ICL’s Wilderness Stewards wrap up their 10th Season of Stewardship for Wild Idaho
Editor’s Note: This blog was written by Annie DeAngelo, ICL’s Wilderness Steward Program Organizer. This year marks ten years of ICL’s Wilderness Stewards Program.
Steward: verb to act as a steward of; manage
My high school English teacher would be thoroughly unsatisfied with this definition from Merriam Webster because it uses the word itself inside of the definition! As the Wilderness Steward Program season wraps up another season, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to steward our public lands, especially right now. As I write this, the public comment period for the removal of the Roadless Rule is in its final days (spoiler alert: more than 1 million submissions were received, and an analysis of the comments found that more than 99% opposed repealing the rule). The budget for public lands has been shrunk and federal employees laid off. And we just had an incredibly dry summer that set temperature records around the world.
And yet, more and more people are out enjoying public lands. They are a shared and often unifying treasure in what can feel like a fraught democracy. Public lands need us more than ever and this summer the Wilderness Stewards were out there, day after day, stewarding our forests.
You might be wondering: what does a Wilderness Steward do?
The short answer? All kinds of things! Stewards collect data for the Forest Service on everything from visitor counts to violations to trail conditions and wildlife sightings. They pick up trash, dismantle illegal fire rings, and even clean up gulp human waste issues. They interact with other people out enjoying the public lands, offering helpful information or a gentle redirect. They check permit box inventories and deliver filled out permits to the Forest Service. This year, they even helped conduct an inventory of solitude through our Solitude Monitoring Program. In short, they care for so many aspects of the land.
A few statistics on this season’s program can help show just how wide reaching the program is.
Total Number of Patrols: 123
Total Miles Hiked: 952 (for reference, it’s only 906 miles to drive from Ketchum to San Diego!)
Total Hours Spent Patrolling: 978 hours of patrolling (that’s just under 41 days!)
Number of People Tallied: 2,291
Number of Fire Rings Naturalized: 53 with another 21 cleaned or reduced
Trash Packed Out: 451 ounces or about 28 pounds
Before and after a Wilderness Steward comes through.
In short, I am incredibly grateful to all of the Wilderness Stewards for their contributions this summer. Our public lands wouldn’t be in the state they are in without them.
And so, in light of the underwhelming definition from Merriam Webster, I’d like to propose a more robust definition.
Steward: verb To care for a place, such that its integrity is maintained for generations to come
If you are interested in becoming a Wilderness Steward next year, please fill out this 2027 Wilderness Steward Program Inquiries Form.