Interim Report 2016 Summer Wilderness Stewardship Performance (WSP) Grants Submitted by: National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance P.O. Box 5293 Reno, Nevada, 89513 SPA: 16CS-11132423-143
2016 Wilderness Stewardship Purpose Process The 2016 Wilderness Stewardship Performance (WSP) Grants are a joint project between the US Forest Service and the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (NWSA). The purpose of the WSP Grants are to focus wilderness stewardship partner accomplishments to meet wilderness performance scoring targets. The grant program was designed to encourage coordination and collaboration between local wilderness stewardship groups and their agency partners to identify and complete projects which would improve WSP scoring for specific wilderness areas. The 2016 WSP Grant program was announced to the wilderness stewardship community in March 2016. Two webinars were held to both familiarize wilderness stewardship groups with the WSP process in general and the specifics of the WSP Grant program. The WSP Grant application period began April 1st and ended April 30th. Twenty-eight grant applications from twenty one different organizations were received and evaluated. A total of seventeen grants were awarded representing sixteen different organizations. (Table 1) Awardees were notified and grant work began on May 15th.
Absaroka Beartooth Foundation Arizona Wilderness Coalition Table 1 Organizations Receiving WSP Grants Discovery Southeast Friends of Nevada Wilderness - Mt. Rose Friends of Nevada Wilderness - Wovoka Friends of Kings Peak Indian Peaks Wilderness Alliance Mother Lode - Backcountry Horsemen Poudre Wilderness Volunteers Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation Sitka Conservation Society Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards SCA - Sheep Creek Knapweed Monitoring Upper Gila Watershed Alliance Ventana Wilderness Alliance Wilderness Institute - UM Youth Employment Salmon
2016 WSP Grants Key Statistics 21 organizations applied, submitting 28 proposals 17 WSP Grants were awarded totaling $180,000 in projects 16 organizations were awarded grants Projects included: Wilderness Education and Teacher Training Invasive Species survey and Eradication Campsite Monitoring and Rehabilitation Solitude Monitoring Trail Condition Assessments and mapping Trail Maintenance and Improvements Improved Trail Signage Historic Structure Survey Cultural Resource Surveys Wilderness Character Baseline Monitoring Over 350 Volunteers Supported Over 6500 Volunteer Hours Served $150,000 value of Volunteer Labor alone 25 additional seasonal staff hired to expand Wilderness Workforce Capacity including wilderness rangers, trail crew, and weed crew members Over 150 miles of trail cleared Over 25 acres of weeds treated Over 200 historic features identified Thousands of visitor contacts Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts and other youth engaged Raised WSP point scores in over 10 categories
Lessons Learned The 2016 WSP Grants were well received by the wilderness stewardship community. All groups were appreciative of the extra capacity these grants gave to their summer activities. As one Director noted, As a result of the NWSA summer funding grant, we are able to significantly increase the amount of resources that were applied to both the Indian Peaks and James Peak Wilderness Areas. Specific lessons learned included: Knowledge of WSP activities is still maturing. Many projects had components that while good for wilderness did not contribute to WSP scoring. Even among Forest Service employees there was a lack of discernment about the project activities that supported WSP scoring. Coordination with the Forest Service is still mixed, but improving. Forcing coordination via the support letters ensured partner groups and agencies talked to each other, which led to improved relationships and actions. Partner WSP projects contribute to the bigger picture of wilderness management. While many specific projects might have been small in nature they often had a significant effect on the District being able to claim credit for WSP scoring by expanding workforce capacity and accomplishing some items where credit was given. Partner groups leverage a little into a lot. Many projects used volunteers, along with paid staff or interns, to expose more people to wilderness stewardship work activities. Wilderness work breeds wilderness supporters. Several projects had transformative experiences for youth and disadvantaged teens. This work experience gave them a better perspective on wilderness as well as needed employment and skill building.
Lessons Learned (continued) Determining season of use for monitoring is essential. Some elements are better monitored in the fall or early spring, times which can be outside of the WSP grant cycle. Need to find a way to allow for year-long access to WSP grant funds so needed work can be performed. Trust is still an issue on some Districts. Several projects reported unwillingness of District/Forest employees to trust volunteers with information necessary to perform the work, such as cultural resource inventory information. If volunteers are going to be used effectively they must be allowed access to information to get work done. Some projects do not gain points by themselves but are essential in order for other employees to achieve success. For instance, the Motherlode BCHA project supported pack stock trips that took other crews into wilderness to do WSP related work. Without the stock support the other work would not have been accomplished as quickly or as cheaply. Wilderness intern positions are life changing experiences for most young people. Being in the wilderness for a season oftens sets a young graduate or college student on a new life path in natural resource management. Projects often morph during a season, and that s okay. Sometimes circumstances change, weather does not cooperate, people get sick, staff support disappears, necessitating a change in project particulars. Wilderness volunteers are adaptable and can change to meet the challenge. Allow more time to complete some labor intensive tasks, like tamarisk eradication. Maintain flexibility in scheduling to accommodate changes.
Conclusions The National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance is pleased by the results on this first WSP Grant program. As a proof of concept it illustrated how volunteer wilderness stewards can be very successful in completing WSP scoring work items and contributing to WSP scoring. We hope that this can become an annual program. There is a great demand for it amongst the wilderness stewardship community and it allowed many groups to work side by side with the Forest Service to complete needed wilderness work. It did not take as much time to manage the WSP grant program as initially expected. This is partially a result of having an individual who has experience in managing previous grant programs overseeing the program. As a result there is a net savings in funding which has allowed for an additional grant cycle during the Winter of 2016-2017 to assist organizations that have winter field activities. A total of eleven organizations have applied for these grants and an evaluation in proceeding to pick the finalists. Allowing two year funds in the Challenge Cost Share makes this opportunity available. In the future NWSA feels we can accomplish the grant program for no more than 10% of the grant funds. This will enable more funds to go to field projects, and potentially allow a planned split of summer and winter work within the two year fund horizon. Project management will continue to be a portion, but not the total funding needed to support an Executive Director for NWSA. There is still need for additional Program funding as well as outside funding to support a full-time position in the future. Questions about this report should be addressed to: Randy Welsh, Executive Director, NWSA
2016 Wilderness Stewardship Absaroka Beartooth Foundation Grant Award Summaries $12,276 Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Hired a Trail Crew Leader position that enabled an increase in number of volunteer trips and hours as well as education sessions in community. Completed over 5 miles of extensive trail condition improvement, including structure installation, tree clearing, brushing, and trail reroutes. Also included 4 acres of invasive species removal, 20 acres of weed survey, and sign installations. Involved 160 volunteers, including Girl Scout chapter for over 3157 hours of work. Noxious weed survey and trail condition assessments. Arizona Wilderness Coalition $8,058.73 Salome, Sierra Ancha, Miller Peak, and Kendrick Mountain Wildernesses This project entailed four different field trips to effect trail survey, noxious weed eradication, sign installation, and trail clearing. 25 volunteers donated 618 hours of labor to clear 35 large trees from system trails, hand pull a variety of noxious weeds, and install 2 trailhead kiosks and trail signs. Kendrick Mountain 8 points survey, eradication, education Miller Peak 4 points wilderness education Sierra Ancha and Salome 4 and 6 points respectively, signing and solitude survey
Discovery Southeast $7,7780 Pleasant Lemesuier Inian Islands Wildernesses Sixteen educators were immersed in a week long wilderness education teacher training to prepare them for bringing wilderness into the classroom and helping their students better appreciate the outdoors. The experience was enhanced by utilizing Alaska tour boat operator (who donated half of costs) to take teachers to and from their training site on Inian Island. Transformative experience was had by all which will help reach over 500 new students in coming years with better wilderness appreciation in Southeast Alaska. As one teacher described the experience, Totally inspired me to work even in small ways to get my students outdoors on a regular basis. Wilderness education enhanced. Friends of Nevada Wilderness Mt Rose $15,614 Mt. Rose Wilderness This project utilized two Americorp interns to do wilderness education outreach, weed survey, and stewardship monitoring in the heavily used urban Mt. Rose Wilderness. Initiated the Dog Ambassador program to work with dog owners to improve visitor relations and clean-up of dog waste. Included recruitment of volunteers to assist in general stewardship activities. Work is ongoing during the fall. This project also includes a unique Monarch butterfly monitoring effort to expand knowledge about this endangered inset species in the wilderness. Expanded wilderness education and weed monitoring.
Friends of Nevada Wilderness Wovoka $11,386 Wovoka Wilderness Supported four baseline field survey trips into the newly designated Wovoka Wilderness to assess cultural resources. Wovoka Wilderness has an extensive history of Native American use. Items found during surveys include pit houses, obsidian flakes, ceremonial sites, hunting structures, and a bow stave tree. Other items found from historic times include bottles, cast iron cookware, and cans. These surveys increase our local knowledge of the area and will help set the stage for a protection plan to ensure they remain in place for years to come. Several additional trips still planned. Cultural resource baseline survey. Friends of King s Peak $6,000 High Uintas Wilderness Two wilderness interns were hired to perform a structure survey within the High Uintas Wilderness. Over 180 structures were identified and inventoried. The survey identified trail structures, impacts to historic structures as well as placement of unauthorized range structures and improvements. The information from the survey will help advise future cultural resource decision-making in the wilderness. A GIS map is being created to display the location of certain of the structures to assist management in the future. Supported baseline cultural resource inventory as well as knowledge of non-recreation improvements. Supported trail condition assessments.
Indian Peaks Wilderness Alliance $5,990 Indian Peaks and James Peak Wildernesses Work consisted of four specific projects including hosting two seasonal wilderness interns, wilderness trail restoration utilizing a teen workforce in a magnet area, an invasive species weed eradication day with over 30 volunteers, and an additional trail restoration project with the help of 10 Boy Scouts. The project this year really helped to improve relationships with the local ranger district and accomplished many backlog tasks that the Forest Service is just not staffed to handle. Supported WSP elements for weed eradication, trail condition assessments, wilderness education and workforce capacity. Motherlode Chapter Backcountry Horsemen $19,127 Mokelumne Wilderness This grant sponsored two major pack stock operations with over 150 hours of donated stock labor to support Forest Service and volunteer crews. Also included was wilderness education outreach to horsepackers and other wilderness users at a variety of locations including the June Horse Expo in Sacremento with outreach to hundreds. The grant also provided for purchase of gravel panniers and gear carriers to support future work projects. Supports wilderness education and other crews working on wilderness stewardship performance elements.
Poudre Wilderness Volunteers $9,718 Cache La Poudre, Comanche Peak, Neota, and Rawah Wildernesses This project entailed doing extensive GPS survey of existing trail systems in three wilderness areas, totaling over 120 miles. Approximately 60% was surveyed in 2016 and the remainder will be completed in 2017, including 4 user developed trail complexes. This data feeds into the Forest Service trail condition assessment process and is essential for management of the trail system. Additionally 66 new volunteers were trained in Leave No Trace and wilderness awareness education techniques to assist their volunteer patrols. Supported trail assessments and wilderness education. Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation $13,579 Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness This project supported 6 multi-day wilderness trail maintenance and solitude monitoring trips into the wilderness. 23 volunteers were trained, outfitted and supported in accomplishing over 100 miles of trail clearing and drainage restoration. About 220 large diameters trees were cross cut sawn from the trail. Numerous campsites were inventoried, cleaned and rehabilitated. Supported trail assessments and solitude monitoring
Sitka Conservation Society $5,000 West-Chichagof Yakobi Island (WYC), Stikine-LeConte (SL), and Petersburg Creek-Duncan Salt Chuck (PCDSC) The goal for this project was to develop Wilderness Character Monitoring Baseline Narratives. The three specific WAs were selected because they represent a range of remoteness, visitor use, and impairments to Wilderness Character. The intent was for this year s project to act as a pilot project which will provide a template and process for drafting Narratives for the other 13 WA in the Tongass in the future. Three Community involvement session with tribal interests were held. A field trip with over 40 people also contributed to the narratives. Supported Baseline Wilderness Character Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards $20,000 Lewis Fork, Little Dry Run, Little Wilson Creek, Raccoon Branch and Stone Mountain Wildernesses Solitude monitoring has been completed in 5 wilderness areas. Trail condition assessments on 5 areas are still planned using the TRACS protocol. All the system trails in these areas will be surveyed. SAWS has also coordinating with other partner groups that work on the George Washington-Jefferson National Forest, including the Clinch Coalition, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and several universities to gain support for wilderness stewardship in Virginia. Several Leave No Trace events, including a talk on LNT and wilderness awareness at a local library have been given. Support for solitude monitoring and trail condition assessment and wilderness education programs.
Student Conservation Association Sheep Creek $7,182 Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness An SCA field trail crew spent roughly 10 days eradicating a 2 acre patch of spotted knapweed deep within the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. New plants were pulled, older plants were cut with seed heads packed out to prevent further spread. The crew learned the value of working together and gained skills in traveling deep with wilderness. Supported Invasive species eradication efforts and expanded workforce capacity. Upper Gila Watershed Alliance $14,339 Gila Wilderness A crew of 12 part time seasonals spent over 720 hours surveying, cutting, and removing tamarisk from the Upper Gila watershed. Five of the staff were under 21, and nine were from a disadvantaged mountain community. Almost 9,000 tamarisk stems were removed. Crew members did day, multi-day and stock supported trips to reach the over 300 different tamarisk stands treated. This project contributed to Invasive Species, Natural role of Fire, and Watershed improvement.
Ventana Wilderness Alliance $3,709 Ventana and Silver Peak Wilderness Twenty volunteers and one VWA staff member contributed 1,032 hours of field time and 91 hours of unreimbursed travel time to the program during this grant cycle. Thirteen VWR s were able to attend the Interagency Ranger Academy and renew Wilderness First-Aid, Leave No Trace Trainer and Crosscut Sawyer certifications. Volunteer Wilderness Rangers made 908 visitor contacts, monitored 100.6 miles of trails, cleaned 62 existing campsites and removed 83 user-created sites, packed out 248 pounds of trash. Supported workforce capacity, campsite monitoring, and wilderness education. Wilderness Institute University of Montana $8,385 Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Over the course of the summer a 5 person seasonal crew continued ongoing wilderness monitoring in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness that included 281 campsite inventories, 43 weed infestations, and documenting over 40 trail installations and 102 signs. Twice during the summer additional volunteer crews of all ages assisted them in completing tasks. This project continues a streak of 5 year monitoring since the 1990 s. Supported invasives species removal, campsite monitoring, trail condition assessments, expanded workforce capacity and wilderness education.
Youth Employment Salmon $11,859 Jim McClure-Jerry Peak Wilderness A crew of high risk youth from Salmon Idaho completed a number of baseline inventories for the newest wilderness areas in Idaho. Baseline infrastructure data on 40 miles of trails including Herd Creek, Taylor Creek, Cedar, East Pass Creek and Bowery Creek Trails was completed. Needed treatments to 15 miles of trail tread were accomplished as well. Youth involved were individuals that have graduated high school but have not been able to gain steady jobs area employers. Both have challenges in social interactions and struggle with a task without direct supervision. Support to baseline campsite monitoring, trail assessment, solitude monitoring and wilderness education were accomplished.