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By John DeCock
Associate Conservation Director
What are the essential elements of the perfect vacation?
Waiting in line at a big theme park? Driving endless hours
behind a huge RV? Stuffing yourself on a cruise ship? For
more than 1,200 Sierra Club members each year, getting away
from it all means traveling by trail or water into a
breathtaking wilderness area to plant native flora, swing a
pick, build a bridge, restore Native American archaeological
sites or take part in any of the dozens of other Service
Trips program activities.
All over the United States, the Sierra Club works with the
National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land
Management and other federal and state land agencies to
contribute desperately-needed volunteer labor to maintenance
projects. Since the Service Trips program was initiated,
volunteers have given millions of dollars' worth of labor to
protect and restore our natural heritage.
The program began in 1958 as an annual cleanup trip to the
High Sierra. The first year, thousands of discarded cans
were removed from the vicinity of Shadow Lake. As park and
forest rangers became aware of the willing pool of volunteer
workers, they began suggesting new projects and more of
them. Today the program runs nearly 100 trips annually.
On a typical service trip, participants can expect to work
for slightly more than half of the time. The remaining days
are spent hiking, "bagging peaks," swimming or relaxing in
camp. There are many variations on this basic theme - some
groups prefer to work more and play less in order to make
greater progress on their project. The work is often
supervised by a government trail coordinator who also
provides tools. Tasks are usually varied enough so that
there is something to challenge, but not defeat, the
strength of each participant.
Jean Ridone has been bringing Sierra Club groups to work on
a small section of trail in the western Cascades for several
years. In the old-growth along the headwaters of the
Willamette River, work is slow and it's hard to see progress
in a single year. As the project unfolds over time, Ridone
and fellow volunteers will be able to watch hikers find
their way into this beautiful place on the trail they
carefully laid.
In the mid-'80s, current Angeles Chapter Chair Bonnie Sharpe
began a series of extremely popular trips to Chaco Canyon in
New Mexico to assist archaeologists and National Park
Service employees in preserving the Anasazi ruins. An
enormous amount of restoration has been accomplished and the
project is still going strong. Larry Belli, Superintendent
of Chaco Culture National Historic Park, said that without
the work of the Sierra Club "we might have had to bury some
of these structures to maintain them for the long term."
The Service Trips subcommittee of the National Outing
Committee holds a training seminar each June for veteran
leaders and new prospects to share stories from the previous
season, make plans for the coming year and conduct extensive
training on everything from cooking hygiene and tool safety
to coping with interpersonal problems and medical
emergencies.
Among those in attendance at this year's seminar in Briones
Regional Park near Orinda, Calif., was Alison Campbell, a
nurse and mother of two from Olympia, Wash. She is preparing
to lead her first service trip, a maintenance project on the
Sierra Club's trail over Goodale Pass. "I started going on
Sierra Club Outings with my dad when I was 4 years old," she
said. When she began taking trips on her own, she chose a
service trip geared for beginners, but soon realized her
previous experience made her something more than a novice.
She approached the trip staff with an offer to help and the
leader suggested she become a trainee. "It had never entered
my mind" recalled Campbell, "but I'm glad I decided to do
it."
Think about it: When you return from your vacation this
summer, what would you rather tell your friends and
coworkers about - spending 10 days in a wilderness area to
repair trails, prevent erosion and protect a watershed where
salmon spawn or waiting two hours in line at Disneyland's
Space Mountain?
There are still plenty of opportunities to participate in a
1996 service trip. Whether it's restoring native plants in
Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadow, repairing trails in the shadow
of Colorado's Maroon Bells peaks or backpacking into Baxter
Park in Maine to build a new trail as the autumn colors
arrive, it's likely you'll find a trip that's just right for
you.
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