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Volunteer Work days in Bankhead NF (AL) Feb. 10 and 18

Show your forest you love it!

This month, Wild South will have 2 volunteer work days in the Bankhead National Forest. Choose one or both!

Wild South volunteer Larry Gautney using a weed wrench to pull privet on Borden Creek Trail in the Sipsey Wilderness

Privet Pulling

Friday, February 10

8:30 a.m. at the Wild South office

Chinese privet is by far the most threatening non-native invasive plant species in the Sipsey Wilderness. Volunteers and staff will use weed wrenches to pull up the privet plants on a Sipsey Wilderness trail. All tools will be provided. Participants need to bring lunch, snacks, drinking water and work gloves.

Wild South volunteers with one of many loads of trash picked up in the Bankhead NF

Trash Clean-Up in the Bankhead NF

Saturday, February 18

8:30 a.m. at the Wild South office

Trash is an eternal problem in the forest and along the roads. On the 18th, we will target some of the most egregious dump sites in the forest. Wild South will provide buckets, trash bags and trash grabbers. Volunteers need to bring work gloves, lunch, snacks, drinking water. Pick-up trucks and/or trailers are needed! Our route will be planned so that we can have lunch in some beauty-spot.

Sign up at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 256-974-6166. Be sure to specify which work day, or both!

Both work days will begin by meeting at the Wild South office (Warrior Mountains Trading Company, 11312 AL Hwy. 33, Moulton, AL) at 8:30 a.m.

Wild South's Helping Hands Volunteer Program is made possible by the generosity of our individual donors, by a grant from The National Forest Foundation, a grant from the General Fund of the Walker Area Community Foundation, and a grant from Legacy.

Helping Hands Volunteer Work Day January 21, 2012

Wild South volunteers on Sipsey Wilderness Trail 201 in November, 2011

Come give a helping hand to your forest!

Wild South's next Helping Hands volunteer work day in the Bankhead National Forest will be Saturday, January 21, 2012.

Spend a day in the Sipsey Wilderness cleaning up tornado damage on Trail #207 then stay afterwards for our Work Day Soiree at the Wild South office from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.. The entire staff of Wild South will be in Alabama for the trail work and the get-together afterwards. Come work and socialize with us!

NFsNC Non-Motorized Trails Strategy

In 2012, trail enthusiasts and others with knowledge of non-motorized trails in North Carolina will have a chance to provide input on the US Forest Service trail planning process.This effort, referred to as the Non-motorized Trails Strategy, gives partners the opportunity to identify sustainable trail systems in the four national forests. Click here for USFS News Release.

Volunteers Larry Barkey (center) and Chuck Peterson (right) with Wild South's Alabama Program Manager Mark Kolinski on Sipsey Wilderness Trail #203 in November

Helping Hands volunteer work day in the Bankhead National Forest

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The project: Round Mountain Glade Restoration

Sign up This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it !

Wild South's next volunteer work day in the Bankhead National Forest in northwest Alabama will be Saturday, December 17. We will begin a new project, the restoration of a sandstone glade in the Black Pond area in the southern part of the forest. The glade is located on a tributary of Hoghouse Creek, a finger of Smith Lake.

Formidable Wild South work crew on Sept. 17 getting ready to tackle trail 202

Wild South Volunteers,

Thanks to everyone who came out for the work day last month and helped clean up trail 202 in the Sipsey Wilderness, which hadn't received good maintenance in quite some time. The weather was beautiful, everyone enjoyed themselves and we got a lot of good work done.

This month's Helping Hands work day will be Saturday, October 15. I know you're all itching to get out into the forest and enjoy the increasingly beautiful autumn weather, so why not join us for a new adventure in trail maintenance - water diversion! I know, I know, you can barely contain your excitement, but until the contractor whom the Forest Service has hired to clear some of the tornado damage from Sipsey Wilderness trails completes his work, our crosscut saws and axes will remained sheathed in regard to the trails most in need. But that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other work projects out there.

NC Trails Project

With the support from the National Forest Foundation Wild South has expanding its successful Helping Hands Volunteer Projects to North Carolina this year to include a trails inventory project in the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forests. The National Forests of North Carolina will be conducting a systematic survey of trails on the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forests and collecting data on their condition and use.

This trail system is an incredible recreational resource that requires a concerted effort to sustain it into the future. Our collaborative project with the Forest Service will be implemented through a dedicated group of volunteers that Wild South will train, organize and coordinate to meet the agency’s management priorities and planning goals.

The NC trail inventory project will provide the USFS with data to assess priorities and inform management decisions regarding recreational resources. The initial inventory will serve as the foundation for an ongoing collaborative effort to maintain a sustainable trail system that satisfies user groups while protecting the integrity of forest ecosystems.

To date we have enlisted the support of 9 volunteers and 3 summer interns. As of June 21st we have inventoried 4 of the 9 trails that were assigned at the onset of this project. Once we complete the first 9 trails on the list we will continue inventories in other locations and help support the collaborative effort being led by the Forest Service to examine trail resources on the Forests.

Volunteers Hit the Trails

View More Photos & Add Your Comments on Flickr

Bankhead Update

Wild South staff and our Helping Hands volunteers have been hard at work on repairing tornado damage on the Sipsey Wilderness hiking trails in the Bankhead National Forest (Alabama). Great progress has been made, but there is still much to be done before all trails are opened. Joomla Templates and Joomla Extensions by ZooTemplate.Com
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Volunteer to Protect the Bankhead

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