PO Box 379, Stanley, Idaho 83278
President’s Letter
Dear Members and Supporters
I hope this update finds you all well and enjoying these restful, longer evenings. I welcome this time of rest between trail work seasons.
2025 was another safe and highly productive season – PUG’s seventh working on both the Sawtooth and Salmon-Challis National Forests. There were well publicized disruptions to Forest Service operations and staffing levels this year, which challenged all the cooperator groups to collaborate on project planning and execution. Here’s a summary of the PUG projects and volunteer hours:
I’m deeply grateful for the gifts and grants from donors and partners. The Sawtooth Society’s support through the IDPR Goat Plate fund, American Trails / Legacy Trails Fund, and the Central Idaho Resource Advisory Committee. We received a very generous gift from a family foundation that wishes to remain anonymous (you know who you are – thank you especially!). Your support has never been more important – please help again during Idaho Gives May 4-7, 2026.
PUG and the Sun Valley Community School (SVCS) continued a very special collaboration, the fourth year, where the 11th Grade class, broken into appropriate small crews, spends the last week of September with PUG leaders on various Wilderness trails. This is an invaluable effort, allowing PUG to consistently plan projects that require many hands. This was the fourth year of this partnership.
Our crew leader Neil Crowson returned for 2025 after completing his doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin. We are thrilled to have him back. Neil has kindly agreed to remain active in this work, and serve on the PUG Board of Directors, starting this month.
Our intern and past SVCS volunteer Charlotte Andrews made her customary strong contribution this season. She and Neil both endured unusually rugged storm conditions, twice in the season getting trapped in tents. We managed to work quite far back much of the summer. Our hitches and overall hiking distances were on the more difficult side, compared to past PUG seasons.
In one of those storms, I too was pinned down in my tent for a day, with long time PUG supporter, sawyer, crew leader and volunteer Sarah Holyoak. Sarah has also agreed to join the PUG Board of Directors. We are lucky to have both new, enthusiastic additions to our team.
With deep gratitude, we wish Board member Sarah Scott very best wishes as she retires from the PUG Board, after seven years of service. Sarah was instrumental to our strategic planning, which has ensured PUG’s funding and project capacity has grown each year of her tenure. She and her husband Kenley Hinrichs have moved to Oregon. In keeping with the PUG ethos of community stewardship, Sarah will transfer her energies to their local
PUG continued its collaboration with the Utah Conservation Corps in 2025. The UCC staff were evaluated for crosscut saw skills, while also getting lots of real-world experience with advanced complexity on PUG’s assigned trails. PUG’s certified C Crosscut Sawyers will be conducting a training and evaluation session for the UCC, funded by a grant from Utah State University, which will include USFS staff and other cooperator groups.
PUG’s public, volunteer hitch schedule and details for 2026:
May 22-24 Stanley Workshop - sawyer certification
May 27-31 Crosscut Training UCC – Ashley NF, Utah
June 3-5 Fisher Williams Loop & Elk Mountain Loop (MTB trails in the SNRA (day hikes)
June 6-7 Lower Hell Roaring (day hikes)
June 10-14 MF Boise #1 (car camp - day hikes)
June 17-21 MF Boise #2 (backpack, camp @ Mattingly Ck)
June 24-28 MF Boise #3 (backpack, camp @8.5 mi)
July 8-15 MF Boise #4 (stock, camp @ Rock Ck & Spangle)
July 22-26 Mattingly Ck #1 (stock, from Alturas Lk TH)
July 29 – Aug 2 Mattingly Ck #2 (backpack, from MF Boise)
Aug 5-9 Mattingly Ck #3 (backpack, from Alturas Lk TH)
Aug 19-26 Graham #1 (car camp – Bayhouse)
Sept 9-16 Graham #2 (backpack – Johnson Ck)
Please contact me if you wish to join any of these trips (greg@pulaskiusers.org). There are group size limits on these trips, so please inquire early if you are interested or have any questions.
In addition to these public trips, PUG will facilitate another Sun Valley Community School, entire 11th Grade for a five-day hitches September 21-25. We spread them out into three or four crews on different trails in the Sawtooth and Frank Church Wilderness Areas. PUG will also work on Kaua’i this year in August for the fifth year, when it’s generally too smoky to work safely in central Idaho.
PUG will also co-sponsor another Stanley Workshop this May. This is a unique opportunity in USFS Region 4 for partners and cooperators to obtain any level of saw certification, on either or both chainsaw and crosscut saw, in a single weekend and location. The USFS regional office in Ogden published a nice story about the 2024 version (https://youtu.be/5mcVxyY6t9U?si=dtPcVgkAYjlOZm2u).
You help us advocate for community stewardship. We Idahoans looking after our own trails, especially in the upcoming year, when there will be no Forest Service seasonal trails or recreation staff, compounded by well-publicized reductions to full-time and career staff.
Please help with your time or donation if you are able.
Best wishes,
Greg Travelstead
Board President