Monday, June 30, 2008

Volunteers in the News

I have far too much to share with you to pack into a single blog entry! Therefore, brace yourself for a flurry of reports. I have contributions to share from Greg Carstens and Pete Sabin; reports on an event a week ago (snow shoveling at Sunrise) and this Saturday (Meadow Rover training); lots of projects and training opportunities coming up; lots of "volunteers in the news"; and even another award to announce!

So let's start with volunteers in the news:

The National Parks Conservation Association has a nice article in National Parks Magazine this month called "After the Storm," following up on our recovery from the storms of November 2006, including the phenomenal efforts of volunteers. Thanks to NW Regional Director Sean Smith for this PDF copy.

The News Tribune has an article called "100 adventures in centennial forests" that helpfully notes how important volunteers are on federal forest land: "All of the national forests are anxious to get volunteer help to help maintain their trails... From patrolling climbing routes to weeklong trail maintenance work parties, there are numerous opportunities to volunteer in the forest." So, so true! So true, in fact, that it bears repeating. See numbers 32 and 71. The McClatchy news service has picked up this story, so you'll also find it in the Bellingham Herald.

Fellow bloggers are also picking up the cause: see this shout-out to our volunteer program, for example, at the website "WSR Mt Rainier NP," maintained by photographer Scott Knowles.

And finally, in case you thought summer was here, here's a picture taken just a week ago at Indian Bar:
That's the Indian Bar Shelter under all that snow! Paradise is no better--I'm told we had 117 inches on the ground at the weather station this morning (and I believe it based on what I saw there on Saturday). The water is running off the bottom of the snowpack in rivers, overwhelming the drainage systems at Paradise, but there's a long way to go.Still, we recorded a temperature of 98 degrees at Longmire on Sunday--yes, you read that right! That means that after the coldest first week of June in over a hundred years, we're ending the month with... the warmest June day since the park began keeping records in 1931! (See full data here and here.) The previous record was set on June 16, 1961 with a temperature of 97 degrees. (In case you're wondering, the all-time record for Longmire was July 14, 1935, when the mercury hit 105.)

No comments: