The Call of the Wild

Photograph by John Sherman

On a trip organized by the non-profit group Wilderness Volunteers, vacationers might take a lazy dip in a cool river. But before they do, they probably will have helped to restore a spawning ground for the river’s salmon population or to re-plant vegetation that had been destroyed by other campers near the waterway.

The organization, based in Portland, Ore., is in its second year of running trips for people who want to spend a vacation helping to protect endangered land.

The seven-day trips take participants to a wilderness area where a trail may need mending or a dam may need to be built. Participants — who pay their own travel expenses plus $189 for food — work for three or four days, then have the remainder of the trip to relax or to explore the area.

Wilderness Volunteers, which has a $60,000 annual budget, works with government agencies, including the National Park Service, to identify a variety of projects on which volunteers can work.

“You can write a check to an environmental organization and that can be satisfying,” says John Sherman, president of Wilderness Volunteers. “But for many people it’s not quite the same as going out and rolling up your sleeves and physically doing something to make a difference.”

Here, volunteers rebuild a bridge over a boggy area of a trail in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. The planks were carried by mules to the site, where federal law prohibits the use of power tools.