To Members of SWV and Interested Parties
The 2024 Season for SWV represented a significant contribution in creating access to popular trails in the Emigrant and Carson-Iceberg wilderness. SWV scheduled and executed eight projects, including 3 multi-day projects which resulted in significant benefit to the trails with significant trail clearing this year with logs removed totaling in the hundreds. One notable multi-day project included significant hazard tree removal and reestablishment of access to camping areas in the Highland Lakes area of the Carson-Iceberg wilderness.
Photo: L. Hawley – Sword Lake (L to R) Devon Pennington, Jeff Hawley, Photo: C. Fish – Highland Lakes Multi-day (L to R) Sherri Elliott, Dick Chimenti Photo: S. Albrecht (L to R) Devon Pennington, Craig Fish, Jeff Hawley, Sydni Albrecht, Linda Hawley, Adlai Leiby
Sydni Albrecht, Craig Fish
Our partnership with the USFS is foundational to who we are and what we do. The Forest Service has been candid in noting the significant lack of resources dedicated to wilderness and to trail clearing activities over the past several years. The outlook for 2025 regarding USFS staffing is essentially unchanged from the previous two years. However, SWV has stepped up in the past two years to identify and clear a significant number of trails to provide unfettered access to the more popular trails in both the Emigrant and Carson-Iceberg wilderness. Especially in light of the USFS staffing situation, the Forest Service has remained steadfast in their support of SWV and our efforts to assist in trail clearing and wilderness preservation.
Details on the projects and results below.
SWV has focused on increasing the number of projects we can accomplish in a year aided by our active recruitment of new volunteers and, more importantly, establishing partnerships with organizations aligned with the vision and mission of SWV. This includes Columbia College – an organization dedicated to providing education and training to students interested in pursuing careers in forestry. We provided the opportunity for students to learn the basics of trail clearing using crosscut saws (the work was inside wilderness), project approach, and project safety. The response from the students was enthusiastic. SWV is planning on continuing this relationship as it represents an opportunity to gain additional resources to address the work in and out of wilderness and provide unique training to this group.
Photo: C. Fish – Wheats Meadow – Columbia College crew, Dick Chimenti, Joe Cavaness, Sherri Elliott Photo: L. Hawley Sword Lake Multiday (L to R) Craig Fish, Sydni Albrecht, Jeff Hawley, Devon Pennington, Dave Moser
Additionally, SWV has been working with the Sierra Club to develop a project for 2025 to provide Sierra Club participants the opportunity to participate in trail clearing in and outside of wilderness. This is expected to occur in June, 2025 weather and access permitting. This will be a significant 6 day project focused on the Carson-Iceberg wilderness including the Sword Lake and Wheats Meadow areas. This may be expanded to other areas such as Clarks Fork and Arnot Creek as conditions dictate. This partnership represents yet another opportunity to establish relationships that enhance SWV’s visibility, opportunity to recruit volunteers and increase the resources available to address the trail clearing needs in these areas. Activities for these multi-day projects could also include campsite maintenance – fire ring cleaning/dispersal, trash removal, iceberging to mitigate campsite damage, etc.
SWV will continue to expand our reach to other like-minded organizations this coming year. Additionally, SWV extends our appreciation to master sawyer Dave Moser who will continue to offer certification classes for crosscut and chainsaw to members of SWV. This provides the opportunity to have multiple teams capable of operating independently to clear trail – a definite priority of the USFS and the visiting public.
Our results from this season are detailed below:
Projects: 8
Mult-day Projects: 3
SWV Volunteers this season participating on projects: 16
USFS Staff participating on projects: 4
Other volunteers (Columbia College): 11
Total Volunteer Hours by SWV: 1,357
Total Project Hours by USFS Staff: 76
Total Project Hours by Other (Columbia College): 66
Projects Accomplished by SWV (13 project days)
- Arnot Creek logout
- Highland Lakes multi-day
- Coyote Meadows logout
- Waterhouse Logout
- Gianelli-Chewing Gum Lake logout
- County Line-Sword Lake multi-day
- Crabtree Bear Lake logout/campsite cleanup
- Wheats Meadow multi-day
While the season to do work in front/back country has ended for 2024, SWV will be working on planning an aggressive schedule for 2025.
Finally, SWV has grown over the past year with more members, more projects and more results. Acknowledgement goes to the dedicated members of SWV for the results of this past season. Additionally, the dedication of our Executive Board has been instrumental to our success this season, which includes Sherri Elliott (Secretary, project leader), Craig Fish (Treasurer, project leader), Dave Moser (Advisor, Lead Trainer), Dave Salzer (Advisor), Dick Chimenti (Webmaster), Jeff Hawley (President, project lead).
The Board of Directors and interested parties will be active over the winter planning the 2025 season. Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2025 Season Opener!
On Behalf of the Board of Directors and In Keeping Wilderness Wild,
Jeff Hawley
President, Stanislaus Wilderness Volunteers
510 701-5212 (m)
jbhawley1
President
