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Our first partnership with the USFS Aquatics Team is in the books! We had 4 USFS Rangers and 9 ESWA volunteers in the Wilderness for 3-days, 2-nights to look for the Boreal Toad, Colorado’s only alpine toad! The toads are considered a state threatened species, mainly due to habitat loss and the Chytrid fungus. The goal of this trip was to survey the population, and test for the fungus. More eyes are definitely better when looking for small jumping toads! We surveyed new ar

Our Sawyer season normally doesn't start until the middle of June but due to the low snowpack, our Sawyers have been hitting the trails hard in May. We've already cleared more than 366 trees from our trails and we have a lot of work ahead. Please enjoy some photos from our North Willow Creek Trail clearing event today (19 May). We had 4 dedicated Sawyers clear 39 trees to snow-line at 11,000 feet, a round-trip hike of about 9 miles. To top it off, it snowed all day! As a remi

As hiking and backpacking season - and ESWA's Wilderness volunteer season - get into full swing, what should know about wildfire danger? Learn more in this week's Get Wild in the Summit Daily by Anna DeBattiste with Colorado Search & Rescue. And be sure to join ESWA on May 20 at 6pm at the Bookworm in Edwards for in-person advice on wildfire safety from the USFS and the Eagle River Fire Protection District.

We're pleased to announce that the 2026 Sawyer Certification Class is now open for enrollment. The class will be held June 12-13. The first day will be in-person classroom training in Silverthorne, Colorado and the second day will be in-field training somewhere in the Wilderness in Summit or Eagle County, Colorado. We're prioritizing class openings for people who need recertification or who have previously joined one of our Sawyer outings. However, once positions are filled w

Become a Volunteer Wilderness Ranger with ESWA! “How far is it to the lake?” As a Volunteer Wilderness Ranger, that’s the most common question we hear on the trail. We also meet people who need guidance about everything from how much water they’ve brought to whether their dog needs to be on a leash. A fellow Volunteer Wilderness Ranger told me recently about one of their most satisfying moments on patrol. The Ranger had stopped to talk with a visiting family from Ohio about

Winter requires species to evolve.

Pikas need a thick blanket of snow to survive winter.

One of our Donors has agreed to match the first $10,000 donated during this giving season! We need your help to meet this match!

Your Help is Needed NOW. Recent cuts and the government shutdown have affected the ability of the Forest Service to support our...

USFS, RMYC, and ESWA join forces to accomplish a major goal! Congratulations to the USFS, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, and ESWA for the...

This summer, our volunteers were actively engaged in our busiest Summer and our largest USFS projects in history! Our Volunteer...

We need your help! We're looking for a Secretary and Assistant Treasurer for ESWA.

We've still got a number of late Summer volunteer opportunities and we need your help.

It's the destination! ESWA's Volunteer Sawyers are hard at work clearing trails of winter and spring deadfall in Eagle and Summit County....

Hello ESWA Sawyers! The 2025 Summer Clearing Season is upon us! If you are receiving this email, it means that we have you marked as...

Meadow Creek trail is closed for repairs.

Summer is almost here! Our friends at the USFS Holy Cross Ranger District need your help. They are short staffed and rely on volunteers...

his is an introduction to a private Facebook group for Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance Volunteer Wilderness Rangers. It provides a forum for ESWA VWRs to seek guidance from other members and to find hiking/patrolling partners.

In his final piece of a three-part series on threats to our Wilderness Areas, Mike Browning tackles the issue of how our sense of...

Check out some valuable tips for keeping your pup safe in the backcountry.