Wilderness Trail Building

Work is physically demanding and is done outside in all types of weather. Volunteers must be motivated and prepared for this type of work. You will be working and camping in the woods for five days at a time. The work is physically demanding, but very fun. Volunteers will work together to repair and maintain hiking trails. The crew camps out in the woods all week and on the last day of the week the crew packs out of the woods in the afternoon and returns to the base camp for the weekend. You will be using hand tools such as pickmatics, sledgehammers, shovels, hazel hoes and rock bars on a daily basis. These tools will help you build turnpike, check steps and native puncheon and other trail structures as necessary. You will have to carry all of your equipment, group equipment and tools into the woods. You will have the most fun if you are in good physical condition and have been walking regularly before arriving. Stamford Meadows Puncheon: Our work continues on a wet and muddy section of the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail. Crews will replace broken bog bridging along a beaver dam just south of Congdon Shelter on the Appalachian Trail. This project is done in partnership with the Green Mountain National Forest and VASA: Vermont ATV Sportsmen’s Association Branch Pond Trail Re-Route: Located in the Lye Brook Wilderness, Branch Pond Trail is a 8.3 mile trail running through the heart of the Green Mountain National Forest in Southern Vermont. Crews will be re-routing the Branch Pond Trail onto higher ground to protect the trail from erosion and flooding cause by the construction of beaver dams. Study Themes: The Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) coordinates international voluntary service organizations. Volunteers for Peace is a member organization of CCIVS and we promote CCIVS initiatives as study themes in our projects. Current study themes include “Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights” and “Migrations and Human Rights.” We encourage projects to discuss one or more of these issues with their volunteers in ways they see fit. Here is a CCIVS link where you can find toolkits and contributions that might be useful to shape your activities: http://ccivs.org/tools.php?search_tag=ccivs&search_string=&pageNo=1