All wrapped up. Another Season of Volunteer Work Comes to an End.
The second year of the Austin Kraal Memorial Volunteer program started in the snow, stapling pheromone patches to Douglas-firs and ended in the wind picking up trash by the side of the highway.
In the months between, projects ranged from dusty days shoveling out waterbars on the steep trails of the Sawtooth Mountains, to clipping small, encroaching pines which dotted the otherwise open meadows of the Stanley Basin to floating from shore to shore picking up years and years worth of trash on the banks of the Salmon River. The 21 total projects made this summer the most successful the program has had thus far.
The success did not lie in the projects themselves but rather in the 200 plus volunteers who came out to give back to the beloved area. There were large groups of youth from Emmett and Twin Falls, and small groups of adults from right in Stanley. There were those who woke up early to drive from Boise just to help clear trail and those who sacrificed a day of vacation for a day in the sagebrush tearing down barbed wire. The volunteers showed, through sweat and maybe a little bit of blood, the importance and value of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
Yesterday marked the last Austin Kraal Memorial volunteer project of the season. Four Stanley locals spent the cool fall morning walking the edges of Highway 21 with large plastic bags picking up everything from half-empty cans of Skoal to used diapers. But the weather was beautiful, the road was relatively empty, and the sandwiches from the Stanley Baking Company were, as usual, delicious. All in all, it was a great way to end an amazing season of volunteer work.
