We won an award from the National Park Service!

Last week Ashely Northcutt, the Executive Director of Wilderness Volunteers, flew back east to Washington, DC to accept a National Park Service award on behalf of our volunteers.

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Dept of the Interior Headquarters, Washington, DC

The ceremony took place in the lower level of the Department of the Interior building and the awards were presented by Ruth Prescott, Chief of Staff for the National Park Foundation, Lena McDowell, Deputy Director of Management and Administration for the National Park Service, and Lenny Teh, Program Manager of Service-wide Volunteer Programs for the National Park Service.

Ruth Prescott, National Park Foundation (photo: NPS)

 "As some of you know the National Park Foundation is the official philanthropic partner of the National Park service. Through our work we seek to raise financial support for private citizens park lovers stewards of nature history enthusiasts and wilderness adventurers to enrich our national parks and its programs. This afternoon it is my honor to celebrate with your our mutual love of these parks and your inspired commitment to the stewardship of these very special places. A commitment made even more real this week with the loss of Captain Bryan Hughes in the line of duty. The efforts, contributions and sacrifices made on a daily basis by NPS staff and volunteers are critical to ensuring public access to our parks and all that they offer. Whether its restoring a trail, interpreting history leading in-park educational programs or providing services at visitor centers, you are second to none. Not only do we hear this from our donors, we personally experience the value you bring when we're lucky enough to get out of the office and into a park. I recently spend a week at Rocky Mountain National Park, a place I've loved since my parents first took me there as a child, but Rocky like so many of our parks, is addressing record crowds. However in spite of the throngs of people, I watched with pride and amazement the patience of the park staff and volunteers as they answered questions, guided tours, directed traffic, awarded junior ranger badges and just generally enhanced the visit for so many of us. And that's just one example from the more than 300 million visits to our parks this year where each of you worked to create an experience unlike any other. That's why we at the Foundation are so honored to be a part of this event year after year to have the opportunity to say thank you and acknowledge the outstanding work of the NPS staff and the over three-hundred thousand volunteers who make visits to our national parks and wildernesses a memory of a lifetime. "
- Ruth Prescott, Chief of Staff for the National Park Foundation

Lena McDowell, National Park Service (photo: NPS)

“The next award is the Wes Henry National Wilderness Stewardship non-government partner award. The Wes Henry National Wilderness Stewardship non-government partner award goes to the Wilderness Volunteers organization. Established in 1997, the mission of this non-profit is stewardship of America’s wild lands through organizing and promoting volunteer service in cooperation with public land agencies, including the NPS. Volunteer leaders and volunteers, ranging from ages 18 to 85, have implemented over 230 week-long service projects in national park units with wilderness and backcountry. The volunteer project work inspires participants to come away from the experience with a new or renewed knowledge and love for wilderness, fostered by the Wilderness Volunteer organization’s commitment to wilderness stewardship. To the entire team of volunteer associates, we are truly grateful for your service.”
- Lena McDowell, Deputy Director of Management and Administration for the National Park Service

Ashely Northcutt, WV ED & Lenny Teh, National Park Service (photo: NPS)

Also honored at the ceremony were the recipients of the George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service, The 2017 Harry Yount National Park Ranger Award, and the Individual and Group Wes Henry National Wilderness Stewardship Awards.

You can watch the entire presentation on the National Park Service Volunteers-in-Parks facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/npsvolunteer/videos/10155686390058581/

NPS Award Ceremony award recipients (photo: NPS)

Letter from the ED:

We are extremely honored to have been selected for the Wes Henry National Wilderness Stewardship Award in the non-government partner category. Wilderness Volunteers exists only due to the dedication of a community of ordinary citizens volunteering their time, labor, and money to give something back to the wild lands they love. Our volunteers enthusiastically hike, backpack and canoe to work building and maintaining trails, installing and repairing erosion controls, removing invasive plants, removing barbed wire fences, revegetating damaged, eroded and burned areas, picking up litter, and removing and rehabilitating illegal campsites. Our individual and corporate donors support our core program and allow us to keep project fees affordable so we can recruit a diverse group of volunteer participants from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. Our volunteers go home with a sense of personal accomplishment & a feeling of pride & ownership toward the public land they visited, becoming wilderness advocates who will fight to protect our wild lands & spread those values to family and friends. 

Thank you to the National Park Service for working so hard to preserve our nation's natural and cultural heritage. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the NPS as we continue to bring together volunteers to address critical projects for our public land agencies and promote engaged community stewardship of our nation’s wild places.

                                 Ashely Northcutt, Executive Director, Wilderness Volunteers

Want to know more? 
You can find get more information and register for service projects at the link below or donate to help us continue putting together low-cost service projects in federal lands across the country. 

WV Honored as Yosemite Volunteer Group of the Year

Wilderness Volunteers has been selected as the Volunteer Group of the Year by Yosemite National Park!

With over 9,500 volunteers donating their time and energy in Yosemite this year, it is a great honor to be chosen as the best of the year. We're grateful for the hard work of all of our volunteer participants and especially the project's leaders, Dean and Laurie Twehues. Victoria Hartman, Yosemite's Wilderness Restoration Coordinator, recognizes the group by saying, "Your work is critical to the park’s ability to protect and preserve our rich natural and cultural heritage while providing meaningful and enjoyable experiences for our visitors." All participants will be receiving a thank you gift from the Park as part of the award.

The award-winning WV Yosemite volunteers, June 2013. Photo by Dean Twehues

We just completed the 6th project in the Rancheria Falls area, in the Hetch Hetchy section of the Park. Our work includes removing and ecologically restoring inappropriate campsites, as well as removing non-native invasive species such as salsify, mullein and bull thistle from the Tiltill meadow, a remote high sierra valley with an abundance of wetlands and wildlife. The project requires volunteers to backpack in approximately 6.5 miles to base camp and an additional daily 6 mile roundtrip hike to get to the work site. Sadly, the Hetch Hetchy area is still being impacted by the massive Rim Fire, so we're sure our volunteer stewardship work will be greatly needed in the coming years.

Photo of Hetch Hetchy taken on the WV service project in Yosemite, June 2013 by Lawrence Herko

Dave Pacheco and Paul Goldberg of the WV staff will be on hand in Yosemite to accept the award. The award ceremony will be held on National Public Lands Day - Saturday, September 28th at 4pm in front of the Valley Visitor Center, and will be followed by a raffle and live music as part of the Park's 5-day Yosemite Facelift event. You are welcome to come celebrate with us! The 10th annual Yosemite Facelift is an effort to help clean-up the Park at the end of the busy summer season and runs from September 24 - 29.

Volunteers working in Yosemite, June 2013. Photo by George Ralston

See more photos from this project and more via the WV photo gallery.

WV Receives Presidential Volunteer Service Award

We were happy to receive this award and accompanying letter from President Obama in the mail this week.  This recognition was prompted by our agency partners at the Sierra National Forest, due to our continuing service project in the John Muir Wilderness.  Space is still available to join this project in California's Sierra National Forest, applauded by the White House, which runs August 11-17.

Sierra NF's Partnership Coordinator, Chor Yang, thanked WV for our "untiring commitment and unyielding dedication." We are grateful to all WV trip participants for joining in the effort to give something back as we celebrate and sustainably steward our country's wild lands.