Dear Trail Advocates,
Greetings Trail Advocates. I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Scott Wagner and I will be working for the Forest Service at the Clackamas River Ranger District in the Trails/Wilderness department. I will be working as a seasonal employee as the district reviews and decides how to go about filling Jacquelyn Oakes position. A little about myself, I started working on the Mt. Hood National Forest (Zig Zag Disrict) back in 2006 as a crew leader with AmeriCorp. After that season I volunteered with the PeaceCorps in Malawi where I worked with the Department of Forestry. Upon my return I picked up were I left off and have been working seasonally in the trials and wilderness department on the Zig Zag District. I am very excited to be based out of the Clackamas District and even more excited to meet and learn from the Trail Advocates.
I had the pleasure of working with Jacquelyn on a few projects over the past few seasons and know what big shoes I have to fill. I know that her dedication to utilizing volunteers was a tribute to the amount of work that has occurred on the district. To give you all a little insight, as the restructuring process happens it is the hope of the Mt Hood recreation department to create a more unified “Westside” recreation district (Zig Zag and Clackamas) in hopes to disperse resources more efficiently.
The learning curve for myself will be steep and I hope to reach out and utilize the knowledge that has developed locally among groups such as the Trail Advocates. Also, for those of you who have worked with Jacquelyn in the past I am very interested in those members who potentially have signed volunteer agreements and their interest to participate in the future. The snow is melting rapidly and in representing the eyes and ears of the forest I hope to learn all I can from the Trail Advocates on trail conditions. I want to encourage you all to contact me directly (contact information below) and I hope to learn more about the organization and how I can contribute. Thank you all so much for your dedication.
Sincerely,
F. Scott Wagner
Clackamas River Ranger District
Trails/Wilderness
fswanger@fs.fed.us
office: 503.630.8797
Scott: (I assume you go by Scott?)
Welcome to the site! I only met Jacquelyn once or twice, but she certainly did a great job with the volunteers in the Clackamas district. While I've never been an "official" volunteer, I do help on trails with brushing, reports, etc. I've also taken over the day to day maintenance of this site.
As far as the "organization", there is no official organization - just a bunch of guys who love the Clackamas district and advocate for the trails and help maintain them as best as we can. As to how to help - more resources dedicated to helping maintain trails would be the best thing! Other than that, just help get the word out about trail maintenance. Many people don't realize that they can help - many hands make light work of trail maintenance.
Welcome Scott,
Until they drop this "Westside" stuff, you have been put into a no win situation. Good luck.
Donovan