VALLEY OUTDO-GOODERS
This Saturday, March 16, non-profit Valley Outdoors is partnering with the Bishop Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to organize a restoration project on the main road through Bishop’s Tungsten Hills.
The project, located just west of Tungsten Peak along the main road, follows previous roadwork completed by the BLM. Saturday’s volunteers will lend a hand with restoration—vertical mulching, and the planting of live vegetation in the area.
As explained by Michael Lueders, co-founder of the organization with partner Glenn Allen Clark: “Tungsten came into play through the BLM … there was a road washout at the top [of the hills]. BLM went up with their equipment and fixed the washout, but meanwhile, there was a user created bypass around it. So we’ve been asked to do the bypass restoration.”
According to Lueders, the BLM will be providing the necessary materials to begin restorative efforts.
“So the heavy lifting is already done,” promises the event description on Valley Outdoors’ website. But, insofar as getting the newly-minted nonprofit off the ground is concerned, the heavy lifting is very much in progress.
“We’re building the airplane as we’re flying it,” says Chris Leonard, a board member of the organization.
Valley Outdoors, though only recently minted an official 501c3 organization, has been actively involved in community-based conservation efforts for more than a year.
“We started as a grassroots organization, literally chucking rocks in the holes on the trails,” said Lueders who, in the wake of last year’s record winter and Hurricane Hillary, had teamed up with Clark to do trail work for the U.S. Forest Service in order to remedy some of the damage.
The team was then contacted by Bishop High Sierra Ultra Marathon organizers to install an aid station in the Upper Buttermilks—an area pockmarked, then, by a sizable sinkhole.
“We were sending volunteers out with five gallon buckets and milk crates to scour the road bed…and climbing boulders to gather rocks,” recalls Lueders. “We probably put 20 tons of rock in that hole, by hand.”
Lueders remembers, from that day, back-country recreationists, hikers, skiers, runners, and off-roaders stopping by for a peek at the operation, and then joining in on what Lueders refers to as “the fun.”
That grassroots approach laid the foundation for Valley Outdoors’ subsequent partnerships with agencies like the USFS and BLM.
And, says Lueders, “It set in stone what we were capable of as an organization… and that there’s a huge, huge amount of community support and willingness to help out. You just need to tap into it.’
Since that day in the Buttermilks, Valley Outdoors has hosted “work days” across the Eastern Sierra—volunteers have worked on getting Coyote Flat Road reopened, additional projects in the Tungstens, a number of signage projects in collaboration with the BLM, and the annual Owens River Cleanup as spearheaded by Leonard. Beyond this coming Saturday, the hope is to “crank out” a project, once a month from now until October, primarily in the Buttermilks and with a potential work day focused on assisting a veterans recovery group in re-roofing a Kennedy Meadows cabin.
“We went from two guys hanging out, trying to figure out what we could do to help to now a larger organization with grants pending and partnership agreements with the Forest Service and BLM” marveled Lueders.
But despite their growth as an organization, Valley Outdoors remains focused on community engagement—both attracting volunteers, and retaining its committed regulars.
“I use [our volunteers] as a barometer for the work we’re doing,” says Lueders. “They show up on short notice, and they spend their free time doing this. For me, that means our work is meaningful, the public’s connecting with it, and we gotta keep doing it.”
And for Saturday, at least, the barometer’s needle is pointing to a successful showing. Valley Outdoors has reached its cap on volunteer sign-ups for this upcoming Tungsten Hills work day. Still, Lueders urges that those interested in the work visit the newly launched website for the org at https://valleyoutdoors.org/ where you can keep informed on upcoming projects, follow Valley Outdoors’ social media, and make donations.
“Glenn and I started this because we wanted to get stuff done and help out,” said Lueders, at interview’s end. “Here I am, doing interviews. But really, I’m just a hermit that likes to chuck rocks into holes.”
