(Photo by Robert Barossi)
by Robert Barossi
Environmental volunteers do their work in every kind of natural setting. Some are on boats out on the open seas. Others are in canoes on tiny lakes and ponds. Some are in wide open fields and meadows. While still others are deep in the heart of dense wilderness, like the volunteers who participated in this effort to clear trails in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. This enormous area of wilderness, 1.3 million acres of land, spans parts of Idaho and Montana, with roughly 1,800 miles of trails winding through it. Two different groups of volunteers were brought in for the trail work, one led by the American Hiking Society and the other by the Sierra Club, both hosted by the Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation. The article quotes the Foundation’s program director, Coby Gierke, who says, in part, “The issues that we face here are not that much different from other wilderness areas. After experiencing it for themselves, they [the volunteers] become great stewards and help tell this story nationally.” Hopefully, they will do just that and continue to do this kind of work in whatever wilderness surrounds them, no matter where they live.
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