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(Footsteps on rough ground)
I’m Mike Dawson, and I’m the Director for Trail Operations with the Pacific Crest Trail Association
Jay Watson, I’m Regional Director for the Student Conservation Association
I’m Beth Boyst. I’m the Pacific Crest Trail Program Manager. I work for the U.S. Forest Service.
Mark Conley. I’m the manager of the National Landscape Conservation System in California for Bureau of Land Management.
Karla Norris. I’m the Associate Deputy State Director for Natural Resources in the California state office of the BLM.
My name is David Nestor. I’m from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Erik Schmahl
Nettina Conkey. Happy Camp, California.
Evan Devane.
Megan Petermann. Kewaskum, Wisconsin.
Brendan Taylor. Bluebell, Pennsylvania.
Leah Miracle. Ohio.
Brianna Cheek. Vancouver, Washington.
Chris Niebuhr. Upstate New York, a small town called Otego.
Emily Galanto. East Hampton, Connecticut.
Nick Mattson. Mount Vernon, Washington.
(Beth Boyst, Forest Service) Well, I think one of the most important things to celebrate is this is an unprecedented opportunity to work on the Pacific Crest Trail
with over 4 million dollars coming in economic stimulus dollars or ARRA funding. So celebrating that opportunity is huge.
(Mark Conley, BLM) If it wasn’t for the partnership with the Pacific Crest Trail Association and the Student Conservation Association,
I think it would have been really challenging for the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to complete this project in the 2-year time frame
that was required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Engaging our partners allowed us to bring in some key
resources to assist us in putting together a plan to implement this very complex project working in remote areas along the
Pacific Crest Trail in California, Oregon, and Washington.
(Karla Norris, BLM) What do I like about these kind of projects? I think it is very exciting to bring a lot of
different federal, state, local agencies, outside non-governmental organizations, and students all together for a common goal.
We all know exactly what it is that we want to get done out there, and you see the progress on the ground – it’s real, it’s meaningful, it’s measurable.
You can go out and hike the trail before the maintenance project is done, and you can hike the trail after it’s done, and you can see a big,
amazing difference. And I think, for me, that’s the most important thing – is being able to see results on the ground.
(Liz Bergeron, PCTA) What we like most about this kind of project is the amount of work that’s going to get done on the Pacific Crest Trail.
There’s a huge backlog in terms of very important maintenance projects in keeping the trail open from Mexico to
Canada as well as maintaining the trail to the standards of a national scenic trail.
(Karla Norris, BLM) I’ve been with the government for a very long time with several agencies in the
Department of the Interior: Parks Service, BLM, and Fish and Wildlife Service, and I have to say that without exception, at every agency,
we couldn’t do what we do without our partners and the partnerships that we develop.
Not only with groups like the PCTA, but the Student Conservation Association.
(Mike Dawson, PCTA) We’ve been involved in a partnership with the Forest Service, BLM,
and the Student Conservation Association and AmeriCorps to provide trail crews for projects on the PCT
all the way from the Mexican border to the Canadian border.
(Beth Boyst, Forest Service) Most importantly, these youth crews that are being put to work are our citizen-stewards.
We’re creating a relationship between them and the land that’s irreplaceable because they become
our future stewards for voting and for being stewards of the land in the future.
But, in addition to that, they are also fabulous resources for actually doing trail work,
and their youth is a good thing in that they’re energetic and we’re able to teach them job skills in terms
of how to work as a team as well as to actually have trail construction and maintenance skills.