OCR Text |
Show Ingrid Fagre and Tanya Surawicz put a 50-year-old saw into action while Leslie Fagre waits her turn to help. i - i ? r : n 1 j. "ji.lv- i - ., .j ' s ' L.i . ' ' , ...... ......J. a...... Ingrid Fagre takes a break to enjoy the scenery. t Foresters face a difficult task by Nan Chalat Sally Hansler has what some people would call an ideal job. She spends four days a week camping in the High Uintas, hiking through meadows of wildflowers and sleeping sleep-ing under the stars. She is not paid it is a volunteer position but the U.S. Forest Service provides all her camping gear, a forest-green and khaki uniform and a per diem allowance for food. But according to Hansler, being a Forest Service volunteer isn't as glamorous as it looks. In addition to providing information to visitors and being available to radio for rescue assistance when needed Hansler spends much of her time as a glorified garbage collector. Along with three other volunteers and four trail crew members she is responsible responsi-ble for keeping approximately 75,000 acres of wilderness neat and tidy. Cleaning up after the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the popular hiking trails and lakes in the Kamas ranger district would be a tall order for a crew three times that 6 size. The district includes 15,000 acres within the High Uintas S Primitive Area of , the Ashley 2 National Forest and the 60,000-acre Lakes Area which encompasses the headwaters of the Weber and Provo Rivers in the Wasatch National Forest. According to Wilderness Ranger Frank Erickson, who supervises volunteers and trail crews, the Primitive Area presents a special challenge because the Forest Service is not allowed to use any mechanized equipment. That means no pickup trucks to haul out trash and no chainsaws to clear fallen trees from the trails. According to one trail crew, though, that role is fine with them. Ingrid and Leslie Fagre, who volunteered last summer and are now paid forest service employees, have no affection for the noise and fumes of chain saws. They prefer to pack along a six-foot 50-year-old Simmons Radial Crescent Royal Chinook two-man saw affectionately known as "the misery whip." Working together with a steady rhythm they can make two cuts in a large fallen tree in half an hour after which they roll the section off to the side of the trail. They use a collapsible Sven saw to knock off intruding limbs and in their hard hats and forest service uniforms they attract a fair amount of attention from passersby. The Fagre sisters use the contact with the public to spread the word about no-trace camping. Along with the volunteers they are trying to instill a sense of wilderness ethics in those who use the forests. According to Ingrid Fagre the only thing worse than mosquitoes are people who leave trash in the forest. Volunteer Tanya Surawicz agrees. "It is so frustrating to find aluminum cans around the fire rings. I can't help thinking if they could carry the weight in when it was full surely they can carry it out when it's empty," she said. Surawicz is from Minnesota. She came to tah this summer specificially to volunteer in the Uintas. "I enjoy talking to the people and I enjoy the physical exercise. If we can just get people to understand what their gum wrapper does to the forest," she said. According to Hansler the problem is "that there are so many of them and so few of us." She said a lot of people seem to have the attitude they will never come back to the same spot so why worry about a little garbage. "They act like it will just disappear," she said. But on the whole she said people are getting a little better. Hansler prefers to work her four-day shift alone. She spends approximately half her time on the trail talking to people and picking up trash and half the time trail-blazing and getting to know the territory. She does not built fires to cook and she carries no soap. "I'm not trying to be an elitist but I figure that when I am out here I should be beyond reproach," she said. When talking to other campers she emphasizes camping away from the water, building very small fires, burying human waste and carrying out all trash. She also suggests and use of subdued colors for tents and backpacks and, of course, making sure all fires are completely out. Hansler likes to talk to campers about preserving the solitude of the lakes. If that doesn't work she tells her younger listeners protecting solitude is like hiding from someone who is following you and you are trying to throw them off the trail. According to Erickson the volunteers volun-teers are doing all they can to maintain the forest. "But we have a long way to go," he said. "The problem is by the time we see them it is already too late. We need to educate people during the off season so when they go camping they have the right equipment," Erickson added. At times this summer it has not been uncommon to pass 100 people on the first four miles of the Highline Trail, he said. So Kamas Ranger District volunteers volun-teers Surawicz, Hansler, Dan Fran-kel Fran-kel and Gary Nadler have their work cut out for them. So do trail crew workers Leslie and Ingrid Fagre, Brent Fackeral and Dale Wilde. "The object is to clean up so the next guy can imagine he is the first person there. It is something I feel strongly about or I wouldn' t be doing it," said Hansler. |