The next Helping Hands volunteer workday in the Bankhead National Forest will be Saturday, May 22 on Sipsey Wilderness trail #203.

Volunteers Susan Glasscock, Ted Kuzma, Jay Murphy, Lisa White and Wild South staff member Mark Kolinski on a new water crossing on Payne Creek Trail, April 2010

Work on May 22 will involve repairing and building creek crossings, clearing away downed trees, pruning encroaching vegetation. Our card-carrying crosscut sawyers will be needed!

Sign up by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 20 and your lunch will be provided.

Tools will be provided, too. But if you have tools (bow or pruning saw, hand pruners, loppers, etc.) that you are especially fond of, bring them.

Sign up or ask questions here!

Bring:

a snack

plenty of drinking water

tick repellent

your favorite tools, if you wish

work gloves

Be prepared for:

poison ivy (long pants and closed-toe shoes are highly recommended.)

ticks

creek crossings

rain (if it's in the forecast)

sun (if rain is not in the forecast)

Meet at the Warrior Mountains Trading Company in Wren (11312 AL Hwy. 33, Moulton, AL) at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 22. Please park on the south end of the building and come into the store.

Wild South's Help...

With the enactment of the 2004 Revised Land and Resource Management Plan for National Forests in Alabama (RLRMP), Wild South’s relationship with the USFS Bankhead District became a cooperative one rather than the adversarial and litigious one of the 1990’s.  The new RLRMP is focused on restoration and stewardship rather than commodity production and clear cutting, a real sea change in Forest Service management. 

It became apparent in the first years of the new plan that Forest Service budgets were inadequate to address certain needs in the Bankhead: For example, litter and trash dumps defile areas of the forest, rare sandstone glade communities suffer from fire suppression, and trails go without maintenance.  In 2006, Wild South saw an opportunity to take advantage of our new spirit of collaboration with the USFS and help to improve conditions on the Bankhead.  The National Forest Foundation (NFF), the official non-profit partner of the Forest Service, had begun to fund Wild South’s canyon survey and restoration monitoring programs, with matching funds from the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation and the Fund for Wild Nature.  Engaging the local community as volunteers to help the Forest Service meet its management goals seemed to b...