2025 Youth Forest Stewards (YFS)

More of a builder than a boater? Project two was your kind of day. Our YFS’ers rolled up their sleeves at Officer’s Gulch to build and restore a buck-and-rail fence at the parking lot. These fences help protect fragile, natural areas and keep users on designated trails. The section our crew added helps preserve the landscape and guide recreation responsibly. Buck yeah!

Next up was one of our biggest community events: the Summit County Weed Pull! After a well-earned breakfast, YFS’ers teamed up with volunteers from across the county to remove invasive, noxious species like musk thistle and false chamomile on the Frisco Peninsula’s most popular trails—including the black diamond trail, Aftermath! By the end of the day, our crew proudly claimed the title of Weed Warriors!

For our fourth project, we traded shovels for saws. The YFS’ers helped the US Forest Service with a tree thinning project in the Mesa Cortina area, where dense stands of lodgepole pine have regrown after a clear-cut. Strategic thinning helps reduce wildfire risk, improve forest biodiversity, and protect nearby homes. Our team thinned approximately 400 trees—a huge accomplishment that supports long-term forest health!

Science day! YFS’ers joined the USFS Fisheries Department on the Swan River to collect data through fish shocking and macroinvertebrate sampling. Over the years, our crews have helped monitor this river, tracking species and habitat conditions. While we didn’t spot any native cutthroat trout this time, we did collect and measure several brook trout—important data that helps inform restoration efforts. It was a great day to get our feet wet and dive into the biology side of stewardship!

Every great crew deserves a reward. For our YFS Day of Fun, we started the morning doing light trail maintenance including, tread work, corridor clearing, and drainage dips on the Wide Open Trail in Keystone. Then, we headed to the A-Basin Ropes Course for an afternoon of climbing, zipping, and pizza! It was the perfect way to celebrate a season of hard work and adventure among the trees.

We closed out the season with National Public Lands Day, the largest volunteer event in the country dedicated to restoring and preserving public lands. YFS’ers helped improve the Laurium Open Space Trail, hauling timber rounds for a new turnpike and removing an old one. It was tough work that left our forearms sore, but our hearts full. Nothing beats ending the day with a good ol’ trailhead sammy and some well-earned pride.