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The Trailhead June 2006 Volume 2 Issue 1 The Trailhead A United States Forest Service News Update for The Desolation Wilderness Volunteer Program Desolation Facts: Desolation Volunteer Program: Year 3! • Total acreage of Desolation Wilderness the wilderness is Welcome back to the wilderness rangers over 63,960. Trailhead! This is the last year. Currently, 26 through education and news update devoted to people are contributing example so that the • 17 miles of the the Desolation Wilderness time and energy to the wilderness will be available for future Pacific Crest Trail Volunteer and Education program. generations to appreciate runs though the Program, which is rd What is the purpose of our and use. Our second Desolation. entering its 3 season in volunteer program? 2006. objective is to provide the • Elevation in Generally there are two public an opportunity to be Desolation ranges This year we’ve doubled objectives: Our first is to involved in management preserve and protect the from about 6,500 the number of volunteer (continued on pg. 2) to 9,983 feet on Pyramid Peak. Aldo Leopold National Stewardship Award National Award Highlights Efforts of All Involved in Desolation Management National In recognition of outstanding contributed significant restoration projects that Wilderness Facts: management efforts on the time and energy in have reduced impacts • California has Desolation Wilderness, providing quality associated with recreation almost one-fifth of Forest Service Chief Dale wilderness information at use were also cited as a the acreage of the Bosworth announced in both front desk and in the reason for the award. federal National April that the 2006 Aldo field. The volunteer Other reasons cited for Wilderness Leopold National program has had an the award included a Preservation Stewardship Award would emphasis on education strong use management System (NWPS) go to the Lake Tahoe Basin and LNT philosophy program with permit and Management Unit and communicated through • In 2006 the NWPS quota systems, group size Eldorado National Forest. such programs as the totals 106,619,208 limits and campfire The award will be Wilderness Education acres restrictions, all aimed at celebrated throughout the Tour, or W.E.T. preserving the wilderness 2006 season at visitor • The Forest Service In addition, several resource and character. manages 30% of centers and trailheads. federal lands and 32% of NWPS A diverse set of projects, acreage. programs, and priorities involved in caring for the Desolation Wilderness resulted in the award. Jen Ebert, Assistant Resource Officer on Pacific Ranger Newsletter Contents: District is quick to point out that credit for the award Meet FS staff 2 should go to a broad Desolation history 3 collection of people involved in managing Desolation. Volunteer profile 4 Ebert notes that this Statistics 6 includes the efforts of volunteers, who over the One last taste of winter was in store for volunteers on the year’s past 3 seasons have first training day on Memorial Day weekend. Gwyn Ingram Photo The Trailhead Page 2 of 6 “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that Desolation Volunteers: Year 3 (continued from pg. 1) will endure as long as life lasts.” of their public lands so naturalist, collecting respective “sides” of the they can provide a information related to our Desolation. Brent Rachel Carson valuable service to their monitoring programs, and Carpenter has stepped community. Additional finally, providing into the position of goals are to increase the wilderness information at volunteer coordinator in presence of the Forest a number of public service addition to his wilderness “I am glad I shall never Service in the wilderness sites on both sides of the ranger patrol duties in be young without wild area and to maintain and Desolation. Desolation. David Rolloff places to be young in. improve the agency’s is working as the Founders of the volunteer Of what avail are 40 service to the public. wilderness education program, Jennifer Ebert of freedoms without a coordinator. Both Brent Volunteers can be Eldorado National Forest blank spot on the map?” and David are involved in involved in any of the four and Suzy Lancaster of the day to day work of the Aldo Leopold duties of our program, Lake Tahoe Basin volunteer program. Read A Sand County Almanac including serving as Management Unit, both more about the four wilderness ranger patrols, continue to head up the Forest Service staff being a trailhead program from their members below. Forest Service Staff – Desolation Wilderness Volunteer Program Suzy Lancaster. In her 8th season of work in the Desolation Wilderness, Suzy currently serves as the Wilderness and Dispersed Recreation Manager for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Suzy is a graduate of Humboldt State University with a degree in Natural Resource Interpretation. In 2002 Suzy made a first effort at developing a volunteer program who worked in Desolation with a group of 8 volunteers from the Tahoe area. A year later, Suzy co- founded our current volunteer ranger program with Jen Ebert. Suzy is married and has a 9-month old girl named Madelyn. Jennifer Ebert. Serving as Assistant Resource Officer and trained as a wildlife biologist, Jen has been on Pacific Ranger District 9 years. She co-founded the volunteer program and has become increasingly involved in resource management within Desolation including numerous restoration and monitoring projects. Jen has also expanded into a broader wilderness management role with educational programs and multiple resource management efforts (e.g. fire use, resource monitoring). Jen has a degree in wildlife management from Humboldt State University. She and her husband Jeff have a daughter, Emily, who is 3 years old. Brent Carpenter. In his 4th season serving as a wilderness ranger in the Desolation Wilderness, Brent has taken on the role as the volunteer coordinator for the program as part of his job. Brent lives in El Dorado Hills and enjoys getting out on the national forest year-around. He particularly enjoys getting out backcountry skiing in the winter (including volunteering with the El Dorado Nordic Ski Patrol). Brent is married and has 2 children, ages 14 and 12, who also go backpacking with him. Brent enjoys working in a place that he loves and says that one of the best parts of the job is meeting people with a passion for Wilderness. David Rolloff. Having worked previously on the campsite monitoring effort in Desolation, David has expanded his involvement this year on the volunteer program as Wilderness Education Coordinator, and is working on information outreach programs (LNT ranger talks, newsletters, etc). A former wilderness ranger himself, David is a professor of outdoor recreation resource management at Sacramento State in the Recreation & Leisure Studies Dept. One of his proudest accomplishments is having 6 students working as part of the developed recreation staff in the Crystal Basin this year. The Trailhead Page 3 of 6 Desolation Lake Names: Where did they come from? By William J. Finch, Wilderness Volunteer Ranger decided the lakes should have able to pronounce all the Indian sounding names. To letters of the word it should accomplish this, they decided to have been named. The lake is create a lake name by named for a Forest Service combining the first two letters employee in the late 1920’s from the first and last names of who had a grandson who the members of the MPFPC. wanted to name the lake For example, Ropi Lake is “Grandpa Lake” but when he named after Ross Pierce—RO- tried to pronounce “grandpa,” it Before I became a Wilderness PI. came out “umpa,” hence the Volunteer, I started to research current name! Desolation Wilderness to learn all Other lake names have the I could about this marvelous following origins: Gefo Lake – More on Desolation place names resource. I wanted to be able to (George Foss), Frata Lake – in the next issue of The Trailhead. field any questions that would (Frank Talbot), Jabu – (Jack come my way from people I Butler), Toem Lake – (Tom In his second year as a volunteer in would come in contact with on Emory), Waca Lake – (Walter Desolation, Bill Finch is a former faculty member in the Dept. of the trail. As I poured through Campbell). Another lake, called guide books, Forest Service Recreation & Leisure Studies at Osma Lake, is believed to have Sacramento State. He has been a material, and the internet, I was been named after Oswald Navy intelligence officer, an Army struck by the peculiar looking and Maybeck, although not all Paratrooper, and a Boy Scout leader . Bill has also traveled widely in the sounding names for some of the sources are certain about this. lakes in the area of the California backcountry. wilderness located roughly south Another lake with an Indian References: of Lake Aloha. sounding name is Umpa Lake. Yesavage, Jerome (1994). Desolation However, this lake name is not Wilderness. Portland, OR: Frank Amato Publications. My research began to yield from the combining of letters results as I looked for information but from someone not being http://home.earthlink.net/~lzmaps/id8.html on lakes such as Ropi, Jabu, Waca, and others. I learned that in the 1920’s a group of men formed what they called the Mount Ralston Fish Planting Club (the MPFPC) for the purpose of stocking the lakes in the Devil’s Valley of the newly formed Eldorado National Forest. Later, this area would become the Desolation Valley Primitive Area when given protection status in 1931. Since most of the lakes the MPFPC stocked were unnamed, they decided to name the ones they were stocking, and after lengthy discussion they Tyler Lake Sunset. Photo: Brent Carpenter The Trailhead Page 4 of 6 Volunteer Profile: Tim Longo Job opportunity in the Bay Area doesn’t keep Tim from getting back to Desolation.
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