Building fences: Blazing Heat and Hard Work: A Day with Tread Lightly! at Osceola National Forest

[ToothlesstheBronco]

We spent a scorching day in Osceola National Forest, volunteering with tread lightly!. This organization helps keep America’s outdoor recreation areas beautiful, healthy, and accessible. Our task was to build fences around a protected area, but there was a twist: an archaeologist had to oversee our digging, and all the dirt had to be sifted to ensure there were no artifacts. This area is protected, so this process was crucial.

We learned that during Covid 2020- a massive increase in outdoor adventuring occurred, leading to more land getting trampled, damaged and trashed. Tread Lightly! works to preserve these lands for future generations, aiming to prevent closures due to abuse.

Our team took turns at various stations: sifting sand, digging holes for posts, leveling fences, and drilling slats. Despite the extreme heat of the Florida sun, frequent breaks, and the many helping hands made the work manageable.

During the project, we also wandered around and picked up So. Much. Trash. Bottles, diapers, pizza boxes, cans, food wrappers, ziplocs— all artfully jammed in bushes, tossed alongside the trail head and tucked in illegal fire pits. We only walked about 100 yards out from the project center and even then still filled two industrial sized garbage bags.


It was a fascinating and rewarding experience, knowing we were contributing to preserving these lands for future generations. We are stewards of this land! It’s up to us to treat it with care and respect, and every bit helps to keep it from being closed off due to irresponsible acts.

Overall we didn’t die from heatstroke so that was a major win also. But really it was great display of hard work and community spirit.

Check out tread lightly! For more information.

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[Beach_Bum]

Remind me next time you see me for a SoS patch. The forest is ours to enjoy, not to destroy. We are all Sons of Smokey.

 

[Bschurr]

Thanks for sharing & your awesome work to leave trails better than you found them.

Every time I go off-road, I bring a garbage bag and sadly fill it up with improperly discarded items during every adventure.

 

[Area51BS]

You opened up a topic I could easily derail with a rant. But won’t. Wrong place. Nice work!

 

[Ford Motor Company]

We spent a scorching day in Osceola National Forest, volunteering with tread lightly!. This organization helps keep America’s outdoor recreation areas beautiful, healthy, and accessible. Our task was to build fences around a protected area, but there was a twist: an archaeologist had to oversee our digging, and all the dirt had to be sifted to ensure there were no artifacts. This area is protected, so this process was crucial.

We learned that during Covid 2020- a massive increase in outdoor adventuring occurred, leading to more land getting trampled, damaged and trashed. Tread Lightly! works to preserve these lands for future generations, aiming to prevent closures due to abuse.

Our team took turns at various stations: sifting sand, digging holes for posts, leveling fences, and drilling slats. Despite the extreme heat of the Florida sun, frequent breaks, and the many helping hands made the work manageable.

During the project, we also wandered around and picked up So. Much. Trash. Bottles, diapers, pizza boxes, cans, food wrappers, ziplocs— all artfully jammed in bushes, tossed alongside the trail head and tucked in illegal fire pits. We only walked about 100 yards out from the project center and even then still filled two industrial sized garbage bags.


It was a fascinating and rewarding experience, knowing we were contributing to preserving these lands for future generations. We are stewards of this land! It’s up to us to treat it with care and respect, and every bit helps to keep it from being closed off due to irresponsible acts.

Overall we didn’t die from heatstroke so that was a major win also. But really it was great display of hard work and community spirit.

Check out tread lightly! For more information.

Looks like an awesome day for a great cause, thanks for sharing!

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