Stewards of the ‘Bob’: Foundation celebrates 25th year

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Carla Belski remembers the early years of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.

Belski was working seasonally for the Forest Service as a volunteer coordinator. It was her job to get the fledgling operation off the ground.

The Foundation had a unique premise: People would come out to the 1.5 million acre wilderness complex and work on trails and other projects, for free. The Bob has 2,300 or so miles of trails. Even with professional trail crews in the woods, there’s always work to be done.

And when federal budgets are tight, as they were back then, the more help, the better.

Belski recalled that first year there was pretty slim pickings, to put it mildly.

There were two garbage cans in a closet. One had Pulaskis. The other had hart hats. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation was born.

Belski and the fledgling board made it work. There were Bible camps and Youth at Risk programs and Backcountry Horsemen groups from across the state all willing to help.

That following winter, Belski waited tables to pay her bills and wrote grants with the help of Forest Service folks to get some seed money.

A small grant came in to pay Belski’s salary. Then others for gear and equipment. Board President Mike Dailey let them keep tools at his house (he was a cabinet maker). Boardmember Russ Lucas created a website, and slowly, but surely, the organization grew.

There were plenty of hiccups, of course. Belski recalled one Boy Scout Troop that put water bars in a flat section of trail.

She had to go back and take them all out. (Water bars are logs partially buried in uphill sections of trail to keep the water from running straight down the trail.)

But Belski said the support kept growing.

“It took a community of people to make it work,” she said. She convinced the Forest Service that regular folks could do important work, like trail clearing and brush cleaning and weed pulling.

“It’s not rocket science,” she said.

Logistics were always a challenge, too. The early years were well before cell phones and decent wireless Internet.

“I used to think, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I had a computer I could take with me and a phone?’”

Still, by 2003 they had three crew leaders and had started other programs, like the Artist in Residence Program, which helps get artists back in the Bob to create while staying in a Forest Service cabin. The Voices in the Wilderness program, in turn, often showcased their work as well as acted as a fundraiser for the organization.

In 2007 they added the Mountain Film Festival as an additional fundraiser.

The name also changed along the way. It started out as the Bob Marshall Foundation. The word wilderness was added to avoid any confusion.

In 2008 Belski moved on as executive director. She had small children and the organization was on firm footing.

Fast forward to today and the work is largely the same, but the diversity of volunteers has expanded greatly.

Executive Director Bill Hodge has been at the helm of the organization for 3 1/2 years now. There has been a concerted effort to make the volunteer groups more diverse.

“I walked into (the job) with a staff that was passionate for it,” he said. “”It has to be done intentionally.”

The mission of “connecting people to wild places” holds true even more today.

This year for example, they’ve had groups from Here Montana, Latino Outdoors Missoula, Salish Kootenai College Upward Bound, Blackfeet Youth and Glacier Queer Alliance all work in the woods.

The Foundation also makes a concerted effort to recognize the wilderness lands as the home to indigenous peoples.

Hodge noted this is in the spirit of Bob Marshall himself, who not only championed wilderness, but minority rights. Marshall, when he worked for the Forest Service, advocated integrating Forest Service campgrounds in the 1930s.

Hodge noted that Marshall wanted to connect Americans to their wilderness heritage.

“That has to mean all Americans,” Hodge noted.

The Foundation has expanded its programs as well. Today it hosts an apprentice packer program, has grown its weed control effort and has started a gear library, so folks who come to volunteer don’t have to lug their own pack and tent, for example, on an airplane.

The organization takes good care of its volunteers. Packers haul in supplies and the meals are excellent. Each trip typically has a day off to explore the surrounding countryside.

Packers are critical to its mission and success, Hodge noted and Backcountry Horsemen and Forest Service packers are greatly appreciated for their help.

“None of our work happens without stock support,” Hodge noted.

Today the organization hosts about 40 trips a year and has a fulltime staff of six and a seasonal staff of more than 20.

Hodge said they’re also working on more programs, such as an “adopt the trail” program in cooperation with the Forest Service on a Great Bear snout. The snout runs along Highway 2 and offers day hikers a chance to enjoy the wilderness. The idea is for folks to volunteer longterm to maintain those trails, as they’re relatively easy to access.

Hodge said in the future the organization would like to increase its expense program for packers and continue to expand opportunities for young people.

Belski recalled a trip with a group of teens years ago. The weather wasn’t great and the kids had some difficult stream crossings, with water up to their waist.

At one point, some of the girls in the group started to break down and cry. But they hung in there and by the end of the trip the kids had learned a lot.

“‘We’re hardcore!’” they exclaimed.

“It’s so rewarding,” Belski said.

The annual Voices of the Wilderness fundraiser and party for the Foundation is from 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 28 at Snowline Acres in Kalispell.

There is live music by Michelle Rivers Trio, locally sourced eats by Forage Catering, live and silent auction, cash bar, plus activities for the whole family. Meet the mules, practice pulling on the crosscut, relax around the “fire”, and take a trip down memory lane with photos and mementos from days gone by.

Tickets are $45 and include dinner and a door prize ticket. Buy tickets at: https://www.bmwf.org/voices