Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WILDERNESS VOLUNTEERS
protect america's wild places
WILDLANDS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
It feels great to get out and do some good honest physical labor. You work
in beautiful places, meet interesting people, get relief from the hustle-
bustle of daily life—and fresh perspective on what's really important.
—David Brooks, Wilderness Volunteers team leader
38 | If you have a thing about America's wild places, like to backpack, and could pass a Mar-
ine physical (well, almost), consider a volunteer vacation with Wilderness Volunteers. This or-
ganization sends vigorous volunteers (mainly in their 20s to 40s) into America's national and
state parks to repair the damage done by heedless visitors. They restore hiking trails, clean up
debris, plant strategically located trees and remove not-so-strategically located ones, and take
inventory of plant and wildlife species.
It's a cheap way to backpack America's remotest reaches. Twelve participants per trip pay
their way to the trailhead plus a modest $239 for a week of hearty chow, good company, and
the satisfaction of knowing they're contributing to the preservation of public lands.
Wilderness Volunteers was founded in 1997 by Debbie Northcutt and a couple of friends
who all worked as coordinators for Sierra Club service projects. “The Sierra Club kept getting
more and more expensive and volunteers kept wondering why they're paying so much to go
out in the sun and sweat,” explains Northcutt, who now serves as executive director. “Plus
our trips are much more diverse. We might get someone from NRA or Ducks Unlimited,
something you'd never find on a Sierra Club trip. I led a trip to the Maroon Bells [Colorado]
recently that had a Mormon housewife, a Navy pilot, and a college president. By the end of
the trip, they were practically best friends.”
On another trip, an older volunteer from Ohio looked askance at an 18-year-old kid with
spiked purple hair and piercings. “The guy from Ohio kept asking the kid why his parents al-
lowed him to walk around like that,” Northcutt recalls. “By the end of the week, however, he
was seeking tips from the 18-year-old on how to relate to his own kids. When people pull to-
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