“We are in the role of Trail Survey Technicians, but we like to think of ourselves as professional hikers.” These are the words of one of the Lassen National Forest Conservation crew leaders. In an effort to assess damage to trails and other hazards left by the catastrophic Dixie Fire of 2021, the lead and crewmember Maddie Jaynes recently completed surveys on 60 miles of trails, including all of Caribou Wilderness Area, work that will help to estimate how much work Nevada Conservation Corps (NCC) trail crews will have to restore and also provides data on hazards that will help to make the trails safer for our crews and trail users.
One of the crew leaders and Maddie kindly agreed to answer some of our questions about these operations.
Please provide the basic details of the work: description of the work, when? where? by whom?
This season the NCC Trail Survey Crew has been working through the burnscar of the Dixie Fire in the Lassen National Forest.
We are surveying damage to hiking trails and hazards on and around trails that hikers might encounter.
We are recording these issues as individual survey points on ArcGIS, so on the trail we are using tablet computers with FieldMaps and when we see something that needs attention from a trail crew we take photos and collect data that informs what kind of work needs to be done and how long it will take. This season we have hiked over a hundred miles and collected survey data on over 70 miles of trails including all of Caribou Wilderness and the Spencer Meadows National Recreation Trail System for a total of over 2000 survey points. We also have conducted 30 hazard tree assessments where we set up transects and count and classify trees-based hazard tree characteristics like if they are burned and dead or would be a complicated tree (class C) for a sawyer to cut in order to approximate how dangerous sections of the forest are to hike or operate in. Lastly, we have collected data on invasive plants and reported directly to the Lassen National Forest using Survey123.
Right now, the team is comprised of three AmeriCorps members: trail survey technician, recreation and restoration technicians, a crew leader, and crew supervisor.
What were the goals of the work, both short and long term?
Data is currently being used by NCC to inform work being conducted in the field. The survey has helped to determine where trail work can happen safely in the burnscar and determine high priority work that needs to be done for instance our saw crews have begun to clear trails of hazardous trees already.
In the long-term, this survey will help to estimate a total amount of work that NCC trail crews will be conducting in the Lassen National Forest Burn Scar. NCC crews will be informed by the survey for several seasons as there is much work that NCC has to do in this national forest.
Were there any challenges faced by the crew? Any triumphs?
Maddie: Weather was a huge challenge, due to the severity of the burn scar. High winds and torrential downpours made the work very challenging at times, along with below freezing temperatures almost every night.
Kyle: Although, we were not able to access PCT or Ishi Wilderness due to the Park Fire occurring this year. I am really proud that we were able to survey all of the trails we had access to this season. This was kind of an unexpected thing and we were kind of surprised at the end of season with how much we actually hiked.
What did you and the crewmembers gain from the experience personally?
Maddie: Personally, this was the most meaningful project I have done with NCC this year, and the most meaningful work I have ever done in general. As someone who was personally affected by wildfire (both the Camp Fire and the Dixie Fire), being a part of bringing these places back was incredibly meaningful for me. I lost my home and community in the Camp Fire in 2018, and then I lost my favorite places to hike in the Dixie Fire – Lassen National Forest and the Caribou Wilderness. Doing the backcountry trail survey in Caribou was so important to me because that is a place I am very familiar with, and would even call home. I feel really proud to be a part of this project and am excited to see these places be restored in the future.
Kyle: A passion of mine is trail work. I got started volunteering for Tahoe Rim Trail, then I worked on trails as an AmeriCorps member at Walker Basin Conservancy and now a crew leader conducting trail work and survey. I am trying to start a trail association called the Washoe Rim Trail Association so, working with project partners, learning to estimate trail work and having an eye for seeing the story written into the trail by physical conditions, wildlife and users are skills I have gained on the survey crew that I hope help achieve that personal goal. This job basically turned out to be like a dream job and as an avid hiker and backpacker I feel like this project is the closest I could get to being a “professional hiker”.
Any exciting/amusing/enlightening stories from the field?
Maddie: The backcountry hitch in Caribou Wilderness was so fun it didn’t even feel like work. Kyle and I covered the entire wilderness area in 3 days, and it brought me back to my thru hiking days on the Pacific Crest Trail. One morning we saw so many different types of animal tracks, it was fun to speculate where all the animals might be headed, and it also made me feel hopeful that maybe the animals are coming back.
The storm we got caught in while doing trail surveys at Spencer Meadows was terrifying but memorable. We made it out unscathed, but hiking nine miles in freezing rain isn’t exactly my idea of fun. Needless to say, you can’t always trust the Garmin weather forecast. I feel like Kyle and I really bonded as not only teammates, but also friends during this event.
Kyle: Working in a burnscar is dirty/ashy, hazardous and emotionally, it can be taxing. I think every NCC Crew this year has had one or most of their hitches in a burnscar. For me, it has been important to get to know the community that was affected and to take a moment to imagine your work in the forest as it grows back. It has been rewarding to talk to community members in towns around Lassen National Forest who have often asked us what we are doing and have been encouraging of our work.
