CLC Crew Works in the Spirit of the Wilderness Act

Two weeks of hiking, digging, and planting by the SCA’s Manchester CLC have produced three new tent pads and have rehabilitated damaged areas around the Blue Brook Shelter and Campground in the Wild River Wilderness of the White Mountain National Forest. The Wild River Wilderness is the Nation’s youngest congressionally mandated Wilderness area and six CLC members, with leaders Marni Goodman and Scott Shepard, had the pleasure of beginning the process of mending the first of a series of human impacts upon the area.

Each day the crew headed out from the Wild River Campground and hiked 2.3 miles over muddy and flooded trails, made multiple river crossings, and ascended a steep ridge to the Blue Brook Shelter to complete the various projects at the site.

By the time the crew had completed the three tent pads, an estimated 1,000 cubic feet of mineral soil had been moved by hand and bucket. It came from an unwanted camping area (shown below) across the cascading falls of the Blue Brook, and was replaced by rocks, logs and transplanted native vegetation, all in the hopes of disguising the well used area and allowing it to return to nature.

Beyond the rehab work, the crew established a new trail from the campground down to the base of the falls and various muddy portions of the Blue Brook trail underwent renovation.

This crew worked to restore this newly designated Wilderness area in the spirit of the 1964 Wilderness Act, which states:

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

A much deserved thanks goes out to all of the crew, and the WMNF rangers Matt Shomburg and Justin Preisendorfer who gave the CLC the opportunity of completing this project.