During every Ascend backpacking trip and day hike, youth are inspired to examine the world around them and ask questions about the natural world. Ascend Wilderness Guides provide insight into their environment through instruction in the natural sciences as well as foster stewardship by promoting Leave No Trace Ethics. These lessons inspire youth to care for the world around them, not only by preserving its beauty, but by noting how humans impact the environment. During trips, youth engage in invasive species removal projects, clean up litter around campgrounds and trails, destroy unsanctioned campsites and fire rings, and remove fishing line and other debris from wetland and alpine lake ecosystems.

The Teen Stewardship and Work Experience takes these core values a step further by incorporating hand tools and instruction from our Forest Service partners to complete major stewardship projects that are needed to improve safety and access to the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area. This 7-day backpacking experience educates these high school youth participants about their future career options as young adults working in trail building crews. This year, the Ascend Guide and Forest Service leader were joined by an FS assistant leader who was an alumna of the Teen Stewardship Trip. This young man had participated as a high schooler during the previous two years and was hired on with the Forest Service after graduating high school. His leadership and mentorship for the younger high school participants helped demonstrate the career pathway in trail work and natural resource management available to young adults locally.

During each Ascend backpacking trip and day hike, youth explore their surroundings and discover nature's wonders. Ascend guides provide insights through promoted stewardship by emphasizing Leave No Trace principles. These experiences inspired participants to care for the environment and understand human impact. Throughout the trips, youth engaged in projects like invasive species removal, camp ring clearing and removing debris from alpine lakes. Ascend's Teen Internships deepen our core values by implementing real work experience for stewardship and field science projects in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. This 5- or 7-day backpacking experience educated high school participants about careers in trail building and environmental fields while fostering hands-on learning. Ascend also works closely with schools and community events to start outdoor education at an earlier age, and provide a pipeline into our more in-depth summer program opportunities.

Ascend Wilderness Experience partnerships included; United States Forest Service - Shasta Trinity National Forest Hayfork Watershed Research and Training Center; Trinity County Resource Conservation District; Trinity Together - A Cradle to Career Partnership; Mid Klamath Watershed Council; Salmon River Restoration Council; Scott River Watershed Council; Bigfoot Trail Alliance;

Trinity County Schools - Douglas City School, Junction City School, Trinity Center, Van Duzen Partnership accomplishments include collaborating with the above groups to design and aggregate curriculum that fosters stewardship of the environment and is aligned to the content standards for California public schools. These partners also hosted community events where students from Trinity County schools were able to learn from a variety of stations, including one or two hosted by Ascend, that gave instruction on natural sciences and conservation. These events include Bar 717 6th Grade Environmental Camp, Hyampom Salmon Gathering, and the Wildlife Expo. Partner also attended Ascend’s Nature Area Trips to give instruction on plant identification and model career pathways in conservation to participants during day hikes. In addition, Ascend Wilderness Experience partnered with Trinity County Schools to provide environmental and outdoor education curriculum during the After School Program and Electives during the school day. Educational activities included science lessons about wildlife that include content in alignment with NGSS standards, curriculum about invasive species that foster stewardship, promote service learning activities of pulling noxious weeds in the community, and educate about career pathways with natural resource agencies.

Ascend also partners with the Shasta Trinity National Forest to train our Wilderness Guides to safely perform stewardship tasks in the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area including maintaining trail corridors, using heritage crosscut saws to buck and remove fallen trees that are impeding the trail, and perform rockwork to stabilize fire affected trails and improve drainage to control erosion. These skills are passed on to our youth participants during stewardship activities during the Teen Work Experience Nature Area Trips, during which teens earn skill certifications that help them as they pursue careers in trail maintenance.

Please see previous years partnership to note the full list of partnerships. We still work very closely with all of them. New partnerships in 2024: Lewiston Elementary School - We provide extended learning opportunities to their students while school is not in session. Cal Poly Humboldt - Our Teen Interns were able to hike in and spend time with this cohort of geologists to learn about the geological history of our area, how to take lake core samples and how the geologists were using that data to understand climate change. USFS- Six Rivers NF - A new partnership to accomplish adult stewardship and Teen Internship trips in the Marble Mountain Wilderness. The following are organizations that participated and presented at our Spring Break Day Camp: University of California - Agriculture and Natural Resources/4-H Youth Development Program Wintu Educational and Cultural Council Chagdud Gonpa Buddhist Center Shasta Wildlife Rescue Center

The most important tip for any organization pursuing a project similar to this one is to maintain healthy and open channels of communication with partners. Whether a NPO that does similar programs in your region, or governmental organization that helps facilitate your project, being able to adapt to extreme weather conditions, unforeseen equipment or gear issues, or personnel changes due to illness alongside partners is critical. Since 2022 Ascend has dealt with hazards from wildfire as well as severe winter weather changing project location plans. Being able to coordinate with partners to identify alternative project locations and organize trip support including pack mule teams to new destinations was monumental to our projects being successful despite these changes. Being on excellent terms with partners also helps when brainstorming curriculum and outdoor education activities and when organizing guest speakers and natural science experts to join your programs.

Ascend has put a lot of efforts into scheduling around fire season so that we don't risk having to cancel trips if wildfires impede our summer programming. To this end, we've been scheduling more in our shoulder seasons and that seems to be working well. We're also limited to when we can schedule youth trips (when school is not in session, late enough so snow levels in the mountains don't limit us, and early enough in the summer so fire doesn't cause us to cancel trips). This has made a very busy June and July, but we're scheduling more and more adult and family opportunities on weekends and during the Spring and Autumn instead. Take lots of "lessons learned" notes in real time during the busy season, so that you can revisit your notes when planning again for the next season.