This year our Trail Operations staff will have the assistance of multiple seasonal employees. These seasonal positions are funded through the corps crew program and project funding provided by the Forest Service. Such positions are important not only because they provide critical capacity but they also provide development opportunities for tomorrow’s staff. All of our regional representatives and our Trail Operations Director did their first professional trailwork as seasonal employees with various organizations and agencies. Starting with more than 50 applications, our regional representatives, in teams of two, interviewed 13 candidates and ended up hiring these great folks:
Heidi Brill currently lives in Eugene, Ore., but will be spending seven and a half months working up and down the PCT in Southern California, the Big Bend and Columbia-Cascades Regions. She will mainly be working with American Conservation Experience (ACE) corps crews but will have a hand in some volunteer projects throughout the season. Heidi is no stranger to the PCT and the PCTA. Having hiked over 2,000 miles of the PCT in 2005, she also led a Student Conservation Association (SCA) crew in Southern California in the spring of 2011. She has worked extensively with some of our volunteer packers and even volunteered with them at Mule Days in 2011 (when she was finished her term with SCA).
Heidi began her season in Southern California on April 10 and will move to do work in the Big Bend Region, the Columbia-Cascades region and finish up this fall back in Southern California.
Andrew Fish currently lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., but will be spending seven and a half months working up and down the PCT in Southern California, the Southern Sierra and the Northern Sierra regions. He will mainly be working with the ACE corps crews but will have a hand in some volunteer projects throughout the season. Andrew has an impressive background in trails most recently working on the Angeles National Forest at the non-motorized trail program manager and prior to that he served as a trail planner and technician with Maricopa County Parks and Recreation.
Andrew began his season in Southern California on April 10 and will move to do work on the Inyo National Forest before heading to the Northern Sierra Region and returning to Southern California for the fall.
Bill Hawley of Camas, Wash., will be returning to us for his fourth season with PCTA, this year heading up the Sasquatch Crew’s volunteer vacations, and Urban Youth projects in southern Washington. Before coming to work as an employee, Bill was a dedicated volunteer leader with PCTA’s Mount Hood Chapter, teaching advanced techniques and initiating complex projects. He brought with him earlier career experience heading up a green-building construction company, which gave him a big head start in people and project management skills. Today he has an excellent reputation amongst volunteers and agency partners alike, who trust that when Bill is in charge, the project will be done to the highest standards by a happy crew.
Dan Roper of Ashland, Ore., will be leading our Skyline Crew for 12 weeks this year, heading up week-long volunteer vacations between Three Sisters and Mount Hood. Dan has seven seasons of experience working on and leading trail crews for the Forest Service and National Park Service. His experience includes working with pack animals and supervising a variety of tread repair projects in remote backcountry locations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Dan will be beginning graduate school this fall at Oregon State University, pursuing his interest in environmental policy, economics, and natural resources.