About Us...

Here's a 4-minute slide-show presentation that provides a more personal, detailed look at who we are and what we do. Special thanks to Montana musician David Walburn, who was previously featured on this blog back in January, for lending his music to our mission.

Take a look:

Interested in participating in a project this summer? It's not too late. Check out our project list. There are over a dozen trips still in need of volunteers!

And to hear more great music from David Walburn, visit him at www.davidwalburn.com.

Saturday is National Trails Day

Since 1993, the first Saturday in June is National Trails Day - and this Saturday June 6th is no different. Organized by the American Hiking Society, the day celebrates America's +200,000 mile trail network, recognizes the volunteers, organizations, and agencies that develop and maintain this vast system, and seeks to inspire and encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to get outside and explore the great outdoors. Now in its 17th year, National Trails Day is celebrated in all fifty states by thousands of people, and hundreds of events - including hikes, bike rides, site dedications, trail work, gear demos, horseback rides, photography clinics, educational workshops, and canoe and kayak trips - are held across the country each year.

To learn more about National Trails Day and search for events in your area, check out the American Hiking Society's helpful guide here.

Between hikes in New York City and dog walks in New Jersey, horseback rides in Utah and birding tours in Minnesota, trail work in Oregon and orienteering workshops in Florida, there is something for everyone - everywhere! So pack a lunch, grab a friend, and go exploring.

Me? I'm going hiking in the Adirondacks for the first time.

Where will you go and what will you do? Let us know.

Happy Trails!

WV Announces Alternative Spring Break Program

This spring, Wilderness Volunteers launched an exciting new program: Alternative Spring Break!

Designed to involve college students in the preservation and maintenance of our wild lands and wild places, WV's Alternative Spring Break program will give students from college campuses across the country the opportunity to spend a week "giving something back" in the nation's parks, forests, and wilderness areas and to become the next generation of environmental stewards and "wilderness volunteers."

During the second week of March, ten James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA) students and one faculty member packed their bags and headed west to Utah's Zion National Park to spend their spring break clearing trails, moving rocks, digging trenches, and working hard. No beaches, suntans, wild parties, or lazy afternoons here.

"Team J-M-U" maintained trails and built earthen water bars across the East Rim and Left Fork Subway trails, improved the wheelchair accessible Emerald Pools trail, and broke ice and cleared a path along the popular Observation Point trail.

Take a look:

The 8-day trip was a success, and was arranged through Breakaway: The Alternative Break Connection, which has been instrumental in providing college students with opportunities to spend their hard-earned spring breaks performing community service focused on some of the world's most important issues. REI generously donated tents, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags for the students to use.

The Zion service trip is the first all-student project that Wilderness Volunteers has organized as it endeavors to involve more college students in alternative spring break service trips across the country.

WV is currently scheduling projects for Spring Break 2010. For more information about how to connect your university group with a Wilderness Volunteers Alternative Spring Break Project, contact Dave Pacheco at dave@wildernessvolunteers.org.

Thanks again to Team J-M-U for "Giving Something Back!"

P.S. To learn more about Breakaway and the Alternative Spring Break movement, listen to this interview with Breakaway's Program Director:

WV Presents...@ REI in Salt Lake City

Outdoor enthusiasts in Utah are encouraged to attend one of two upcoming presentations at REI in the Salt Lake City area titled "Giving Something Back in 2009." The photo presentation will discuss Wilderness Volunteers' work and mission, and will encourage attendees to get involved in upcoming wild-land service projects.

WV's Program Manager Dave Pacheco will present on the following dates:

• May 14th, 7:00pm at the Sandy REI, 230 W 10600 S

• July 22nd, 7:00pm at the Salt Lake City REI, 3285 E 3300 S

Wilderness Volunteers and James Madison University would also like to thank REI for supporting the first-ever Wilderness Volunteers Alternative Spring Break Service Project, which ran during the second week of March in Utah's Zion National Park. As part of its committment to environmental stewardship, REI donated a tent for the students to use, and continues to support the work of Wilderness Volunteers.

Thanks from all of us!

Doing Our Part

Wednesday was Earth Day. Many people look forward to this global celebration, which began nearly forty years ago on April 22, 1970 - a date which is widely recognized as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. It's a day when we all can pause and reflect on our role in the world, on our impact on the planet, and on the world we wish to pass on to our children. It's a day to reform bad habits and embrace new ones - a day to commit to turning off the tap while we brush our teeth, carpooling to work, replacing inefficient windows and light bulbs, switching to reusable grocery bags, recycling, and more. For some it's a day to celebrate a vision of a healthier planet; for others it's a day to bemoan the failures of mankind.

Walking through New York City's Grand Central Terminal this morning, I was reminded of these conflicting perspectives. Hundreds of hustling people - including myself - paused in the Main Concourse to gaze at a projection show displayed on the terminal's massive pillars as part of the city's week-long Earth Day NY celebration. Images of snow leopards, glaciers, and rainforests clashed with shots of polluted skies, landfills, and dirty, overfished oceans; smiles turned to sighs and shaken heads; and troubling statistic after troubling statistic played across the wall. Did you know that an area larger than New York City is deforested every day, and that the average American consumes more than 600 lbs. of paper every year? Or that we could reduce our consumption of oil by 100,000 barrels per day if we all took the time to properly inflate the tires on our cars?

Intermingled with these startling and disturbing facts were inspiring, hopeful words from some of the world's greatest minds, leaders like Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi. Those of Edmund Burke, an 18th century Irish statesmen and philosopher, particularly struck me:

"Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could do only a little."

I think he's right.

We all can do our part - however small it may seem - to be better stewards of the planet and our communities. Whether making smarter choices as consumers, practicing Leave No Trace in the outdoors, volunteering for the environment, or starting an eco-friendly business (check out TerraCycle and its exciting successes with "upcycling"), our individual efforts all add up to produce real results.

I think Wilderness Volunteers is living proof of that. Through the collective efforts of our volunteers, WV has contributed since its founding in 1997 more than 180,000 hours of volunteer labor - improving trails, revegetating wilderness, eradicating invasive species, removing fences, and more - in hundreds of wild places in need of our support.

And it all started with a few volunteers and a few trips and a few trails. There's still far more to be done and no shortage of work in sight, and we look forward to working with you to do our part - on and off the trail.

Thanks to everyone who's "given something back!"

Faced with global warming, can wilderness remain natural?

For those who think of nature as a wild, unspoiled Eden that preserves the natural flora and fauna free from human interference, global warming has a nasty surprise in store. In his new book, "Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming" (Island Press, 2009), Anthony Barnosky says that because of climate change, wilderness left to its own will no longer look like the natural areas we see today. Our conservation strategies must be rethought, he adds, because business-as-usual will not preserve all the aspects of nature we have come to know, love and respect.

Robert Sanders has an excellent review of Barnosky's book on the Internet.

The Trail Less Traveled...

"Cross-Cutting" in the Jedidiah Smith Wilderness, ID/WY (2007)

Sunday's New York Times has a captivating article on "America's Outback: Southern Utah," which prominently features the expansive 1.9 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the nearly 400 square miles of sandstone canyons, cliffs, domes, and monoliths that comprise Capitol Reef National Park. Retracing the adventurous 1872 journey of John Wesley Powell and 18-year old New Yorker Frederick Dellenbaugh into this vast, unexplored desert, the article reveals some of the Southwest's best-kept secrets, which today - as then - often go overlooked, hidden within the formidable shadows of their more popular neighbors in the Grand Canyon, Arches, and Zion.

Traveling to different parts of the country, I've found that is often the case, as I've explored some spectacular places that have never been mentioned alongside the big-name destinations like Yosemite, Yellowstone, Denali, Acadia, Glacier, and more. Unsurprisingly, it is the lesser-known and lesser-explored parks, forests, and wilderness areas - like Utah's Escalante and Capitol Reef - that need the most support from volunteers, and it is in these very places that Wilderness Volunteers does some of its most important work. Through my own adventures in New Mexico's Gila National Forest, Virginia's Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Colorado's Maroon Bells, California's Inyo National Forest, and New Hampshire's Pemigewasset Wilderness , I have discovered that hidden gems surround us, beckoning us to explore them. All we have to do is open our eyes to them, step forward, and begin walking.

Removing Fence in the Klamath Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, CA (2004)

Wilderness Volunteers has a treasure trove of 2009 projects like these in need of volunteers willing to explore...or rather explorers willing to volunteer. Check them out, and, like Powell, Dellenbaugh, and company, see what hidden gems you can discover.