VIP Spotlight: Arizona Trail Association North Rim tree clearing project

Williams-Grand Canyon News (August 3, 2022)

Over the weekend of July 16-17, Arizona Trail Association (ATA) volunteers and staff partnered with NPS Trails and Backcountry Information Center staff to remove fallen trees and clear the Arizona Trail corridor between the Widforss Trailhead and the North Rim Entrance Station.

Each of the four saw teams were captained by an experienced and certified sawyer, and volunteers and participants practiced the basics of evaluating and executing a variety of cuts. At the end of the first day, only a few trees remained on the AZT.

Volunteers requested more work for the second day and while one sawyer team finished on the AZT, the remainder of the team cleared another 28 downed trees and restored tread on approximately .75 miles of the Francois Matthes Trail.

In total, 100 trees were cleared from North Rim trails.

Grand Canyon National Park would like to thank NPS staff who helped make the project successful: Michael Barhmasel, Forest Agee, Joseph Zelman, Steve Bridgehouse, Cindy Donaldson, Dan Schweitzer and Adam Gibson.

To read the article online, click here.