The Wilderness Ranger Corps (WRC) team is made up of eight corpsmembers and one project leader who are all based at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington. Members of the corps team have come from all different areas of the United States to the state of Washington to do some very exciting and beneficial work for the SCA and the U.S. Forest Service.
Throughout the summer and into late September we will be monitoring and taking inventory of all known campsites and recreaction sites in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Specifically we will be designated to the Alpine Lakes, Glacier Peak, and William O. Douglas Wilderness Areas.
The project is part of the U.S. Forest Service’s 10-year Wilderness Challenge. The goal of the 10-Year Wilderness Challenge is to bring every one of the more than 400 wildernesses under the USDA Forest Service’s care to a minimum stewardship level by 2014, the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act.
The job of Recreation Site Inventory is one of the 10 key elements of the challenge and we are more than excited and willing to spend the summer and fall in some of the most beautiful and scenic areas of the world.
Specifically we will be hiking the trails throughout the mountains and lakes of the Wilderness Areas for nine days at time. We will find known campsites and recreaction sites while using Trimble GPS units in teams of two to collect data on such things as physical campsite locations, tree damage, ground disturbance, and other human impacts. While collecting the data we will be camping along the way in teams of four and then re-uniting with the other team members back at our home base at Snoqualmie Pass to share our adventures…..and then go back out in the backcountry to explore and monitor another area!
