Projects Open for Registration

Would you like to volunteer in a meaningful way and help protect the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness? Would you like to volunteer on your own schedule, and hike a beautiful trail while at it?

As a trail ambassador, you will help us at the ABWF educate visitors at popular trails about proper LNT principles, bear protocols, and more! The A-B needs us to identify high-use areas and help inform folks to responsibly access them.

Volunteering as a TA, you will travel to a high-use trail head and greet people as they enter the wilderness, kindly checking in with them to make sure they have the knowledge they need to reduce impact. This year, we also welcome TA's to hike the first few miles of the trail to survey impact and continue to greet hikers.

ANNUAL TRAININGS FOR NEW AND RETURNING VOLUNTEERS HELD IN RED LODGE, LIVINGSTON, AND OTHER LOCAL PLACES, AND ONLINE -- CHECK BACK FOR DATES AND TIMES!

Title: Meatrack Meadows Trails #23, #24

District: Yellowstone Ranger District

Dates: Thursday July 6 - Tuesday July 11

Spots Available: 0/9 (group registration pending, accepting waitlist)

Close to: Big Timber, Livingston, Columbus

Description: Leaving from the Main Boulder River up Meatrack Creek, we will hike 5 miles to our basecamp in beautiful Meatrack Meadows. Our worksites will be close by. The trails in this area are used by outfitters and hikers alike, and connect the Main Boulder River to Mill Creek and Paradise Valley. In Meatrack Meadows, there is an isolated meadow of invasive Houndstongue that, if removed, could prevent further spread to the other meadows.

Work: This project will be a combination of pulling Houndstongue and other trailwork tasks like grading, clearing, and brushing.

Difficulty: Moderately Strenuous: This is a backcountry-based project with a 5 mile approach. While weed pulling can be on the less strenuous side for some, the trail work we will be doing will be a bit more physically demanding.

Meeting time & location: 8:00 a.m. at The Fort Gas Station and Store Parking Lot

Title: Livingston Peak #44 Weekend Weedpull

District: Yellowstone Ranger District

Dates: Saturday July 8, 2023

Close to: Livingston, Bozeman

Spots Available: 10/10

Description: Year 2 of working with the Livingston Bike Club, Park County Environmental Council, and the USFS invasive species crew pulling houndstongue on Livingston Peak Trail #44. Continuing to maintain and monitor this weed patch will help keep it out of the Wilderness!

Work: We will be using small hand tools and shovels to dig up houndstongue taproots and clip flower heads

Difficulty: Least strenuous. A short hike to the site, and plenty of work to do for all abilities. Work includes stooping, kneeling, gripping, and light lifting.

Meeting time & location: 8:30 a.m. at the Livingston Peak Trailhead

Close To: Roscoe, Absarokee, Columbus, Red Lodge

Spots Available: 10/10

NOTE: Temporary closures from 2022 Flood damage remain in effect to date -- project subject to change/cancellation.

Description: This most popular trail in the A-B and follows the Wild and Scenic East Rosebud Creek. It is also prone to spread of Knapweed and Thistle. The ABWF and Beartooth Ranger District have been teaming up for years to control this weed outbreak. Come learn about invasive weeds, get some good work done, and enjoy one of the most dramatic drainages in the A-B.

Work: On this single-day project, we will survey, identify, and pull/spray invasive weeds on the first 2 miles of the East Rosebud Trail up to Elk Lake. Forest Service staff will handle the spraying, while volunteers will do the pulling.

Difficulty: Less strenuous: We will hike a round-trip total of three miles and be pulling weeds not too far off the trail.

Meeting time & location: 9:00 a.m. at the East Rosebud Trailhead

Title: Bassett Creek #134 Weekend Weedpull

District: Yellowstone Ranger District

Dates: Saturday July 15, 2023

Close To: Gardiner, Pray, Emigrant, Livingston Spots Available: 10/10 Description: Eight minutes from the town of Gardiner and Yellowstone National Park, the Bassett Creek Trail provides hikers and riders with wilderness access and great opportunities for solitude, due to the low number of users that travel it. The Gardiner Ranger District has identified a zone, two miles from the trailhead, where biannual pulling, spraying, and seed collecting will curb the spread of Houndstongue and Thistle. The trail and surrounding area is core winter range for Elk and is crossed by migration paths of Mule Deer, making the preservation of native plants by stopping invasive weeds a worthwhile effort. Work: On this single-day project, we will survey, identify, and pull/spray houndstongue within the first two miles of the trail. Difficulty: Less strenuous: We will hike a round-trip total of four miles and be pulling weeds not too far off the trail. Meeting time & location: 9:00 a.m. at the Bassett Creek Trailhead

Title: Cooke City Trail Clearing

District: Gardiner Ranger District

Dates: Thursday July 27 - Monday July 31

Close to: Cooke City, Gardiner, Red Lodge

Spots Available: 6/6

Description: While staying in a cabin at the Cooke City Forest Service Admin Office, we will drive to various trailheads each day and cover miles on foot to clear trails. This is the time of year that these trails start getting more use, so it is important that the Gardiner District trail crew gets them opened up for smooth travel. Trails cleared on this project will leave from the Beartooth Highway 212 to the north, heading onto the Beartooth Plateau, providing views of Pilot and Index Peak, and the Plateau itself. This can be a buggy time of year in Cooke City, so volunteers are encouraged to bring protective clothing and a headnet if they’d like.

Local Cooke City-Silver Gate-Colter Pass volunteers are welcome to commute to the worksite each day, rather than staying with us at the FS Admin site.

Work: On this project, we will be clearing trails of downed trees using crosscut saws.

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous. For trail clearing, the amount of hiking vs. cutting really depends on how wooded the trail is and how many trees have blown down since the last time the trail was cleared. This means that some days could be more hiking intensive, when a steady pace will be key to allow our crews to cover more distance to reach down trees. Other days might be more cutting intensive, asking more of our upper bodies to cut and move trees.

Meeting time & location: 9:00 a.m. at TBD

Title: Specimen Creek #84

District: Gardiner Ranger District

Dates: Thursday August 17 - Monday August 21

Close to: Gardiner, Livingston

Spots Available: 6/6

Description: The June 14, 2022 Floods damaged 3 sections of Specimen Creek Trail #84 near Gardiner, MT. The trail is a primary access route for the Hellroaring Creek Drainage that sees routine use from multiple permitted outfitters as well as foot and stock traffic from the general public. Needed repairs include tread work on washed out trails, water bar reconstruction, and some minor trail realignment on 3 sections spread over 3 miles within the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Volunteers will camp in the backcountry at one of the outfitter camps.

Work: We will be using picks and shovels to dig trail, and sledges and buckets to break and move rocks for treadwork and erosion control.

Difficulty: Strenuous. This will be physically demanding work at sites spread across a length of backcountry trail, with heavy hand tool use and heavy lifting.

Meeting time & location: 9:00 a.m. at the USFS Gardiner Ranger Station