For good reason, lots of people love to visit popular wilderness trails in Big Sur like the Pine Ridge Trail. That's why the VWA delivers the Trailhead Ambassador Program (TAP) in partnership with the US Forest Service. It's a simple form of outreach that provides great results.

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• Knowledgeable, uniformed volunteers greet visitors at the trailhead at Big Sur Station and other locations.
• The ambassadors share information about the natural wonders of Big Sur and impart fire safety rules and responsible recreation practices.
• They also share their favorite places to dine, lodge, and camp.

These interactions not only benefit visitors, they also protect lives, property, businesses, and our priceless wilderness. Hats off to the volunteer Trailhead Ambassadors! 

The VWA would like to thank the Big Sur Fund in Memory of Weston Call for grant funding supporting TAP. 

A 300-plus mile trail system, constructed at considerable public expense, once offered hikers, backpackers and equestrians opportunities to experience the Big Sur backcountry with relative ease. Nowadays, the lapse of Forest Service funding has rendered the vast majority of these trails barely passable. Ever-more frequent wildfires produce deadfall, vegetative re-growth and erosion that continuously add to the maintenance backlog. Loops and through-hikes in the Big Sur backcountry often involve extensive stretches of brushy, difficult and even outright dangerous trails.

With the help of major donors, contract crews and dedicated volunteers, the VWA has developed a time-tested strategy to protect and restore backcountry access. Every project is carefully planned with the guidance of the VWA Trail Crew Chief and Trails Committee, and executed with the careful supervision of the VWA Stewardship Program Coordinator.

1. The Ventana Trails Forever endowment at the Community Foundation for Monterey County generates annual funds, which are leveraged by contributions from generous donors and matching awards from major foundations. The funds cover the cost of tools, training, contract crews and project leadership.
2. Contract crews are hired for focused projects, including work deep in the backcountry, to complete maintenance and restoration beyond the reach or skill level of the average weekend volunteer. Stewardship Program Coordination oversight ensures work of the highest standard, strictly adherent to appropriate environmental regulations.
3. The VWA trains and deploys an all-volunteer Trail Crew to survey conditions, perform routine brushing and deadfall removal, and supplement contract crew accomplishments, ensuring pack stock accessibility whenever possible.

Are you looking to get out and give back? Support the VWA and join the VWA Trail Crew! Join the VWA Meetup group and you'll be alerted to upcoming Trail Crew outings.

The VWA partners with the US Forest Service to organize, train and outfit Volunteer Wilderness Rangers. These dedicated volunteers hike the trails, clean up trash and impart Leave No Trace principles to backcountry visitors. Patrols are focused on the most heavily-used trails and camps (such as the camps along the Pine Ridge Trail), especially over holiday weekends.

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With the Big Sur backcountry so close to large population centers, there is a gap between high visitor use and the public contact that needs to happen in the forest. Many visitors don’t understand how their behavior in the wilderness affects fire safety, water quality and resource protection.

To learn more about the program and the process to become a Volunteer Wilderness Ranger, please contact the VWA at or call (831) 423-3191.

Click here to download the Volunteer Wilderness Ranger Requirements and Duties PDF

VWR Program Leadership

In conjunction with the US Forest Service, the VWA has instituted the Partners in Preservation – Archaeological Site Steward program. The purpose of the program is to train and deploy volunteers to monitor existing sites in the Los Padres National Forest and report signs of degradation from human, animal and weather abuse so that steps can be taken to preserve them.

Volunteers are trained in the following areas:

•    Monterey Ranger District prehistory and natural resources
•    Native American perspectives
•    The Archaeological Resources Protection Act and other pertinent legislation
•    Role-playing exercises for interacting with the public in the field
•    Site stewardship tracking processes

To learn more about the program and the process to become an Archeological Site Steward, please contact the VWA at or call (831) 423-3191.

Marijuana cultivation on California’s public lands by illicit commercial growers continues unabated. These commercial grow sites and the environmental degradation they cause is an ongoing problem in the Ventana region. When law enforcement personnel eradicate these sites, their first responsibility is to remove the contraband marijuana plants. Agency personnel do not always remove the trash generated by months of occupancy by the growers including foodstuffs, camping gear, irrigation tubing, garden tools, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and rat poison.

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To address the environmental problem of the trash and agricultural chemicals abandoned on these sites, the VWA developed a program to clean up and restore these sites. All projects are done in partnership with the Los Padres National Forest Monterey Ranger District. The work generally entails a cleanup crew hiking into a particular site, bagging the trash and bundling the irrigation tubing to be hauled back to a trailhead on cargo backpacks. Forest Service pack stock is used when possible. This work is similar to restoration work the VWA completed in the Willow Creek drainage in 2004. At this writing, the Monterey Ranger District has restricted volunteer access to grow sites due to hazardous material and safety concerns, but the VWA will continue to advocate for involvement in future cleanup efforts.

If you would like to volunteer to work with the VWA to perform other critical stewardship activities, please join the VWA Meetup group or sign up for email alerts.

The VWA effort to restore the wilderness character of the Willow Creek drainage is an excellent example of the organization’s ability to embrace and successfully complete large-scale stewardship projects. The project began in 1999 with the “discovery” of approximately three tons of trash by VWA volunteers who were surveying the area for possible wilderness designation. That wilderness designation became a reality with passage of the 2002 Big Sur Wilderness and Conservation Act which included the 8,400 acre Willow Creek addition to the Silver Peak Wilderness Area.

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In 2002, the VWA received a grant from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute Employees Conservation Fund to conduct the required biological and archeological studies to secure Forest Service approval for the project. Once the necessary NEPA work was completed and approval of the project was secured, a diverse group of volunteers led by current VWA Vice President Tom Hopkins completed the multi-faceted project in 2004.

We encourage you to watch Return to Wilderness, an inspirational 28-minute documentary video of the VWA-led Willow Creek Clean-Up Project, for the complete story.

Return to Wilderness