ArrowCorps5
Five Sites - Five Weeks - Five Thousand Arrowmen
Outstanding Service at the Shasta-Trinity National Forest!
The fourth week of ArrowCorps5 saw the completion of another
outstanding project in the beautiful Shasta-Trinity National Forest in the Cascade
range of northern California. As with all of the other ArrowCorps5
projects, the service exceeded expectations and the participants had a great experience.
The Shasta-Trinity project was carried out from July 12 - 19. Fortunately, the
California fires had little effect on the project. The weather was great even
though the haze from fires could be seen toward the south. The approximately 600
participants, staff, and agency personnel from 33 states, Japan, and Taiwan removed
more than 22 tons of illegally dumped garbage from the forest, completed the construction,
maintenance, or reconstruction of more than 100 miles of trail on the Pacific Crest
Trail, the Sisson-Callahan Trail, and the McCloud Loop Trail, and rebuilt a lookout
tower and four "comfort stations" along the trails. Joel Holtrop, Deputy Chief of
the U.S. Forest Service arrived on Thursday and had the opportunity to tour the
work sites with other USFS representatives.
President George W. Bush joined California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to
receive a briefing on the state’s wildfires from state and local officials and to
survey fire damage during an aerial tour of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Leaders of the ArrowCorps5 project were able to meet with President
Bush and Governor Schwarzenegger at the airport in Redding, and President Bush honored
three Arrowmen from the Shasta-Trinity project with the
President's
Volunteer Service Award. The three Arrowmen recognized were
National Chief Jake Wellman, Region Chief Mark Hendricks, and Youth Incident Commander
Alex Braden. All of these young men were instrumental in the planning and execution
of the 2008 ArrowCorps5 Shasta-Trinity Project.
The Mt. Shasta Ski Park served as the base camp and project headquarters. On
Friday, participants and staff had the option of playing golf at the Mt. Shasta
Resort, visiting Lassen National Park, touring the caverns, or participating at
the beach party and catered lunch at Siskiyou Lake. A few of the hardy Arrowmen
hiked to the 14,161 foot summit of Mt. Shasta.
The stars were out and the sky clear on Friday evening during the closing gathering.
Sharon Heywood, Shasta-Trinity Forest Supervisor, participated in the opening
gathering and returned to thank the group for a job well done. Joel Holtrop,
Deputy Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, explained that the ArrowCorps5 project
not only represented the largest single service project ever undertaken by the BSA,
it also represented the largest volunteer project ever conducted by the U.S. Forest
Service. Mark Rey, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment,
Department of Agriculture, also thanked the group for their outstanding accomplishments.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved in this, the fourth of the
ArrowCorps5 projects!
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