Volunteers are needed in Panthertown Valley, NC during Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, May 25, 2013 to help complete a new section of the Wilderness Falls Trail. The work will entail re-routing the popular trail to make for safer and easier access to the waterfall below. There will be no more than five miles of hiking, and the work will be completed by 2:30 p.m. REI...
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to help staff the visitor information center at Clingmans Dome through November 30. The visitor information center at Clingmans Dome sits at an elevation of 6,300 feet and is a point source of information for the national park and the high elevation spruce fir ecosystem, in particular. Volunteers are needed to...
Learn MoreVolunteers are needed to staff fire lookout stations in the Angeles National Forest this summer, officials said. The Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association is recruiting volunteers to man the Slide Mountain Lookout as well as Vetter Mountain Peak, “to protect the forest and local mountain communities from the threat of fire,” ANFFLA officials said...
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FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway (FRIENDS) has launched a two-year 25th anniversary celebration commemorating the volunteer-driven organization’s founding in North Carolina in 1988 and in Virginia the following year. “We believe the best way to celebrate a quarter century of service to the Blue Ridge Parkway is with a renewed commitment to America’s...
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to assist park visitors by roving the Oconaluftee River Trail, Mountain Farm Museum and fields along Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road). The volunteer positions will be available from now through November 9, 2013. These volunteers will provide information regarding various park regulations including littering,...
Learn MoreThe expansive views of the Southern Appalachian Mountains from the summit of Hemphill Bald are enough to make anyone want to plop down in the tall grass and spend the day watching the shadows of clouds flow across the landscape. Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies like a pearl on the string of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the thread running down the spine...
Learn MoreIf you want to run the busiest national park unit in the country, you need to know the people who make the park tick. From the rangers to the visitors to the local business owners and the volunteers. The people who know Phil Francis, the superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway for nearly 8 years, say he has been that kind of leader. Unlike many government bureaucrats...
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Volunteers working with the Washington Trails Association contributed nearly 100,000 hours of work across the state this year. The nearly 2,700 volunteers contributed $2 million worth of service to state’s public lands, according to the group. Among the numbers from this year’s effort, work was done on a record 170 different trails. The effort included 636 day trips, 26...
Learn More“We need to clear these trails so people can go for a hike.” After Hurricane Sandy hit, northern Westchester’s preserves, reservations and parks took a huge hit as hundreds of trees were knocked over, many obstructing hiking trails. Others hung at precarious angles, presenting a danger should they fall. But thanks to the Westchester Land Trust’s cadre of stewards and...
Learn MoreOne aspect of the hike often not considered is the path itself. This, after all, is the fabled Appalachian Trail, which extends some 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine, and one takes for granted that even though the path rose and fell sharply with the undulating terrain – calling these sections “MUDs and PUDs” for “mindless ups and downs and pointless...
Learn MorePrescott, AZ has the perfect ingredients for constructing trails using mostly free labor. This “volunteer” labor comes in all shapes and sizes ranging from schools, church groups, and non-profits to”‘non-voluntary” community service and restitution programs. There are also more specialized trail building groups such as the local mountain biking,...
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More than 170,000 volunteers are expected at more than 2,100 sites across the country on Saturday, September 29 to take part in the largest single-day volunteer effort for public lands in the United States, National Public Lands Day (NPLD). Volunteers in every state will visit parks, public and community gardens, beaches, wildlife preserves or forests and chip in to help...
Learn MoreDennis and Sandy Evans are so dedicated to the construction of the Iron Goat Trail near Stevens Pass, they even got married on the hiking trail back in 1995. The Marysville couple, now in their late 60s, have spent the past 20 years volunteering their “free” time each summer to help build and maintain the popular 10-mile trail in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie...
Learn MoreGreat Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers for an Adopt-a-Cabin program. Park spokeswoman Molly Schroer said the park needs light maintenance work done at more than 90 historical structures in the Smokies. The tasks involve picking up trash and debris as well as removing graffiti. The Smokies has one of the best collections of log buildings in the...
Learn MoreChristine Hoyer has been named Employee of the Year at Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The award, which recognizes outstanding work of park employees, was presented at a public ceremony at park headquarters in Tennessee on May 7. Hoyer is the Trails & Facilities Volunteer Coordinator in the park and she is in charge of four main park volunteer programs:...
Learn MoreAmeriCorps Project Conserve is now accepting applications for 32 public service positions at 20 environmental non-profits across western North Carolina that focus on land conservation, water quality, energy conservation and local agriculture. Application deadline is May 22. AmeriCorps Project Conserve is a national service program in which members come from across the...
Learn MoreAre you an avid hiker? Do you always find yourself hunting for your next challenging adventure? Do you dream about jagged peaks, cascading waterfalls and wild bears? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the American Hiking Society has 9 days of hiking and conservation planned this summer. Join the group at North Cascades National Park Complex in Washington...
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Gregg Treinish, an experienced outdoorsman, organized an outing to track the elusive wolverine, the largest member of the weasel family, across rugged landscape. A dozen volunteers had come to learn how to track the animal’s prints and collect scat and hair samples as a part of an effort called Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. The program, which Mr. Treinish...
Learn MoreIt wouldn’t make a very appealing Help Wanted ad. “Needed: Someone to put in long hours for no pay, walking long distances to help government workers do their job.” Nevertheless, some people might jump at the volunteer assignment because it involves hiking in world famous scenery and protecting some of the treasures of southeastern Utah. It’s a...
Learn MoreNext time you hike a trail, pause a minute and give silent thanks to the legion of trail volunteers who have taken up arms and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the forest, hacking back the undergrowth and clearing obstructive logs. Volunteer trail crews devoted 28,000 hours of labor in North Carolina national forests last year. It often seems like an uphill battle,...
Learn MoreVolunteers in Colorado are helping to build a completely new hiking trail, called the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), that stretches from Mexico to Canada and across Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Volunteers with the Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA), based in Golden, Colorado, dig out the trail, clear vegetation and move huge boulders and trees...
Learn MoreWhen Jim and Carol Miltimore approached officials at Mount Rainier National Park about volunteering, they thought the retired couple might spend a sunny afternoon bagging trash. They had no idea that six years later, the Enumclaw, Wash., couple would log more hours in the pristine park than many native bears. In six years, Jim, 70, and Carol, 63, have logged more than...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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