Lose Lose
The letter below comes from a series of conversations I had with a volunteer activities coordinator with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). The AMC is a large nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting outdoor recreation on the east coast of the United States. The AMC does great things for recreation in the outdoors, that cannot be denied. However, as I have interacted with their employees and properties over the years I also cannot help be weary of their methods. My best anecdotal evidence comes from organizing volunteer programs for cadets with the United States Coast Guard Academy. The letter below was submitted to AMC management as an appeal to their decision to double the price of a volunteer weekend. It was sent to upper management more than two months ago. To date, I have received no reply.
For the past two years, I have organized a contingent of twelve cadets to attend the volunteer weekend at Cardigan Lodge in Alexandria, New Hampshire. We enjoy being able to give back to the community in which we recreate and of course we simply love being outside. In 2016, it was bitter cold and rained cats and dogs on us as we worked the miles of trails stemming from the Lodge. We covered a lot of ground that weekend. I recall the volunteer coordinator, Erick, saying something to the effect that he usually expects to patrol half of the trails on a volunteer weekend. That time we saw more than two-thirds of the trails that needed attention at Cardigan. Considering the misery of a day and a half of working in cold wet rain, I was sure no one would want to come again. Let me tell you; I was wrong. Of all the events the Academy’s Adventure Sports Club does in a year, the Cardigan trip has become the most requested. When I started planning the 2017 trip and saw that the price had gone from $40 to $80 a person I was distressed. Cadets are not payed a lot of money, and I felt bad asking them to put nearly half of a paycheck into a volunteer event. Luckily, I was able to procure some funding and reduce the cost to cadets by half, providing twelve cadets the opportunity to attend this year.
Attend we did. The crew covered some serious trail this year, and we were the only group in attendance (due to the coast increase, perhaps?). We removed more than twenty substantial blowdowns, cleaned many water bars, cut away brush and blazed more than a third of the trails that needed to be patrolled at Cardigan. Some of the work we accomplished has been on trail adopter reports for nearly two years. For a volunteer group with twelve inexperienced members that much work is noteworthy. While on the trail we bonded as a group and spoke to hikers as they made their way up Mt. Cardigan on freshly cleared trail. In that respect, we saw the fruits of our labor— these experiences are what make people come back again.
I want to make it clear, I am not advocating specifically for the Academy volunteers. Rather, volunteers as a whole. The work I have seen done by volunteers on public lands is incredible. People love the outdoors and they love supporting the things that make them happy. The AMC, as an organization has a unique opportunity to leverage that passion into substantial benefit, not only for their bottom-line, but their volunteers as well. The AMC mission statement says “conservation depends on active engagement with the outdoors, we encourage people to experience, learn about, and appreciate the natural world.” How can you better can you accomplish that goal than volunteering in support of “the natural world?” I will answer. You cannot.
In the case of trail crew volunteers, the AMC is getting reward that cannot be quantified in a bar graph. People go to work weekends and do the backbreaking work required to maintain the trail systems they enjoy. They develop connection to that piece of land and start to feel a responsibility to better “appreciate the natural world” around them. They repair the erosion caused by shortcutting switchbacks. They understand how a loose rock could mean a rolled ankle. They feel the effort it takes to push a big blowdown off the trail and appreciate what a pain in the ass it is to carry someone else’s trash off a mountain. Just maybe the next time they go on a hike they kick a stray rock from the trail and save a rescue crew from hauling a person off the mountain. Maybe they skip the switchback shortcut, saving vegetation and preventing erosion. The AMC will never be able to quantify the smiles on the faces of people as they walk past a trail crew. However, it will see the money donated and the money collected to stay in an AMC lodge because people see the good things being done for the environment and the community by the AMC.
That said, if the AMC continues to marginalize and undervalue their volunteer programs, the endless benefits will become apparent in a spreadsheet. Consider some of what my crew alone accomplished this year— twenty large blowdowns that skiers will not have to climb over and hundreds of branches that will not be swatting them as they glide down the mountain. Those skiers will make it to the bottom and think the AMC is doing things right. That the AMC is doing its best to promote “recreational opportunities” and they will be thankful the organization is there, as a steward of the environment.
Of course, I cannot say with certainty that the AMC would not have sent a professional crew to Cardigan to do the work we have done over the past two years. However, given that we were pulling trees off the trail that had been on report for two years I find it unlikely. Not to mention I am sure the cost of a professional crew traveling, lodging and payroll cannot be less expensive than a weekend of volunteer work. Besides, supporting volunteer programs is beneficial beyond getting a trail up to par.
From the volunteer perspective, doubling the price to attend a volunteer event is ridiculous. I understand incremental price increase with time, but a 100% increase does not feel like the organization recognizes the value of their volunteers. At $80 I do not know Academy cadets will continue to participate in the Cardigan volunteer program. I would wager that the same is true for other organizations, families and individuals. If the AMC wants to continue its “[commitment] to reducing the barriers to active outdoor participation by youth… and making it easier for parents and adult leaders to introduce kids to the outdoors” I have to respectfully say that making volunteer events more expensive is not an effective or just mean to that end. I hope to continue to foster a relationship with and do great things as the Coast Guard Academy Adventure Sports Club for the AMC, but there must be a reevaluation of which price means more to the organization.
The above content is not intended to be representative of facts or opinions of the United States Coast Guard or of the United States Coast Guard Academy.
