developing a relationship with Wilderness Volunteers has really paid off."

We received the following kind letter from S. Conrad Clements, Trails Work Leader for the Colorado National Monument.  We're extremely grateful for all the hard work our agencies put in protecting this special wild land and other unique areas just like it. We've had several successful service projects at the CNM and look forward to returning next year. You can see many photos of our most recent project within the Colorado National Monument at our gallery.

A Thanks to Wilderness Volunteers from the Colorado National Monument by Paul Goldberg

A chance to give something back to the land

Dave Peters is fascinated by volunteering and by his favorite place to visit, southern Utah. Like most participants on Wilderness Volunteers service projects, he spends a lot of time deciding where he's going to go on his next journey and he gets the most out of "giving something back." Unlike most though, Dave has a unique voice and acumen for the written word -- he's a former staff writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and currently writes web content for Minnesota Public Radio.

After recently participating in the Wilderness Volunteers Beef Basin service project in southeastern Utah, Dave wrote some choice commentary for MPR about his adventure, some of which is posted below. Click here to read the entire piece at MPR.

"It wasn't the broiling desert scene I had envisioned when I headed to the Southwest after a long Minnesota winter.... My group was on a break from trail maintenance in a remote place called Beef Basin in southeast Utah, south of Canyonlands National Park. The nearest pavement was 50 miles of high-clearance dirt, sand and rock roads away. In the words of Wilderness Volunteers, the group that had organized us, we were there to "give something back." And we were working at it. Under the guidance of a Bureau of Land Management ranger, we cleared trails, blocked paths cut by cattle and hikers, tore down illegal fire rings (sometimes built with the hand-hewn rock of former ruins), hauled out old beer cans (in itself an interesting archeological study), fixed barbed-wire gates to keep out cows, and more....I find the place fascinating so I go there as often as I can. You can find your own way to give back, all over the country. Wilderness Volunteers, a nonprofit based in Flagstaff, Ariz., runs trips from Mount Rainier to Maine to the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. It's pretty cheap, it gets you into the wilderness and it lets you become part of a constituency of quiet, something the land desperately needs."

Even More WV Buzz

Last fall, WV first-timer Vicki Larson spent a week backpacking in southern Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Having heard of our program through a friend, Vicki decided it was time to "give something back" by joining our group intent on clearing the Escalante River of invasive Russian olive trees. Little did we know that in "real life" Vicki is Lifestyle Editor at the Marin Independent Journal. She wrote this wonderful testimonial account of her outstanding week along a desert river filled with natural wonder -- springs seeping from hanging gardens, natural bridges and arches, flash floods and 12 new friends!