National Public Lands Day 2022

On Saturday, September 24, a group of hardy souls celebrated National Public Lands Day by removing about 1,000 feet of barbed wire fencing in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. After donning gloves and grabbing tools at the Green Springs Mountain Loop trailhead, we headed up the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) about a half mile to where the fencing spread out from the trail in both directions.

We quickly divided into two teams – Team Extreme who charged fearlessly up a steep slope to remove fencing that ran east of the trail and Team Daniel who boldly took on the fence to the west of the trail. Each team cut the strands of barbed wire at the metal t-posts, folded them up accordion-style and placed them in a pile. The t-posts were removed from the ground with a tool designed for just that purpose and were also staged for later hauling to the parking lot.

Each team worked with good cheer and determination, uplifted by the calls of red-breasted nuthatches, pileated woodpeckers, and chickadees, moving further into the forest to ultimately remove thousands of feet of barbed wire and dozens of t-posts. On a team of his own, Brian Long, the Recreation Planner for the BLM, was tasked with removing the wooden posts that were immediately adjacent to either side of the trail that had been used to support a gate that crossed the PCT adjoining the two sides of fencing.

After a couple of hours, prompted by John Duwe, BLM’s new Interpretive Specialist, we began the long haul of materials from the woods to the parking lot where the BLM truck awaited. When the last of the materials were tightly secured for transport to a scrap metal recycler, we had lunch while celebrating that our efforts that day will make life easier for the wildlife who call the Monument home.

Inspired by the energy and motivation shown by our volunteers, we are already thinking about our next Monument stewardship day!

Words and photos by Executive Director Collette Streight.