Lightning Storm Safety

A recent death of an Arizona teen from a lightning strike in the Kachina Peaks Wilderness Area has brought to mind the importance of proper practices during lightning storms. Each year over 20 million strikes hit the ground accounting for nearly 70 deaths per year. While many of us know the correct behavior and techniques during lightning, a safety refresher in this time of increasing summer storms could be the difference between panic and action. Here are the top three things to remember if caught in a lightning storm.  

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1. Count the Distance

In order to gauge the distance you are from a storm, count the seconds between seeing a flash and hearing thunder. Sound travels at 1.6km every 5 seconds. If the flash-bang is 30 seconds or less, avoid danger places or go to a safe place until the storm has passed. If the flash-bang is 5 seconds or less, the storm is less than 2 miles from you and you should immediately find cover and assume lighting position.

2. Dangerous Locations

LOTS of dangerous locations here...

Areas to avoid if a lightning is in your area include:

• Summits, ridge tops, or exposed locations like meadows or open slopes.
• Near water of any kind including rivers, lakes, and even indoor plumbing.
• Near tall objects like trees or rock spires.
• Inside shallow caves or under rock overhangs. 
• Near any conductive objects, like metal tools or metal pack frames.

Steering clear of these areas will better you odds of avoiding lightning strikes.

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3. Positions of Safety

Proper practices in a lightning storm include:

• Disperse your party 20 to 40ft apart.
• Seek shelter in a stand of uniform height trees, in a crevice or ravine, or deep in a cave.
• Assume lightning position by squatting on a insulating pad with only your forefoot touching the pad and your heels together. Cover your ears with your palms while tucking your head down. See diagram for reference. 

If you practice these techniques, coupled with adequate preparation and attention to signs of inclement weather, you could reduce the amount or risk posed to you by lightning storms. Stay safe in storms this summer, and enjoy time in the wild!

Equipment Spotlight: Tenacious Tape Gear Patches

A New Approach to Gear Repair:

The warmth, light weight and compactability of  down jackets make them a backpacker's ace in the hole but one down side has always been their susceptibility small rips or tears. Left unattended all that warm down escapes pretty quickly through fairly small rips or tears.

Repairing a hole in the past has typically involved unsightly repair patches/duct tape or and expensive trip to a gear repair shop. The folks over at McNett have a new solution: Tenacious Tape Gear Repair Patches. Application is easy: just peel off the backing and stick to the gear needing repair. The adhesive is advertised to stay put "rain, snow, or shine" on "outerwear, outdoor gear, water bottles, luggage and more".

The patches come in a variety of fun decorative shapes & sizes to cover just about any size tear. They are also available in black, color, and reflective tape.

After recently finding a sizable rip in the back of my down jacket I decided to give these gear patches a shot. I picked up a camping set in black at a local outdoor store for around $10.

The precut tree shape seemed about the right size for the tear- it peeled off the backing easily & seemed to adhere to the jacket material pretty well. It helped to have a flat surface behind the jacket to get the patch on without any wrinkles or flaps. The matte black color of the patch made it not terribly noticeable against the black of my jacket.

After three months of regular wear, two weeks in the backcountry and one wash the patch is still in place and looks good. Having previously used duct tape, glossy gear repair tape, and a needle and thread to repair jackets while on service projects I really like the fun shapes and simplicity of these patches!  

If it's natural/biodegradable is it still litter?

While we all recognize the need to pack out what we pack in to our wilderness areas, what about biodegradable or natural trash like banana peels, sunflower seed shells, peach pits, orange peels, pistachio shells, and apple cores? Leave-No-Trace principles extend well past your granola-bar wrapper.

Landscape with biodegradable trash. 

Landscape free of biodegradable trash! 

Judging by the amount of "natural" biodegradable bits collected on a recent day hike on Haleakala, HI there is still generally some confusion on the issue.

Just because something is biodegradable that doesn't mean that it is native to the environment you are in. Unless you are standing under an apple tree eating an apple, in a field of sunflowers spitting out sunflower shells, or next to a banana tree dropping a banana peel, these items likely don't belong in the ecosystem you are visiting. They are still trash and need to be packed out with the rest of your trash for the following reasons:

1) Biodegradable trash is harmful to wildlife. Animals may eat it and become sick or start looking for more along trails and campsites. This can lead to negative encounters for both animals and people.

2) Seeds may grow introducing non-native vegetation to the area.

3) While they may be "biodegradable" depending on the area that could still take years to break down.

4) If everyone left their orange peels, apple cores, and pistachio shells it wouldn't take long before you'd see them everywhere.

Remember to respect your surrounding environment by doing your best to truly leave no trace of your visit. If you do encounter some trash, biodegradable or otherwise, please pack it out with you. (You could even use it to make some fun trash art like this.) Put your trash in the trash and help keep our public lands wild!

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Celebrates 20 Years!

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2016! Wilderness Volunteers has been working with Grand Staircase-Escalante for 18 of those years doing a variety of projects, from backcountry restoration to eradication of invasives to trail maintenance. One of the early highlights recalled by project leaders was Sage Sorenson playing a flute for participants in the Gulch during a lunch break.

Designated as a National Monument in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, the Grand Staircase-Escalante is the largest National Monument in the United States spanning nearly 1.9 million acres. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

From its spectacular Grand Staircase of cliffs and terraces, across the rugged Kaiparowits Plateau, to the wonders of the Escalante River canyons, the Monument's vast landscape offers unparalleled opportunities for scientists and visitors alike to experience the effects of millions of years of geological history. Reaching from the town of Escalante at the northeast end to Kanab in the southwest, the monument covers an area roughly the size of Delaware and was the last region in America to be explored.

Planned events include a 20th birthday party with cake and lemonade, an Open House, an Artists in Residence Veterans Salute, a art exhibition, the first annual Lower Calf Creek Falls hike, and a Science Forum covering topics such as Paleontology, Geology, Archaeology, Botany, Soils and Hydrology, and Recreation/Social Science.

Read more about events in the BLM's event announcement.

You can also celebrate GSENM's 20th year with Wilderness Volunteers on our fall service project October 2-8th. Help remove invasive Russian Olive and Tamarisk from tributaries of the Escalante River and protect the beautiful and delicate riparian areas of the Grand Staircase-Escalante.

The non-native olive trees were originally planted to prevent erosion and stabilize soil but the trees have spread and in Utah they have colonized entire riverways, crowding out native vegetation, lowering the temperatures of the Escalante River, and making the riverway impassable to wildlife and hikers alike.

Project participants will likely car camp in a remote setting (or a designated campground close to the project area) and hike to the project site each day.

You can find out more about the project and apply to volunteer on it here.

Have you done a WV project in the Grand Staircase-Escalante? 

Do you have a favorite hike in the GSENM? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Lamzac Lounge Chairs

If you are wishing your camp chair was a little more comfortable you might want to check out the new Lamzac Hangout chair.

Made from ripstop nylon they set up in just a few seconds. Take down is just as easy and the sacks are designed to fold up compactly. A cross between a beanbag chair, a hammock and a air mattress they are designed to hold up to 440 pounds so you can share your newfound comfort with a friend or two.

At 2.6 pounds the chair is a bit on the heavy side for backpacking trips where weight is a consideration but for car camping it could be a great addition. The ripstop nylon construction is resistant to rips and tears but probably shouldn't be used near campfires as an errant ember could easily deflate your chair and patching the hole could be tricky.

The chair is being sold soon by the Dutch company Fatboy USA. They will come in six different colors; you can find out more about them here.



Do you have one? Have you field tested it? Please let us know what you thought in the comments below.

Project Spotlight: Yosemite National Park

Combing the meadows

Yosemite National Park stretches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, spanning nearly 1,200 square miles. Our nation's third national park, Yosemite is widely known for its magnificent rock formations, grassy meadows, crystal-clear streams, majestic waterfalls, rushing rivers, ancient giant sequoia trees, and abundant wildlife.

Over 90% of the park is designated as wilderness, providing a phenomenal variety of growing conditions and habitat for more than 1,450 native plant species.

Our ninth year service project will take place June 5-11, 2016 in the beautiful Hetch Hetchy section of the park. Carved by glaciers and drained by the Tuolumne river, the Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and contains some of the tallest waterfalls in North America: Wapama Falls, at 1,700 ft (520 m), and Tueeulala Falls, at 840 ft (260 m).

Western Salsify

Our continuing project in Yosemite is removal of several species of invasive weeds such as wooly mullein, bull thistle and western salsify. These invasive plants have the potential to rapidly displace native plants, alter fire regimes, and/or significantly alter ecosystem structure or function.

Common mullein

Because of the complex ecological relationships among native organisms, impacts to native plant communities can negatively affect associated wildlife throughout Yosemite. Invasive plants are prioritized for control based upon the threat they pose and the park's capabilities for successful control. Find out more about non-native species in Yosemite and what you can do to help here.

Project participants will hike in approximately 6.5 miles around the northern shore of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir to Rancheria Falls and set up a basecamp. The hike in is a scenic treat with a modest elevation gain that includes hiking over a dam, through a short tunnel, across a few foot bridges, under some spectacular waterfalls, and maybe even a mist rainbow or two.

Hiking along the reservoir

Wapama Falls

A refreshing mist rainbow

A visitor in camp

From our basecamp we will hike approximately 3 miles to and from grassy meadows in the area each day to work. We'll also likely conduct a day of campsite restoration in the backpackers camp ground at Rancheria Falls. The Park Service will provide pack support to carry the tools, food and commissary gear to camp.

Weed warriors!

Come spend a week in beautiful Yosemite National Park and give something back to our nation's wild lands with Wilderness Volunteers! You can get more information and register for our Yosemite project here. For information about our other 2016 projects visit our website. See more great photos from previous WV Yosemite service projects over at the WV Photo Gallery.

Hiking to work 

Natural Sounds and Night Skies

It's easy to see the effects of litter and other physical pollution in our nation's wild places but how do you gauge pollution when it involves light and sound?

Chances are you haven't heard of the Natural Sounds and Night Skies division of the National Park Service but they are the people who are figuring it out. Their mission is to protect, maintain, and restore acoustical and dark night sky environments throughout the National Park System.

NATURAL SOUNDS

From the Natural Sounds page: America's national parks contain many cherished treasures. Among them are captivating natural sounds and awe-inspiring night skies. The joy of listening to the quiet symphony of nature and the wonderment of seeing the Milky Way stretching overhead are unique experiences that can still be found in many of our national parks.

Natural sounds and natural lightscapes are essential in keeping our national treasures whole. They are magnificent in their own right and inspirational to the visitors who come to national parks. They are vital to the protection of wilderness character, fundamental to the historical and cultural context, and critical for park wildlife.



As part of their work they have sampled the sounds heard at nearly 600 different locations at Parks across the country and used the resulting data to create maps of estimated noise levels for the contiguous US.

Map of Existing Conditions:

This map shows the estimated median sound levels for areas of the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. The range goes from deep blue (low decibels) to light yellow (high decibels). 

Map of Natural Conditions:

This map shows the naturally occurring noise levels across the country. The range goes from dark brown (lower decibels) to dark blue (higher decibels). Note that the color coding is different than in the first map because naturally occurring sounds are much quieter. Higher sound levels can be seen in wetter areas with more vegetation due to wind blowing through vegetation, flowing water, and more animals (especially birds and frogs) vocalizing.

Find out more about noise pollution, sound science, and how to reduce sound pollution at the NPS Natural Sounds division.

NIGHT SKIES

                            

From the Night Sky page: Starry night skies and natural darkness are important components of the special places the National Park Service protects. National parks hold some of the last remaining harbors of darkness and provide an excellent opportunity for the public to experience this endangered resource. 

The NPS uses the term "natural lightscape" to describe resources and values that exist in the absence of human-caused light at night. Natural lightscapes are critical for nighttime scenery, such as viewing a starry sky, but are also critical for maintaining nocturnal habitat. Many wildlife species rely on natural patterns of light and dark for navigation, to cue behaviors, or hide from predators. Lightscapes can be cultural as well, and may be integral to the historical fabric of a place. Human-caused light may be obtrusive in the same manner that noise can disrupt a contemplative or peaceful scene. 

Find out more about light pollution, the science of light, and how to reduce light pollution at the NPS Night Skies division.