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Bureau of Land Management
Volunteer News
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Profiles of BLM's 2006 "Making A Difference" National Volunteer Award Winners
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| Tom and Marty Taylor work with with Hualapai (burro) and Tazz (superdog). |
TOM AND MARTY TAYLOR
BLM Phoenix, Arizona, Field Office
Tom & Marty Taylor (& Hualapai the Burro): Father-and-son team Tom and Marty Taylor have been volunteers and ambassadors for the BLM-Phoenix Wild Horse & Burro program for more than 15 years. Tom regularly performs local outreach, including presentations to schools, businesses, and civic groups. With his formerly-wild adopted burro, Hualapai, he also conducts "burro clinics" to help educate prospective adopters. Additionally, Tom, Marty, and Hualapai travel around Arizona to enlighten people about wild burros and the BLM adoption program. The trio has regularly participated in National Public Lands Day celebrations, BLM Wild Horse and Burro adoptions, and Earth Day exhibitions, to name just a few activities. Tom, Marty, and Hualapai were selected by Public Broadcasting System talent scouts to be filmed for the new kids' cartoon show, "Postcards from Buster," which premiered in fall 2005. Tom and his burro have also been featured on local television programs and in numerous publications, including the Arizona Republic, High Country News, and East Valley Tribune.
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| Virginia Freeman likes creatures with long ears. |
VIRGINIA FREEMAN
BLM Susanville, California, Field OfficeVirginia Freeman has volunteered with BLM-California's Wild Horse and Burro Program for more than a decade. She and her husband, David, have adopted, gentled, and trained many mustangs and burros, using them to help promote BLM's Adopt-a-Horse-or Burro program. The Freemans participate in horse shows and expositions at which audiences can see the attributes of these animals first-hand. Virginia is a founding member of California BLM Adopters Assistance (CBAA), which advises new adopters as they begin gentling and training their animals, and she organizes the annual "Long Ears Cele-‘bray'-tion," a burro show held in conjunction with a BLM adoption event in northern California. BLM has come to count on Virginia to present her adoption success stories to the news media and to assist the BLM External Affairs and Wild Horse & Burro staffs during pre-adoption media promotion trips.
CANYONS OF THE ANCIENTS NATIONAL MONUMENT/ANASAZI HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER PROGRAM
BLM Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Dolores, Colorado
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| Volunteers from Canyons of the Ancients National Monument participate in National Public Lands Day. |
Canyons of the Ancients/Anasazi Heritage Center (AHC) Volunteer Program participants are active in literally every aspect of Monument and AHC operations. Program volunteers contribute assistance by greeting and providing information for visitors; running daily front desk and bookstore operations; preparing Native American cultural artifacts for storage and research; processing library research requests; maintaining and landscaping the facility; assisting with museum shop management; and developing and presenting educational programs. Monument volunteers also work "on the ground," inspecting cultural resource sites; documenting road conditions; collecting trash; monitoring wilderness study areas; providing information to hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders; and reclaiming areas impacted by users who create unauthorized trails. The unique combination of visitor and museum services with landscape-based monitoring, data gathering, reclamation, and maintenance makes this comprehensive volunteer program a workforce that truly influences land health, resource conservation and preservation, and public perceptions about BLM.
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Darlene Stark hauls rolls of barbed wire (and keeps smiling).
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DARLENE STARK
BLM Four Rivers, Idaho, Field Office
For the past 12 years, Darlene Stark has volunteered with BLM-Boise to assist in repairing the district's 319 "exclosures" around sensitive wildlife habitat and cultural resource areas. Since exclosures are typically perimeter barbed-wire fences, her work includes hauling rolls of barbed-wire, fence posts, stays, and tools to the repair site; rebuilding barbed-wire gates and fence corners; and hauling rock. Darlene has pounded miles of fence posts in remote, rough terrain; worked in high-altitude cold and snow; and even survived a too-close-for-comfort lightning strike. Darlene has contributed to all aspects of the repair project and learned the nuances of the trade; with Darlene's assistance, the maintenance specialist is able to check and repair more than 80 percent of Boise's many aging exclosures each year. Darlene's selfless dedication has directly protected cultural resources and wildlife habitat, while also indirectly benefiting special-status species of plants and animals.
BIG WOOD BACKCOUNTRY TRAILS
BLM Shosone, Idaho, District Office
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Young Volunteers from the Big Wood Backcountry Trails help improve dirt trails.
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Based in Idaho's Wood River Valley, Big Wood Backcountry Trails (BWBT) was founded in 1996 to raise funds for clearing and improving a trail in Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest. Over time, BWBT evolved into a non-profit, volunteer trail advocacy group that today works to improve dirt-trail opportunities for mountain bikers, hikers, horseback riders, and motorcycle riders alike. BWBT members help BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, and local government agencies, as well as private landowners. The organization assists with trail maintenance, rerouting, and construction; helps agencies address unauthorized trails; and promotes etiquette and ethics among trail users. The group also fosters awareness of noxious weeds, and many participants volunteer for "weed out" days throughout the Wood River Valley. Thanks to BWBT's involvement, the number of unauthorized trails on Idaho public lands has drastically decreased. The group helps to enhance recreation opportunities while limiting impacts on natural resources, minimizing wildlife habitat fragmentation, reducing the spread of noxious weeds, and lessening the potential for closure of trails that cross private property.
CHUCK WORLEY
BLM Carson City, Nevada, Field Office
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Chuck Worley founded the "Friends of Wilson Canyon" in 2003.
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Several years ago, Chuck Worley recognized that increasing recreational demands within BLM-Carson City's Wilson Canyon Recreation Area were visibly affecting the natural resources of the area, possibly to the point of jeopardizing future recreation opportunities. While Wilson Canyon provides excellent opportunities for fishing, camping, and many other recreational activities, its remote location makes monitoring difficult. So in 2003, Chuck founded Friends of Wilson Canyon to organize volunteers for work towards preserving and protecting the area's natural resources and recreation opportunities. Among other projects, the group has tackled cleanups, applied for and won State Recreation Trails Grants, and participated in the development of long-term management plans for the area. Friends of Wilson Canyon has contributed more than 800 hours of volunteer labor and $12,000 worth of materials, tools, and heavy equipment to install off-highway-vehicle management barriers (railroad ties and boulders) and informational signs. Through his Friends of Wilson Canyon website, Chuck keeps the public informed and involved, addressing public inquiries and sharing ethics information and stewardship messages.
SCOTT WHEELER
BLM Price, Utah, Field Office
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Scott Wheeler's map covers OHV resources for 1.8 million acres.
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Scott Wheeler has worked with BLM-Price since the early 1990s to develop a motorized-travel plan for the San Rafael Area of central Utah. His knowledge of and interest in traditional travel routes have made him an important liaison between BLM and local off-highway vehicle (OHV) groups. Since completion of the route designation plan in February 2003, Scott has continued providing volunteer support and guidance in marking and mapping trails. He recently spearheaded the production and editing of a user-friendly OHV travel map for the 1.8-million-acre planning area, which entailed coordination with other users, map formatting from various data sources, and shepherding of the map through the printing process. BLM can now provide recreationists with a map that incorporates accurate, easy-to-follow trail information with outdoor ethics messages based on the principles of "Leave No Trace" and "Tread Lightly!." Scott continues as a volunteer leader today, getting people out to mark trails and developing innovative approaches to reduce conflicts between different groups of public land visitors.
JIM AND GLORIA DOUGHTY
BLM Lander, Wyoming, Field Office
For seven years, Jim and Gloria Doughty have volunteered for BLM-Lander as campground hosts at the Big Atlantic Gulch and Atlantic City Campgrounds, logging over 2,080 hours of service in the 2005 season alone. Their accomplishments included: painting/refurbishing 50+ picnic tables; applying mechanical weed treatment to 26 campsites; collecting aluminum recyclables; repairing dilapidated fencing; marking hazardous trees for removal; exponentially increasing fee collection compliance; and hosting/contacting more than 3,000 visitors. Jim and Gloria's ability to "connect" with all publics (local, national, and international) has generated a positive awareness of BLM's recreation fee program and the agency as a whole. At the same time, this friendly twosome somehow manages to ensure compliance with Bureau rules and regulations, generating numerous positive public comments as well as an ever-increasing population of repeat customers. As a fitting tribute to the couple's commitment, most returning campers say that they revisit these particular campgrounds just to catch up with their good friends, the Doughtys.
BLM EMPLOYEE WINNER
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| Chris Pipkin created an innovative loop trail for desert mountain bikers. |
CHRIS PIPKIN
BLM, Grand Junction, Colorado, Field OfficeBLM Park Ranger Chris Pipkin has significantly improved the quality and sustainability of trails in the Grand Junction area by developing expertise in proper trail design and layout and motivating a powerful volunteer workforce. Every week, he coordinates volunteer projects to build, maintain, and manage the many miles of trails that weave throughout the area, and has helped to create an innovative interpretive-loop trail for those just learning the finer points of desert valley biking. Thanks to Chris's energetic efforts, local trail users have become aware of the need for properly designed trails and issues related to illegal, user-created trails. He has also involved himself with the Colorado Outdoor Training Initiative, and is now a certified Crew Leader Instructor, helping to implement a "big picture" approach to the use of volunteers that reaches beyond BLM projects. Chris also annually coordinates National Public Lands Day trail work projects, recruiting large numbers of volunteers and working with community partners ranging from food donors to mountain bike enthusiast groups to local governments.
Last Updated: April 6, 2006
This site is maintained by Kevin Flynn
Bureau of Land Management
Environmental Education and Volunteer Programs
