In the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area, early season crews will focus on recovering anterior sections of the Trans-Kalmiopsis Route that fill in every year with windfallen trees killed by the 2002 Biscuit Fire.
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| Trans-Kalmiopsis Project Map |
Later crews will recover the last remaining 1.5-mile section of Upper Chetco Trail No 1102 between Taggart's Bar, where crews ended work in 2012, to Box Canyon, where crews ended in 2011.
The Club is putting to work outgoing high school seniors from Josephine and Jackson Counties for a 17-day trip in the Kalmiopsis in July. Crew members will be rewarded a $1,500 academic scholarship. They'll be led by paid crew leaders recruited from Southern Oregon University.
"I'm excited to be passing on the torch to new crew leaders," says Howe, the Club's field coordinator. Two crew leaders will be trained in the spring at the High Cascade Volunteer's annual training in Westfir, Oregon.
Volunteers are also slated to work more in the Soda Mountain and Red Buttes Wilderness Areas. Those dates have not been set, but will likely fall in August.
Crew sizes will be determined by funding. "The more scholarships we can provide, the more youth we can put to work recovering legacy trail resources," Howe says.
Learn more how you can help at the Club's website. There supporters can give to the scholarship fund to ensure their money goes directly to providing academic opportunities for volunteers who serve.
"I can't wait to get out there, see the damage from this winter." says Howe. "It's already been windy and wet."
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| Trail sections like this need heavy annual maintenance because they are adjacent stands of timber killed by the 2002 Biscuit Fire |
The Club's long-term strategy is to identify sustainable trail connections in the Siskiyou backcountry that provide the best opportunities for solitude and a primitive, unconfined type of recreation, according to Howe. "Those are the trails we'll build the capacity to save."
