Sun setting over West Sedona. Photo by Rob Harrison

The line between Spring and Summer in Northern Arizona is never well-defined. One day, air conditioning is a necessity, and the next day requires the full force of a furnace. The extreme shifts in temperature may catch outdoor recreationists by surprise. From a hiking standpoint, now is the time to begin cultivating a survival mentality for outdoor recreating in the heat.

When does this mentality start? At home, before you even head out the door. Not having such a mindset can lead to common reasons that hikers need to be rescued in the Sedona area, including: having insufficient or improper clothing, having insufficient water, having few or no safety/survival items, not knowing the terrain for a hike, not understanding the weather conditions, and failing to recognize one’s physical limitations, as well as those of all group members.

By following the tips below, bodies, minds, and backpacks will be properly prepared for hiking in the heat. Keep in mind that the ground temperature on the trails can reach as high as 150 degrees during the peak of summer.

Get acclimated: This can be thought of as “training for summer” — intentionally exposing yourself to warm weather by getting out in it. During these May days, head out for some exercise around mid-day or early afternoon. After multiple exposures, you will notice a difference.

Have the right clothes: These include a lightweight, light-colored sun shirt and hat with a brim. Another helpful item is a moistened cooling towel (a bandana can work, too) to put around your neck; it helps draw heat away from your skin through evaporation.

A gear tip: Use a lightweight reflective umbrella, the hiking size, not the golf size. Yes, you will need to carry it, but you will hike with your upper body in the shade.

Manage hydration: Preload your system with water and electrolytes before your hike. In 90-degree temperatures, a rule of thumb is to carry one liter of water per hour of hiking, and drink frequently. Reaching the half-way point in your water is a strong signal that your hike should also be at or beyond its half-way point. If you hike with a bladder instead of water bottles, knowing where your water level is becomes very important.

Don’t take hot-weather risks: Know exactly where you are going, what your distances are, and have a good estimate of your time on the trail. Hiking early and ending by mid- to late morning is an excellent way to avoid the heat.

Carry extra resources for others: You may meet hikers who have made a hot weather miscalculation and can offer them water, electrolytes (also salty snacks are good to have along), and sugar, like hard candy or an energy bar.

Be aware: Be cognizant of heat stress you or your hiking partners might be experiencing. The continuum from being uncomfortable to heat exhaustion to heat stroke can have fatal outcomes. Heat exhaustion typically starts with a headache and light headedness. Seek shade, take frequent sips of cool water and apply cool water compresses. Untreated, exhaustion can progress to heat stroke with a rapid rise in body temperature to 106 degrees or greater. The hiker can become confused with slurred speech with or without profuse sweating. Call 911 immediately, seek shade, and offer cool water and cool compresses until help arrives.

For several years, Friends of the Forest volunteers have performed Preventive Search and Rescue (PSAR) efforts at Dry Creek Vista Trailhead (leading to Devil’s Bridge) and Bell Trailhead (leading to The Crack at Wet Beaver Creek). PSAR activities encompass interacting with trail users to gauge how prepared they are for their hike, and if appropriate, to provide suggestions for safer options, such as going earlier in the day, and/or picking a different, less strenuous hike. Volunteers also provide hands-on aid (including shade, water, ice, and electrolytes).

For more information on Friends of the Forest’s PSAR program and other volunteer opportunities, visit www.friendsoftheforestsedona.org.

For happy trails this summer, implement a survival mentality ahead of your hike, which will help you prepare well and stay safe!

Author, Melissa Pontikes

Serving Sedona, written this week by Melissa Pontikes, Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News.

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I want to first address the false claim that gambling is not a “traditional” Native American activity, and that operating a casino goes against Native American values. Gambling is present in all cultures in some form, and Native Americans are no exception. Apaches historically enjoyed games of chance, and after contact with Spaniards, we adopted Spanish-suited playing cards and card games. We made our own decks from thin pieces of animal hide and decorated the cards with Apache iconography. On the other side of the continent, French explorers in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions observed huge lacrosse games — lacrosse is Indigenous and referred to as the “Creator’s Game” — with large wagers placed on the games. In the Native American context, gambling was an accepted cultural activity that brought the community together for entertainment and bonding. Certainly, some Native Americans hold personal views that oppose gambling, but to say that it is not “traditional” is simply untrue.

Jumping forward to the mid-1900s, most tribes had very few options to develop their economies. Federal appropriations often provided what little money came into tribal communities. Some tribes developed tourism, such as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of New Mexico, which opened Ski Apache in 1963 and Inn of the Mountain Gods resort in 1975 (both remain in operation today). Other tribes opened their lands to energy resource extraction, including coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium. Outside corporations did the extracting, paying mining royalties to tribes. The environmental costs have been catastrophic. Strip-mining of the Navajo and Hopi reservations for coal irreparably damaged the land. Uranium mining at Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico contaminated the community’s water, and radioactive yellow powder was inhaled by children, the elderly, and animals. I can’t fully blame tribes desperate for economic development to turn to resource extraction, but in an Indigenous ethos that stresses care for Mother Earth and dedication to future generations, such activities seem inherently untraditional.

Under these challenging economic conditions, some tribes turned to gaming in the late 1970s and 1980s. The Seminole Tribe of Florida hosted popular bingo games six days per week, offering larger pots than non-Indian bingo parlors. The Cabezon and Morongo Bands of Mission Indians — both located near Palm Springs, California — offered high stakes bingo and poker. When California law enforcement shut these operations down, Cabezon fought it. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in Cabezon’s favor in 1987, stating that if gambling was not criminally prohibited in a state, then it was legal for tribes to host it on reservations. A state could not prohibit Indian gaming if there was any form of legal gambling in that state such as a lottery or scratchers.

Congress moved swiftly in 1988 to regulate Indian gaming, passing the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). IGRA divides Indian gaming into three classes. IGRA does not cover Classes I and II (traditional games of chance and games with no house money). It does regulate Class III, which includes slot machines, blackjack, roulette, and all high stakes gaming. Under IGRA, a tribe must be federally recognized to operate Class III gaming. Gambling in some form must legally exist in the state in which the tribe is operating the casino. A tribe must negotiate a gaming compact with the state government that sets down the regulations and stipulations for their gaming operation, and the compact must be approved by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. A tribe must also establish a tribal gaming authority to oversee gaming and have all of the necessary infrastructure for oversight of casino activities in place.

Since IGRA, some 250 tribes across 25 states have gaming operations. Financial year 2022 saw $40.9 billion in Indian gaming revenue. But gaming isn’t universal among tribes, with less than half of 574 federally recognized tribes operating casinos. Furthermore, it’s a myth that tribes are getting rich off of casinos. Many tribal casinos are modest operations, with revenues mostly used for things like housing, scholarships and education, social services, healthcare, money to start other business ventures, historic and cultural preservation programs, and sometimes per capita payments. Casinos provide thousands of jobs for tribal members.

While Indian gaming has had negative consequences, such as gambling addiction for some individuals, the positives far outweigh the negatives. In the case of the Yavapai-Apache Nation, we now have a Medical Center. We have better government facilities such as our tribal administration complex (I remember going to meetings with my grandfather in the 1980s, when our tribal council met in a trailer). We have recreation and community centers, a Cultural Resource Center, and better tribal housing. Our higher education department provides college and vocational training scholarships to tribal members. I would not have obtained a Ph.D. without such support. With all this in mind, I fully support Indian gaming. It has been overwhelmingly positive for our community. It has provided us with the resources to better care for our land, community members, and future generations.

Serving Sedona, written his week by Maurice Crandall, volunteer with Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News. 

The post Demystifying Indian Gaming and Casinos: An Indigenous and Environmental Perspective appeared first on Friends of the Forest Sedona.

Volunteers with the Friends of the Forest Graffiti Removal team at a site needing remediation off of the Soldier Pass Trail.

On a recent morning, a group of trained volunteers made their way along the Soldier Pass Trail. Their destination was an off-trail site that attracts lots of hikers, and therefore lots of graffiti. The volunteers were from the Friends of the Forest, a not-for-profit, non-political volunteer organization. They arrived at their destination and found dozens of instances of graffiti, primarily scratches, but also from Sharpie markers. The team is trained to remediate graffiti, but this particular site contains culturally significant rock art. They performed their task under the strict supervision of a trained archeologist using soft bristle brushes and distilled water. Sadly, some of the graffiti was too close to or on top of ancient paintings and petroglyphs and could not be cleaned. Centuries-old rock art was permanently marred. The cultural heritage of Tribal communities was harmed. Graffiti is in no way a victimless crime.

The creation of graffiti on National Forest property is considered a federal crime. It can carry fines up to $5,000 and jail time up to six months. Restitution for cleaning up or repairing damage to property is also possible. The penalties don’t seem to work well as a deterrent and rarely are perpetrators caught. In and around Sedona, the landscape continues to be scarred by intentional, malicious damage, mostly when people use rocks to make scratches in the red rock cliff faces and boulders, but graffiti is also made with paint, charcoal, markers, and stickers. 

Jim White, Chair of the Friends of the Forest Graffiti Removal Committee, has a team of trained volunteers that works tirelessly to remediate graffiti. The committee works closely with the Coconino National Forest Red Rock Ranger District archaeological staff. Sensitive sites require professional supervision, and sometimes cannot be refurbished.

In a typical year, over 1,000 occurrences of graffiti are cleaned up by the volunteers. The team takes group outings about once a month to visit sites that experience considerable amounts of graffiti vandalism, including Devil’s Bridge, Cathedral Rock, the West Fork Trail, and the Bell Rock Pathway. It also travels beyond Coconino National Forest, including areas within the Prescott National Forest and Slide Rock State Park. Most incidents of graffiti do not require supervision to correct, and team members are trained to work independently to clean up in these cases. 

The team’s ultimate goal is to clean up graffiti as quickly as possible. There is an old saying that graffiti begets graffiti. The sooner graffiti is cleaned up, the less growth by copycats. You have probably seen instances of copycat graffiti out on the hiking trails. A good example are stacks of stones, or cairns, which can quickly multiply to dozens of cairns. Anything which does not occur naturally is graffiti, including those stacks of stones. 

Please do not attempt to clean up graffiti yourself; it takes special training and tools. Also, the graffiti team has a custom-developed cell phone app to identify sensitive areas so that proper Forest Service employees are notified. This is very important, because uninformed individuals trying to help have damaged archaeological sites on several occasions over the last year. The adage “take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” has even stronger meaning when it comes to graffiti, the effects of which cannot always be remedied. 

Author, Jim White

Readers are encouraged to report any graffiti occurrences to the Friends of the Forest. Simply email photos, descriptions, and location (including GPS coordinates if possible) to graffiti@fofsedona.org.  Anyone interested in joining the team can join Friends of the Forest and express an interest in Graffiti Removal. Training and materials are provided by the Friends. Go to www.friendsoftheforestsedona.org for more information. 

Serving Sedona, written his week by Jim White, volunteer with Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News. 

The post Graffiti Harms Our National Forest appeared first on Friends of the Forest Sedona.

The Sedona area, beloved for its recreation opportunities, presents an experience many locals and visitors take advantage of in summer: the ability to cool-off in Oak Creek and Fossil Creek. Oak Creek is one of the few perennial streams in Northern Arizona’s high desert and is vital to people and wildlife. Its water source is a combination of underground aquifers, snowmelt, and precipitation. Fossil Creek, one of only two “wild and scenic” rivers in Arizona, is spring-fed. It is accessible year-round, but requires a U.S. Forest Service permit between April 1^st and October 1^st. 

These vital waterways are part of the Verde River watershed and play an important role in providing water and supporting a diverse ecosystem, including endangered species. The quality of the water impacts the overall health of the creeks and those that rely on it for survival. 

In partnership with the Forest Service and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), Water Sampling volunteers with the non-profit organization Friends of the Forest monitor water quality at Fossil Creek year-round and Oak Creek during the summer months. Each month, trained volunteers use a specialized probe called the Aqua Troll to collect key data including pH levels, oxygen saturation, total dissolved solids, specific conductivity, barometric pressure, and temperature. Additional testing is conducted for E. coli and turbidity (the cloudiness of water caused by suspended particles like silt, algae, or other materials).

To ensure accuracy, volunteers meet rigorous data quality standards, undergo annual training, and participate in regular audits. The data they collect is submitted to ADEQ, added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s national database, and made publicly accessible.

“Friends of the Forest volunteers are a prime example of the power of community scientists,” says ADEQ Community Science Coordinator, Meghan Smart. “They work tirelessly to protect the environment through credible data collection and educating the public and youth at STEM events. Their dedication and data help to protect Arizona’s unique environment, and make up an essential part of ADEQ’s Community Science Alliance Program. They consistently go above and beyond in their efforts, and we are grateful.”

When visiting any water sources, practice the principles of Leave No Trace: 

• Have a poop plan, for humans and pets, so water isn’t polluted and other visitors aren’t grossed-out
• Stick to the trails so there is no additional environmental degradation 
• Pack out all your trash, including all fruit peels and other food waste
• Protect the watershed because anything done and/or left in the area can directly impact the quality of the water, negatively affecting plants and animals

Friends of the Forest volunteers also monitor air quality. Ike’s Backbone Air Sampling Station is near Fossil Creek and is one of 156 nation-wide that is part of the IMPROVE program (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments). 

IMPROVE addresses visibility degradation in national parks and wilderness areas that have been designated by Congress as places to be afforded the highest level of air quality protection under the law. Weekly, volunteers travel in a Forest Service-provided vehicle over extremely bumpy terrain to change filters and collect data at Ike’s Backbone. The data collected is subsequently shared with partners of the Environmental Protection Agency, which is the primary source of funding. Partners, like the Air Quality Research Center at the University of California, Davis, provide field maintenance and volunteer support, sample handling, elemental analysis, and data processing.

Often times, these vital volunteers are called “community scientists” and they enjoy sharing their knowledge with the local schools. Recently, Water and Air Sampling volunteers assisted ADEQ with hands-on STEM projects with students. The students enjoyed the demonstrations and learned the importance of keeping the waterways clean and practicing Leave No Trace principles while recreating. 

Author, Jerry Checchia

Water and air quality monitoring are just a couple of the many activities within Friends of the Forest. For more information, please visit our website at friendsoftheforestsedona.org.

Serving Sedona, written this week by Jerry Checchia, Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News. 

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If you’ve been to the Red Rock Ranger District Visitor Center located on Highway 179 just south of the Village of Oak Creek, maybe you know ANHA. No, not Anna from Frozen, ANHA, the Arizona Natural History Association. ANHA’s mission is to assist the Forest Service in promoting public awareness of the sensitive balance needed to preserve the land and its history while maintaining commercial and recreational use by the current and future generations. So why is that important? With three million visitors to this area annually, the Forest Service absolutely leans on volunteer support. Having that support also helps immensely during tough times, like when there are closures due to wildfires or government shutdowns, or to help bring back programs sidelined by the pandemic.

Volunteering with ANHA is a way to show support for educational programs; assist Arizona’s National Forests; be involved in the community; get outside and enjoy nature; and interact with visitors from all over the world. Event assistants help set up, meet and greet attendees, take photos, and get in on seeing some of the amazing presentations.

The Visitor Center is a major gateway to the Greater Sedona area; here, ANHA volunteers cashier at the gift shop and serve as visitor information clerks, with all training provided. They partner together with another cadre of volunteers from the non-profit organization Friends of the Forest, who also help staff the Visitor Center, providing relevant information such as how to avoid the most crowded trails (good luck with that).

The more the volunteers and Forest Service employees can speak with visitors, the more opportunities to disperse some of the usage on trails and roads. Volunteers discuss the importance of Leave No Trace principles and where to camp legally on the public lands within the Red Rock Ranger District. Families with children are encouraged to participate and earn their Junior Ranger badge. While hiking, you may run into a child wearing a Junior Ranger badge. Give them a thumbs up or high five on their achievement, as they are the next generation to care for the natural wonders surrounding us!

A common topic of conversation at the Visitor Center relates to having a map. Many visitors confidently say “I have an app, so I don’t need a map.” There are valid reasons to have a physical map. What happens if you drop your phone or put it down for a minute and lose it? Relying on technology is risky in the wilderness and packing with redundancy can save your life. Have an app and a map. If you have been to Dry Creek Vista parking lot recently, you might encounter some bewildered tourists looking around. They hold up their phones, pointing them this way and that; they’re trying to figure out where the GPS is pinpointing. Unfortunately for them, they are often looking for the Seven Sacred Pools there. The app they chose to use is incorrect and has directed them to Dry Creek Vista Trailhead instead of Soldier Pass.

At the Visitor Center over the winter holidays, people were coming in and asking questions of course. Then, they would wander around the building looking at all the displays and before leaving, drop by the gift shop, which does not charge tax as ANHA is a not-for-profit corporation. The cutest 12-inch plush animals seemed to be the best sellers. Probably because the stuffed ringtail cat, with a tail like a raccoon, is Arizona’s state mammal, and the plush javelina has all of the physical characteristics of the famed wild animal, without the smell!

Author, Annie Glickstein

If you are looking for volunteer opportunities that involve engaging directly with visitors, consider ANHA (find more information at their website: https://aznaturalhistory.org/) and Friends of the Forest (https://www.friendsoftheforestsedona.org/). In the “front-line” roles at the Visitor Center, you’ll get to work with some amazing people who love to learn and share information.

Serving Sedona, written this week by Annie Glickstein, volunteer at Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News. 

The post Volunteers Greet and Inform Visitors appeared first on Friends of the Forest Sedona.

Forest Service employees and Friends of the Forest volunteers modifying fencing on the Dutch Kid pasture, making it safer for pronghorn to cross.

Imagine working and never getting a paycheck. That’s what volunteers do. They work without pay because they get satisfaction in doing tasks they want to do and not what they don’t want to do. At the non-profit Friends of the Forest, members can sign up for a myriad of projects to satisfy their particular volunteer desires. The organization’s various committees comprise teams that work with the U.S. Forest Service’s Red Rock Ranger District.

The Wildlife, Fish, and Rare Plants Committee works directly with Forest Service wildlife biologists Janie Agyagos and Kayla Long. As Agyagos says: “Much of the district’s wildlife, fish, and invasive plant program accomplishments are achieved by the work of volunteers; without the help of volunteers, this program work would not otherwise be conducted.” At best count, at least 77 Friends of the Forest volunteers contributed approximately 4,497 hours last year, so they must be enjoying their involvement!

Agyagos and Long send information to the committee chairperson for the project they want to get done. The chairperson then sends out an email to the team members with the details. It could be anything from being prepared to be in the “slippery cobble/boulder channel bottom kneeling to scoop fish out of low spots, putting them in buckets, carrying buckets downstream, and then releasing the salvaged fish into the channel” to sitting in your own home creating a “Riparian Plant Photo Guide.” Dress for the occasion, of course.

Some of the emails that go out to the team are a little funny. They might have instructions like “aim for the center of the fecal pat/pellet collection to avoid transferring too much soil.” In that case, the Forest Service was collecting scat samples for an ungulate parasite project.

Fencing anyone? The pronghorn population in the grasslands north of Cottonwood and west of Highway 89A has grown from 25-30 to upwards of 50 in the Coconino National Forest since the early 1990s. “We have been working for years to remove encroaching trees in our grasslands and have been modifying fences to be more amenable to pronghorn passage,” notes Agyagos. Now the focus is on modifying barbed wire fences by replacing the bottom barbed wire with smooth wire and raising it to 18 inches, which facilitates pronghorn crossing under the fences. This increases the amount of suitable habitat available to pronghorn, enabling the herd to grow. Other work in progress is ensuring water availability and re-establishing a pronghorn crossing across the Verde River so the Cottonwood herd will be able once again to interact with another herd, thereby improving genetics and population health.

Let’s get into the weeds. Such projects include invasive plant inventories and treatment. During one of the inventories, a new-to-the-area invasive species was even discovered — cutleaf vipergrass (Scorzonera laciniata). Regularly treated species include onion weed, Johnson grass, yellow blue stem, Saharan mustard, and teasel. Also, volunteers help clear English ivy from trees at the Thompson property and numerous weeds in the newly widened Cornville Road right-of-way.

Don’t kiss a toad. During Arizona Toad breeding season, there are opportunities to support the Forest Service by monitoring nighttime call points. These surveys are quite interesting, as volunteers get to go out at night with headlamps along the Oak Creek corridor. One year was disappointing because of the flooding that befell the area. Quite by accident, a neighbor’s dog kissed a Woodhouse toad and got very sick. So really, don’t kiss a toad.

Each year, the list of projects changes, as some long-term or one-time projects are completed, and others begin. At any time, there is a diversity of initiatives that volunteers are involved in. These range from extremely easy to quite strenuous, and vary in duration from a couple of days to year-long. Whether your skills and interests include photography, construction, weed cutting, wildlife monitoring, hiking, or 4×4 driving, there are projects that may appeal to you.

Author, Annie Glickstein

Working with Agyagos is a privilege. Her dedication, knowledge-sharing, ability to work with volunteers, and genuine warmth make for an amazing partnership. The Wildlife, Fish, and Rare Plants Committee volunteers work independently and in fun teams. If you would like to receive an email like this: “Volunteers needed for a night out at Fossil Creek to do firefly surveys at multiple sites,” then become a member of Friends of the Forest.

Serving Sedona, written this week by Annie Glickstein, volunteer at Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News. 

The post Volunteers Work on Interesting Wildlife and Plant Projects appeared first on Friends of the Forest Sedona.

Friends of the Forest volunteers with the Forest Service Trail Crew at the Jim Thompson Trailhead.

The number one attraction for the nearly three million visitors to Sedona and the Red Rocks each year is hiking, biking, and riding on our area’s 400 miles of spectacular trails. Those of us fortunate to call Sedona home get to experience these world-class trails every day. As the popularity and use of the trails increase, the pressure put on them goes up as well. Building and maintaining these trails falls to a handful of dedicated U.S. Forest Service employees who work tirelessly to enhance the experience for visitors and residents alike. But there are too many trails, too many miles, and too few Forest Service workers to keep up with everything required. 

That’s where the volunteers of the Friends of the Forest Trail Maintenance & Construction Committee come in. Thirty years ago, Friends of the Forest was formed by a group of civic-minded volunteers as a non-profit, non-political organization to partner with the Forest Service in addressing trail maintenance and other issues facing the Red Rock District of the Coconino National Forest. Today, numerous of your friends and neighbors work hand in hand with the Forest Service to clear brush, repair erosion damage, build steps and retaining walls, clear downed trees, build drainage channels, install fencing, build and rebuild rock cairn baskets, and pick up trash across the district. Trails worked on in just the last two months include Bell, Sterling Pass, Jim Thompson, Hot Loop, Jacks Canyon, AZ Cypress, Fay Canyon, and Cibola Pass. Next month you’ll find them out on Old Post, Carrol Canyon, Parsons, Margs Draw, Woods Canyon, and Chuck Wagon. If you feel your favorite trail needs some work, let the Friends know; they’ll get out there as soon as they can.

In addition to general trail maintenance, the group is also responsible for the iconic redwood signs that we’re all familiar with. The sign crew cuts, routs, sands, stains, and installs hundreds of signs each year. It is an ongoing project as signs are continually in need of replacement due to weather, physical damage from both humans and animals, and theft.  

Rehabilitating non-system, user-created, “social” trails is another never ending project. These shortcuts, which in the past may have been used by just a small number of local residents, are now heavily used due to increased visitation, and the increased popularity of trail apps that direct people off of system trails. Unfortunately, many of these social trails go through environmentally and culturally sensitive areas. To address this problem, the Friends group constructs barriers with natural materials, replants vegetation, and installs “Please Keep on the Trail” and “Don’t Bust the Crust” signs.  

Upcoming over the next couple of years will be a project helping the Forest Service implement their new Red Rock Trail Access Plan. The plan will add 39 miles of system trails at Doe Mountain, Turkey Creek, Schuerman Mountain, and Bell Rock, and will involve building new trails, adopting and improving existing user-created trails, and closing and rehabilitating miles of social trails.

Author, Glen Kingsbury

It is clear that there is much to be done to maintain and improve the trail system of the Red Rock District. The trails are central to what Sedona is all about. It is also clear that the Forest Service does not have the resources to do it by themselves. We all have to chip in and do what we can to help make and keep our area the wonderful place it is; joining the Friends of the Forest and participating in its activities to support the Forest Service is a great way to do this. Although working on the trail crew is probably the most physically demanding, there are also other ways for people to help make our community and our forest better for all. Please go to Friends of the Forest Sedona for more information.

Serving Sedona, written this week by Glen Kingsbury, Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News. 

The post The Trails of Sedona and the Red Rock District Need Your Help appeared first on Friends of the Forest Sedona.