On 3/17/20 Stewards of the Sequoia volunteer trail maintenance agreement of 15 years was terminated without just cause by the Sequoia Forest Service Kern River District Ranger.
Thanks to Congressman McCarthy, Stewards will be taking part in a mediation with the Forest Service before the end of May to address the wrongful termination of Stewards volunteers and hopefully
be reinstated so Stewards volunteers can resume work on Sequoia trails.
What
???
The Forest Service has no issue with any of Stewards 4000 miles of volunteer trail work, instead they are objecting to Stewards raising concerns about the validity of the MVUM which would close
roughly 80% of the Piute trails in violation of Forest Service procedure. The Forest Service also objects to Stewards concerns about what we call the PCT Land Grab that would likely cause the closure of 30 miles of motorized trails in the Piutes. You can read
more about the MVUM and PCT Land Grab
HERE
The Sequoia Forest Service termination of Stewards volunteers is an attempt to force Stewards to stop our trail advocacy efforts. They want us to pipe down and stop bringing up uncomfortable but valid questions.
Why ???
This is not a new problem. Last year, the District Ranger would not renew Stewards volunteer trail maintenance agreement unless Stewards agreed to close trails. We pointed out that volunteers
cannot be forced to do any project, and that Stewards does more than any other volunteer group. After months of meetings with the District Ranger our volunteer agreement was renewed last year without the requirement to close trails. We prevailed, or so it
seemed.
One would think the Sequoia Forest Service would be grateful for the 300 miles of difficult trail maintenance Stewards volunteers do each year. Instead the Sequoia Forest staff, are trying to
use our volunteerism as a weapon to prevent Stewards from speaking up to keep trails open. We look forward to resolving this with higher level Region 5 Forest Staff this month. Stewards cannot allow the Forest Service actions to harm volunteerism or close
trails improperly or violate first amendment rights.
But There is More......
District Ranger Watson has not returned Stewards calls or letters to discuss his concerns with Stewards and our termination. However Ranger Watson, has contacted Stewards members who sent letters
urging him to reinstate the Stewards volunteer agreement. He has invited these Stewards members to volunteer as individuals, even though he terminated Stewards members from volunteering.
If the District Ranger asks you to volunteer we urge you to respond that as a Stewards member, he has prohibited you from volunteering, but that you would be happy to volunteer once
he reinstates Stewards and address all of the issues in his termination letter with Stewards.
It is totally unethical for the Forest Service to circumvent their wrongful termination of Stewards by asking the same Stewards members they terminated to volunteer another way. If they want Stewards
to volunteer, they need to renew our volunteer agreement and stop violating our first amendment rights.
Stewards are being persecuted for advocating to keep your trails open. That must not be allowed to continue.
We must all stand together in opposing the wrongful termination of volunteers. Together we can keep our trails open.
If you have any questions about this please feel free to contact us at
info@stewardsofthesequoia.org or
760 223-2366