Hey y'all! Since my last posting a lot has happened at our forest. With the passing of multiple holiday weekends and the lifting of covid regulations here in California, there has been a vast increase in the amount of visitors. In turn this also means that there has been a lot more trash and messy bathrooms. Luckily this past month hasn't been all trash pickup! I was able to receive first aid training, assisted in some trail maintenance, and worked our OHV area for a day.

I had done first aid training in the past but this time around was way more informative and actually really fun. We went to Life Saving Certified in Upland and the instructors there were some of the coolest people. They taught us how to perform CPR on both an adult and infant. We also learned how to properly use an automatic external defibrillator, or AED for short.

I also had the opportunity to do some trail work with a volunteer organization known as LoWeLIFES. We cleared up a portion of the Condor Peak Trail which had been a stewardship project that LoWeLIFES had been working on for the past few months. The trail is about 16 miles and hadn't been maintained due to COVID-19. It was awesome to work with these folks as they all shared a passion for the outdoors and that passion has brought them together to service the land they recreate on. We cleared about a mile to a mile and a half of trail before we had to wrap the day up due to increasing heat. I hope to do more work with LoWeLIFES and other volunteer groups in the future as I feel it’s a great way to connect with the public and aid in projects that they want to see done.

The final event I want to address is the weekend I assisted in working the off highway vehicle area (OHV). Our OHV had been closed a little over a year and a half due to COIVD-19 restrictions, and when we reopened we launched with a reservation only system. Most people who visit the OHV don’t have many forms of social media or really use the internet that much and I will say I didn’t see much online talking about the reopening of the OHV myself. So for the last three weeks we’ve had visitors show up expecting to pay in cash as usual, only to be turned away since they didn’t have a reservation.

I was taken into the actual OHV area with my supervisor. While there, we stumbled upon an abandoned truck that was stuck in the dirt and looked like whoever was driving it almost flipped it over. We contacted the sheriffs that we had on duty at the parking lot above us to track down the owner and notify them to come remove their vehicle, which took quite a bit of time, so we closed off that portion of the track. For the short time I was in the OHV pit, I could see why so many people loved coming to hang out here for the weekend as everyone was enjoying themselves and not really causing any trouble.

With the holiday weekends behind us I look forward to completing other trainings and helping out with different projects across the Angeles.

Agency: U.S Forest Service

Program: Resource Assistant Program (RAP)

Location: Angeles National Forest