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Stewardship Program Helps Forest Service Monitor AZ Wilderness

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Monday, July 15, 2013   

PHOENIX - The U.S. Forest Service is understaffed, but is getting more help in monitoring more than 1 million acres of Arizona wilderness. Over the weekend, another 30 volunteers for the Arizona Wilderness Coalition stewardship program received training to begin monitoring ecological and recreational conditions in the state's wild areas.

According to the Coalition's Central Arizona Director, Sam Frank, it's a chance for people to give back while enjoying something they already love: being outdoors.

"It's a great thing for families, it's a great way to get exercise and it's a great way to get to know the lands better in your backyard. It's really beneficial," Frank said. "And also they have a sense of stewardship in helping take care of these areas that technically belong to them."

While hiking, volunteers gather data that helps the Forest Service preserve the wilderness areas while maintaining recreational opportunities.

In some cases, Frank said, volunteers might replace a missing trail marker. Or they could uproot an invasive plant species before things get out of hand.

"There could be one tamarisk plant, which is a non-native plant. That's something that a single person could remedy," he related. "But if no one's out there for a few years, that plant has time to propagate and next thing we know, there's a hundred tamarisk plants out there."

Karl Malcolm, Southwestern Regional Wilderness Stewardship Coordinator at the U.S. Forest Service, said that of the 90 designated wilderness areas in Arizona, his agency is charged with managing 36.

"We simply do not have the manpower to do that, in Arizona or elsewhere," Malcolm said. "We need the support from partners like the Arizona Wilderness Coalition and their volunteers."

Sam Frank said it's even possible that Wilderness Stewardship Program volunteers could help prevent some of the wildfires that have been plaguing the state. He told of leading one group of volunteers in the Superstition Wilderness where they were monitoring trails and checking out campsites.

"And we went to one campsite that still had a fire burning. And I don't mean smoking embers. I mean flames coming off of pieces of wood," he said. "So, there's one example of ... I'm not saying that would have been a wildfire ... but could have been."

In the three years since the Arizona stewardship program began, Frank said, Wilderness Coalition volunteers have put in more than 4,000 hours on various projects. He hopes to involve several hundred people eventually.



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