In August, we wrote a blog post about a groundbreaking environmental restoration program that Outward Bound California students and staff were taking on this summer in the High Sierra. Underwritten by the National Forest Foundation, this program restored heavily used wilderness areas to a more pristine and natural state, provided Outward Bound students with meaningful service opportunities and also strengthened our partnership with the Sierra National Forest. We are happy to share the outcomes and learnings from this program with our donors, students, volunteers and program partners today.
The primary goal of the program was to restore sensitive habitats in Sierra National Forest watersheds that had been overused and taxed by users camping too close to lakes and streams and creating illegal fire rings. Through restoration activities, the program was aimed at not only improving the recreational experiences of other Sierra National Forest users but also helping protect critical habitat for two amphibian species, the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog which is endangered and the Yosemite toad which is threatened.
For this core of this program, Outward Bound California and the Sierra National Forest recruited four volunteer interns who would organize stewardship projects with our students and a few other community groups, and to provide hands-on service to the forest over the course of the summer. These interns, students and community volunteers contributed a total of 2,714 hours of service ($60,087 value) to watershed restoration in the Sierra National Forest with 2,532 hours alone coming from OBCA’s volunteer interns and students. They restored the habitat surrounding 19 lakes in the watershed to more natural conditions, removing over 50 pounds of trash, dismantling 108 fire rings, and installing two trailhead signs. The interns especially did an incredible quantity of work, making contact with 477 backcountry backpackers and day hikers to communicate about Leave No Trace principles. They also cut and cleared 284 fallen trees blocking trails, rehabilitated over five miles of trails and established several tool caches in the backcountry to enable future service projects.
The program also had powerful educational outcomes for the students and interns involved. As part of their training, OBCA interns attended a training on the proper use of forestry tools and how to interact with the public out on the trails. Intern Bridget Masur described how the training on visitor interactions was particularly valuable for creating a ripple effect. “The more stewards to the land we have made the further knowledge may be spread to individuals who otherwise would not be educated.”
Another intern, Lindsay Ryan, reported that her intensive summer experience working in Sierra National Forest was life changing:
“I learned an incredible amount about wilderness ethics and ways that the Forest Service interacts with wilderness. This experience pushed me emotionally and physically, and I am so much stronger now because of it. I’m more confident, both with my wilderness skills as well as with myself in general. I was really able to see what I am capable of, and I’m proud of myself for accomplishing everything we did this summer.”
Everyone at Outward Bound California is grateful that we have this opportunity to provide service to the wilderness areas that make our courses so awe-inspiring and so richly educational. We look forward to deepening and continuing this work with the Sierra National Forest in summer 2016. If you have any questions about best practices for utilizing National Forest trails and land, you can find out more here.
