Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Bridger-Teton National Forest Hosts National Trails Day Event

June 4th is American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day, and the Greys River Ranger District of the Bridger Teton National Forest will be hosting a National Trails Day event in partnership with Teton County Weed and Pest.

The event is focused on an Alpine area trails project in which volunteers are invited to come and be trained in how to recognize invasive weeds and trail maintenance skills for creating or repairing sustainable trails. Volunteers will actually get to ‘adopt a trail’ that they will be asked to assess using the tools and knowledge acquired during the training.

National Trails Day aims to highlight the important work thousands of volunteers do each year to take care of America’s trails. Greys River District Ranger, Richard Raione is looking forward to the volunteer’s active involvement “There are many great hiking trails accessible from Alpine and it’s wonderful to get community members out enjoying these trails and directly participating with trail upkeep. This is a great example of volunteerism from the community since this project started with the vision and work done by Meta Dittmer in cooperation with the Forest Service.”

The training starts at 9:00am at the Alpine public library at 243 River Circle, Alpine, WY 83128. The morning session begins with an overview of the Alpine area trails project, after which attendees will learn how to identify noxious weeds and trail maintenance needs. Volunteers will then be briefed on how to download and use an assessment tool on their smart phone or device to use while hiking on their adopted trail. In the afternoon, participants will reconvene at Trail Creek trail up the Little Greys River to practice using the assessment tool and skills they learned in the morning session. The training event is scheduled to wrap up at 5:00 p.m.

“This event is going to be a great way to get folks out hiking their local trails and becoming more familiar with management practices and techniques for their public lands”, says Kara Purser who works for Greys River Ranger District Recreation Program and will be overseeing the volunteers throughout the summer. Community members who have volunteer inquiries or questions regarding the event are invited to email Kara at kpurser@fs.fed.us



Jeff
HikinginGlacier.com
TetonHikingTrails.com
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
HikingintheSmokys.com

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