BY MADISON RUTHERFORD
Sara Toms and her father went hunting in the Superstition Wilderness in search of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine, and she kept asking her mother countless questions about the mountains. She studied geology and later pursued a career in climate education, park management, and wilderness EMT work as a result of those early experiences, which sparked a lifelong curiosity about the natural world. She says,” I wanted to be able to speak for the mountains and tell the Earth’s story.”
Toms moved to Lost Dutchman State Park, which she describes as” coming home,” after working as a ranger at Red Rock State Park and Picacho Peak. Toms is the assistant park manager, making sure both visitors and the hundreds of native plant and animal species are protected in the 320-acre protected area. She laughs,” I protect the park from the people and the people from the park.”
Toms also works hand-involved with a team of rangers and volunteers to clean up trash, get rid of restrictive flora, and maintain trails, frequently employing innovative strategies that both benefit the environment and help the community. We have a volunteer who runs a sticker business, and they mail their stickers in using the cardboard we find on the trails, she says.
It’s more than just a job for Toms and several of her fellow park residents who reside on the property. We live where we work because it becomes who we are and what we are. She asserts that it becomes more and more a responsibility for the earth and the future.
It’s one thing to walk and pick up rubbish, but to us, it’s like, “maybe you can also educate someone on why we shouldn’t litter, and it’s a bigger picture because we’re helping preserve it for generations to come.”
A network of behind-the-scenes trail stewards who quietly keep Arizona’s natural landscapes clear, preserved, and flourishing share this deep-rooted sense of environmental responsibility.
Because you can see the completed trail, it’s difficult for people to remember what a trail looked like earlier. If the trail is good, you’re simply enjoying nature, says Debbie Fogle, who co-founded Alpine Trail Stewards in 2023 with her husband Aaron. ” But what you didn’t see is what it looked like before,” the author writes,” Walls of downfall, entirely overgrown New Mexico locust trying to rip your clothes off, and areas where the tread was scarcely obvious.”
The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in northeast Arizona is renowned for its restoration and maintenance of non-motorized trails. The all-volunteer team repairs trail signs and brush overgrowth, but Fogle is particularly proud of their restoration of Government Trail# 119 along Escudilla Mountain’s eastern slope, which suffered considerable damage as a result of the 2011 Wallow Fire. ” We spent 858 hours doing the unthinkable; 16 volunteers traveled up that mountain in 42 different elevations, each of which was up to 1,700 horizontal feet,” Fogle says. We turned a trail into a wall of trees once more. Alpine Trail Stewards used mostly crosscut saws in designated wilderness areas where electric equipment is prohibited to remove the remnants of 1, 020 decaying, fire-ravaged trees that covered the trail over the course of more than six months.
In 2026, Alpine Trail Stewards has now cleared 18 miles of trails. According to Fogle,” We’ve been working really hard to create a volunteer system that’s sustainable.” We want a quality that lasts for all of us.
For Nicole Corey and her husband, Justin, the connection to nature and commitment to the community served as the inspiration for their volunteer, Healthy Restorations. The organization, which was established in 2015, aims to revitalize Arizona’s normal spaces through projects to remove trash and graffiti, manage invasive species, and do replant.
Through its Dedicated Restoration Team, which was inspired by Justin’s best friend Derek, who had to adjust to civilian life after serving in the U.S. Army, Natural Restorations ‘ work also focuses on supporting military veterans. Corey claims that Derek told him that he enjoyed picking up trash and improving the conditions in which he enjoyed doing it. We wanted to create a low-to-no-stress environment where veterans could spend time with other veterans while acting in a positive way that their actions would have an instant, obvious impact.
Almost 16 500 Natural Restorations volunteers have removed more than 2 million pounds of trash from the Tonto National Forest since its inception, cleared over 50 000 square feet of graffiti, and planted more than 100 000 trees and cacti in burn scars. About 3, 000 of those volunteers were under the age of 18, Corey says. It’s wonderful to see kids leave their Saturday mornings to pick up the trash left behind by thoughtless adults.
As much as it relates to education as it does to restoration and conservation, land stewardship. The McDowell Sonoran Conservancy’s stewardship program, which includes more than 30 000 acres of protected land in Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve, is a pillar of the organization’s commitment to climate education. McDowell Sonoran Conservancy CEO Angy Shearer says,” What gives me hope is when we do field trips and the third and fourth graders come out, the stewards teach them, and you just watch them come alive, ask questions, and get so excited about the plants, the animals, and being outdoors.”
She claims that prevention is also important. To ensure visitor safety and aid with navigation, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy volunteers often patrol the preserve’s 225 hiking and biking trails. We’ll wait for someone to come our way before giving them direction on the shortest possible way back, Shearer says. ” We’ll call and get them help if they are really struggling and need medical attention, and we’ll let emergency services know where they are so they can find them quickly.”
Extreme heat, drought, and monsoons all have an impact on Arizona’s fragile ecosystems, but animal behavior poses a similar serious threat. According to Fogle,” Trail users can make a big impact in pretty plain ways.” Respect closures, respect for other people, respect for the space, pack your trash, and report any problems you encounter on the trail.
Shearer emphasizes the value of observing and carrying out concerned recreation, particularly when it comes to respecting trail boundaries. When you cross a trail, you are consuming plants, biocrust, and living ecosystems that support the preserve’s growth, she says.
Additionally, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy stewards assist scientists in conducting biological research, including tracking tortoise movement using telemetry, and assisting with restoration efforts. Shearer points out that the reason the animals are flourishing and the plants are doing well is because of all the difficult work of the stewards, and that you can see the beauty of the preserve and know that you played a major part in it, you can see why. ” People don’t realize that, but we know it, and it is just so rewarding,” he said.
Each trail steward’s mission is echoed by a powerful thread: an obligation to preserve the earth, leave it better than they found it, and ensure these practices are followed so that future generations don’t have to start from scratch. It doesn’t matter what age it is when I teach geology outside of this country. I arrange everyone in a circle, and I have them gather a few rocks,” Toms says. Every individual one of these has a different story, and every action you take today will be a part of that story, I say. We must protect this place so that future generations can enjoy and enjoy this story. Every action we take, “let’s make it much” is a maxim.
