American Hiking Society Volunteers were a Smashing Success!

Conditions were excellent this week for the King Range's yearly American Hiking Society (AHS) volunteer project. Each year, BLM staff team up with AHS volunteers as a part of that organization's "volunteer vacations" program. This year's volunteer vacation included ten volunteers from across the country. Two BLM staff--including your humble author--worked with the volunteers for five days on the Lost Coast.

We set out from Mattole on Monday with storm clouds overhead and scattered showers. Conditions cleared that evening, though, and left us with partly cloudy skies for the remainder of the trip. All around us, flowers were in bloom. There were whales spotted and many of the volunteers were able to see Stellar's sea lions and harbor seals. All in all, a great trip even without the project work.

Our party camped for its first night near Punta Gorda Lighhouse, then a second night at Cooskie Creek, then at Big Creek, and finally Shipman. Each night we ate a delightful meal as the sun went down, and each morning we worked hard to improve wilderness conditions on the Lost Coast.

The primary goal of this year's work party was to dismantle the many driftwood shelters that had appeared on the beach. Over the years, groups of hikers had constructed these shelters out of the abundant driftwood to act as windbreaks for their campsites. When some of these hikers chose not to leave their camp as they found it--chose to abandon Leave-No-Trace principles--a shelter was left behind. These shelters influence other hikers in choosing their campsites who sometimes added to the existing structure. As this cycle repeated, some of these "windbreaks" grew rather large--sometimes resembling small cabins with four walls and a partial roof! The structures on the beach this spring were large, eye-catching, full of trash and mice, and sometimes in danger of collapsing on their occupants.

AHS volunteers dismantled fourteen of these shelters over the course of the five-day volunteer vacation. Literally tons of driftwood were scattered or returned to the surf and the campsites were re-naturalized. This is work that even with the summer seasonal staff, I could not have accomplished. I am very grateful to all the hard work that these volunteers did this week, as California's only wilderness beach now feels a little less suburban.

Why did we destroy all of the driftwood shelters? Some might wonder. After all, people have been building driftwood shelters on the Lost Coast for a long time--perhaps thousands of years. The Lost Coast is a part of the King Range Wilderness. Wilderness--as a legal land status--was created by Congress in 1964 to provide the public with places to visit and recreate in that are free from evidence of the "hand of man". As land managers, we at BLM endeavor to provide the public with opportunities for "unconfined recreation"--words from the law. Unconfined recreation, as we see it, is your opportunity to go out and experience the wilderness as though you were discovering it for the first time. It is your opportunity to go out onto the land and make your own choices and use your own skills. This means choosing your own campsite to have a unique experience in and not being drawn to a human-constructed shelter that is visible from half-a-mile away.

I know some people like building shelters on the beach and using primitive skills like lashing and frapping to manipulate the driftwood in order to make a better campsite. THAT IS FINE. I have no problem with that. What is most important to me is that visitors LEAVE NO TRACE by dismantling their structure when finished.

If you must build a shelter on the beach, proceed in a responsible manner. Please dismantle the shelter before leaving your campsite to go home. Remember: the Lost Coast belongs to all of us. Choosing to leave your mark on the land will affect others who come to visit this amazing place in the days, months, and years to come.