In addition to its primary mission of working with local communities to ensure that increased wilderness protection is a priority of the stewardship of the Allegheny National Forest, Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW) over the years has also made significant investments in the stewardship of the Hickory Creek Wilderness trail, ecological restoration of sites adjacent to and within the Hickory Creek Wilderness, and removal of refuse from the Allegheny Islands Wilderness.

The group’s next major wilderness stewardship project will be a clean-up of the 13-mile Hickory Creek Wilderness trail over the weekend of Aug. 15-16. Participants will leave from the Hickory Creek Wilderness trailhead on Hearts Content Road Saturday morning, spend Saturday night in the wilderness, and hike out on Sunday.

Minimum tools such as axes and elbow grease are all they will use to remove woody debris and vegetation from the trail, in order to help perpetuate the rustic wilderness character of the trail. And of course, no power tools such as chainsaws are permitted in wilderness, so there will be no specialized training needed in that regard. There is no charge to join this program, but participants will need to bring all of their own food, water and/or water filtration, camping equipment, and come fully prepared for any weather conditions they may encounter.

This is a rewarding way to intimately experience the natural beauty of the Hickory Creek Wilderness first-hand and give back to America’s National Wilderness Preservation System. To sign up, or for more information, contact FAW at 723-0620, info@pawild.org or visit www.pawild.org.