Volunteering

Thank you for your interest in becoming an STA Volunteer.   Volunteers are the crucial to keeping Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky's Long Trail open and accessible. Without them the Trace  would not have been built nor would it be managed as it is today. Volunteers serve on committees and blaze and maintain not only the trail but the Club's spirit as well. The number of volunteer opportunities in the Forest and with the STA are numerous.   The STA's goal in 2011 is to see 2,000 volunteer hours or more committed to the Trace.

On the Trace - Trail volunteers build, relocate, and design trails, clear blowdowns, and repair shelters and trail structures.  Volunteers can join a STA Trail Crew for routine maintenance activities, serve on the trail committee, volunteer as a sawyer, trail crew leader, become a trail or shelter adopter, monitor the Sheltowee Trace protective corridor,  or lead interpretive hikes and overnight adventures.

In the STA Office  - Volunteers assist in all aspects of STA program areas including communications, fundraising, grant writing, membership development, volunteer coordination and development, and more. 

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THE STA ADOPT-A-TRAIL PROGRAM - There are over 280 miles of the Sheltowee Trace on the Daniel Boone National Forest available for hiking, horseback riding, biking and motorized vehicle use. Your help is NEEDED and WELCOME! Individuals and or groups can help maintain the Sheltowee Trace and restore or protect resources in and along the Trace by "adopting" a section of The Trace.  Your group would return on a continuing basis to ensure the trail that you adopt would remain in good condition. For information on the STA ADOPT-A-TRAIL PROGRAM CLICK HERE.

ADOPT - A - SHELTER

The visionary builder of The Sheltowee Trace, Verne Orndorff, modeled Kentucky's Long Trail after the grandfather of all hiking trails in America, The Appalachian Trail. He envisioned hikers stopping at shelters or Park and Forest Campgrounds for a good nights rest and where needed shelters to be built like those on the A.T.. The result is, the Trace has three shelters,

Cotton Patch in the Big South Fork,

and two above Cumberland Falls

at Starr Creek and



Bark Camp Creek.

The STA has taken on the responsibility of "caretaker" for these shelters and we need your help in fulfilling that responsibility. Maybe you will become the "caretaker" or one of these shelters. As "caretaker" the STA would ask you to:

• Visit the shelter at least four times a year
• check for damage and report needed repairs to the STA office,
• collect trash and debris, clean the brush from the shelter site
• maintain a one mile trail section into and out of the shelter
• where there is a privy, check the condition of the privy and make sure it is supplied

You would not be alone in this effort. Additional volunteers would be recruited for repair projects and trail maintenance as needed. Mostly we are asking you to just hike out and check on things and meet and greet anyone that might be staying the night in the shelter.

If you are interested and want more info on how short cuts into the shelters, please contact the office at director@sheltoweetrace.org .

CURRENT VOLUNTEEER OPPORTUNITIES ON THE TRACE   -  Here is a list of upcoming planned volunteer opportunities or volunteer jobs within the STA.   You do not have to be a member of the STA to volunteer.  To volunteer just send an email to volunteer@sheltoweetrace.org with your name, email address, phone, mailing address and the date and name of the project where you want to help.   Volunteers need to dress according to the weather and the conditions of the work planned.  No flip-flops.  Shoes should be the type that you will wear into the woods hiking, biking or riding.  Tools and safety gear in most cases will be provided.   

CURRENT VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN THE STA -  Here is a list of upcoming planned volunteer opportunities or volunteer jobs within the STA.   You do not have to be a member of the STA to volunteer.  To volunteer just send an email to volunteer@sheltoweetrace.org with your name, email address, phone, mailing address and the date and name of the project where you want to help.   

• Webmaster / Designer  -  A volunteer who will, working with the Executive Director,  maintain and improve this website.

 

• Volunteer Coordinator - This volunteer position coordinates the activities of the organization’s volunteers in order to supplement staffing needs and get community members involved in the organization’s mission. Responsibilities of this position include recruiting, training and managing volunteers.  Duties include advertising for, recruiting and screening volunteers; providing orientation and training for volunteers; tracking volunteer performance; providing on-going support; and keeping record of volunteer activities.
  
  

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED ON TRACE BETWEEN 
                    S-TREE AND TURKEYFOOT!

In 2011 the STA was awarded an $85,000.00 grant from the Federal Government and the Forest Service to harden the Trace between Highway 490 and the Turkeyfoot Campground.  Thousands of pallets of concrete locking blocks have been delivered by multiple tractor trailers. Now comes the hard part.  By hand the Forest Service has begun to lay those blocks.  But before they get place down, the holes are drained of water, filled in with native soil from the area, weed block is put down and a stone bed.  Then the 5 pound tiles are locked in place.  Some of these areas are several hundred feet long and the width of the Trace.

Years of use by all parties has contibuted to these holes being by-passed and the result is an even wider trail. With your help we can end these by-pass trails and get the Trace back where it belongs.

Volunteers are needed.  You can work as a group, or individually.  Volunteers need to contact the STA to schedule your trip. The Forest Service is working 6 days a week most weeks to get this work done.  They have two men, that's all. 

Volunteers must be in good health, able to walk a mile or more to the job site possibly, able to bend and work on your hands and knees.  You should dress for the weather, bring water and food for the journey.  More information is available by emailing director@sheltoweetrace.org.

Here are a few photos of the work.