Volunteer's Corner

Chief’s volunteer award honors former FS employee Judy Mitchell!

After 18 years with the Forest Service, Judy Mitchell has carried her passion for public land stewardship into retirement, becoming the Willamette National Forest's volunteer volunteer coordinator for recreation. As visitor use crosses over the high Cascades, Judy coordinates project work on both Willamette and Deschutes NFs, which together host millions of visitors each year and share over 3,000 miles of trail and three very popular Wildernesses: Mt Jefferson, Mt Washington and Three Sisters. With limited funding for operations and maintenance, and a maintenance backlog, both Forests have a great need for assistance.

Over the past two years, through Judy’s initiative, hundreds of volunteers have been recruited and trained to work on a wide variety of projects. She has both the technical and interpersonal skills to identify, recruit and coordinate people of diverse backgrounds. Hikers, bikers, and stock users come from as far away as Portland and Salem to volunteer their time, often performing labor-intensive work.

Judy’s leadership has been instrumental in all aspects of the volunteer program. As the work load has expanded, Judy has organized a core group of volunteers who are now moving forward forming the non-profit High Cascades Forest Volunteers. The group's mission is “to help maintain, restore, and preserve the public lands and resources administered by the Forest Service for present and future generations.”

The group now has volunteers who help track accomplishments, produce a newsletter, and who also assist with recruitment and training. Judy has also developed a volunteer recruiting webpage you can see at www.fs.fed.us/r6/willamette/.

Judy and her growing cadre of volunteers - have performed critical work which would otherwise have developed into a deeper maintenance backlog, and providing field presence and monitoring in areas where Forest staff is no longer able to do so.

During the busy summer season, Judy herself works nearly full time, scheduling and coordinating all of the project work, often personally assisting the volunteers in the field, often on weekends.

Her work has helped to streamline processes and make them more efficient and ensures that the Forests follow current policies and procedures. For example, both Forests share a single master volunteer agreement signed by both Forest Supervisors which covers the majority of the work to be accomplished. Through her efforts, both Forests have reaped a host of benefits.

Judy Mitchell organizes volunteers who, with limited Forest Service assistance, donate thousands of hours of work surveying, marking, and maintaining trails, adopting lake, hosting sites, repairing facilities, and completing restoration.

In 2006 alone the labor hours were valued at $86,000. The same year, with Judy’s help, the Forest celebrated 2006’s accomplishments with an end-of-season volunteer awards ceremony.

In addition, Judy has coordinated training sessions for volunteers with the help of partner relationships she has nurtured, including the Backcountry Horseman Association and Pacific Crest Trail Association and others. This year's three-day volunteer training attracted over 150 participants who completed saw recertification, safety, first aid and stewardship training, and attended sessions on a variety of topics including “how to be a good host,” leave-no-trace skills, identifying invasive weed, restoring historic sites, and survival skills.

Courtesy of Judith McHugh and Sue Olson, Willamette and Deschutes NFs, and Kathy Bowman, Pacific Northwest Regional Office.