Stewardship takes many forms for Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness

The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness busy season is about to start. Seventy percent of the stewardship activities FSPW engages in falls between the middle of April and the end of September. The 2017 schedule is filling up, with ten days of trail work, a whitebark pine planting expedition on Scotchman Peak, weed mitigation, an assortment of hikes for adults and kids and the mountain goat education program.

The trail season began with an Earth Day project on Star Peak Trail #999 clearing blow down and improving tread. During the upcoming season, FSPW volunteers will continue improving #999 tread as well as work on Scotchman Peak Trail #65 above the reroute completed last fall. A three-day work weekend is scheduled for July 21-23 somewhere in the vicinity of Spar Lake.

National Public Lands Day is traditionally the last trail work day for FSPW, which will be on September 30 this year, with a day on Morris Creek Trail #132 and a picnic at the East Fork trailhead for the volunteers.

The Mountain Goat Trail Ambassador program enters its second year this season. Beginning June 10, FSPW volunteers will be on the Scotchman Peak Trail #65 each Saturday, Sunday and holiday through October 8. Trail Ambassadors make sure that visitors to Scotchman understand the dangers and consequences of socializing the mountain goats at the top.

“The ambassador program works to keep goats and humans from interacting in ways that might harm either species,” said Mary Franzel, FSPW goat education coordinator. “We are teaching people to refrain from feeding goats or approaching them too closely, and it’s very well accepted. The goal is to let the goats be wild without too much human influence and keep both goats and humans safe.”

Besides the regular summer hike schedule, FSPW will also be leading “kid hikes” again this summer, the third year of a cooperative effort with Bonner Homeless Transitions to get kids outside. “It’s a good compliment to our Winter Tracks program,” FSPW program coordinator Sandy Compton said. “We have three easy hikes this year for kids between three and 13 and their parents. It’s pretty amazing to watch a kid go from couch potato to outdoors lover in one easy lesson, and it happens often on these hikes.”

One botany-related project coming this year is investigation of bio-controls for the St. John’s wort infestation that has surged into North Idaho and western Montana in the past decade. The plant has some valuable medicinal qualities, but it is also highly invasive and builds one-species communities similar to spotted knapweed and orange hawkweed. FSPW volunteers and Forest service employees met in April to discuss possible strategies.

Also in the works is a multi-day whitebark pine planting expedition on Scotchman Peak. The Forest Service and FSPW volunteers will spend several days camped on the peak while hand-planting whitebark pine seeds in some of the areas burned in fires in the mid-2000s as well as during the 2015 fires. Whitebark pine is a keystone species that has been much affected by western pine beetle, and an important part of grizzly habitat.

Besides the boots-on-the-ground aspect of stewardship, FSPW also has many outreach events this summer, including education days at Trout Creek and Noxon schools in May and taking care of the STOKR stop at Yaak Falls and the CHAFE 150 rest stop in Clark Fork. Volunteers will also be at information booths and tables at Bonner County Days at Schweitzer and Libby Logger days in June, the 4th of July celebration in Troy, Bonner County Fair and the Trout Creek Huckleberry Festival in August, and Harvest Festivals in Libby and Thompson Falls in September.

“We have lots to do,” said Compton, “and a really great bunch of volunteers to help us. In fact, the public events and workdays are always fun and productive events because of the positive energy the volunteers bring. And, really, these kinds of things will be ongoing for a long time. When we get Wilderness designation, the Friends will keep working. We’re just practicing for the future.”

To learn more about Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness stewardship, education, outreach and hikes, visit www.scotchmanpeaks.org.

Sandy Compton is program coordinator for Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.