Mexican Border, New Mexico.

The team will start the trek by hiking one mile to the Mexican border, then hiking back and traveling in a four-wheel drive truck to Massacre Peak, where they will camp in an undeveloped backcountry site. In the following 60 days, the team will tavel 1582 miles on public lands, by four-wheel drive, ATV, mountain bike, horse, motorcycles, raft, houseboat, motorboat, and on foot to their final destination at This is the Place State Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Location: Lake Valley, at BLM-managed historic Lake Valley School House

Program on Historic Mining and Cook-out

Host: Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico State Office
Contact: Jim Talent 505-525-4400

Location: Silver City
Wilderness Roundtable Discussion

In the early years of the 20th century, Aldo Leopold worked as a Forest Ranger in the mountains of what is now the Gila National Forest. He recognized the need to manage natural areas as complete ecosystems, and his writings on the subject influenced Congress to set aside certain undeveloped areas as wilderness. Today, we face many difficulties in managing our wild areas. As populations increase, these areas face pressure from mounting recreation and natural resource needs, as well as unique difficulties, such as reintroducting predators.

Host: PLIA
Contact: Stephen Maurer, 505-345-9498

Location: Alpine Ranger Station

Nature Conservancy program on wolf re-Introduction.

The last decade has seen a push to reintroduce predators to balance our wilderness ecosystems. But these predators, including wolves and grizzly bears, face opposition from many people who live in these areas, who fear attacks on pets and livestock. How can we meet the needs of humans while restoring our natural world to health?

Host: Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Service/ Gila National Forest, US Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Game & Fish

Tour of Rodeo/Chediski Fire.

This devastating wildfire burnt over 400,000 acres on Apache tribal lands, the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, and on private lands bordering these areas. The fire consumed not only thousands of acres of forest, desert, and rangeland but also destroyed hundreds of houses. Destructive fires like this force us to examine how we can better prevent and control fires like this in the future.


Host: USDA Forest Service, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
Contact: Supervisor's Office (928) 333-4301

General Springs, Coconino National Forest


Host: Forest Service employee and local resident Jim Beard

Contact: Valerie Guardia 505-842-3151
Dennis Lund – 928-779-1450

Location: Elden Pueblo

Tour and discussion of pre-Columbian cultures in the Southwest.
Who were these people? By carefully preserving their artifacts, including a great network of houses, villages, and roads, we can begin to understand the lives of the Anasazi, the Mogollon, the Salado, Sinagua, and Hohokam cultures.


Host: USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest
USFS local: Jim Beard

Contact: Valerie Guardia, Regional Office 505-842-3151
Dennis Lund – 928-779-1450

Flagstaff, AZ

Topic: Fire/Forest Restoration

How do fires contribute to forest health, and how can we manage or assist these important natural processes?

Host: Northern Arizona University, National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), USDA Forest Service

Tours of Walnut Canyon National Monument and Sunset Crater National Monument.

Walnut Canyon is famous for its archeological treasures, including cliff dwellings, rock art, and artifacts dating from about 1100 to 1250 AD. Sunset Crater Volcano had just erupted when people moved to Walnut Canyon, and these prehistoric people undoubtebly witnessed the awesome event.

Host: National Park Service
Contact: Kim Watson: 928-526-1157x228

Location: C O Bar Ranch

The CO Bar ranch, operated by the Babbitt family, is a prime example of a working ranch managed in harmony with the land.

Host: C O Bar Ranch
Contact: Dennis Lund – 928-779-1450

The CO Bar Ranch contains "checkerboard land," where equal-sized areas of public and private land form a checkerboard pattern. The trekkers will navigate through the ranch only on the Arizona state trust lands, using handheld GPS devices.

Grand Canyon National Park

1) School Program
2) Program on Park Issues and Park Tour

Grand Canyon National Park is one of the world's most treasured natural areas. But the millions of annual visitors take their toll on the natural world. How can recreation and conservation be balanced so as to preserve our natural heritage?

Team South will travel the Arizona Trail, which stretches from Utah to Mexico. They will travel with representatives from the Kaibab National Forest, the Park Service, and the Arizona Trail Association.

When they reach Hull Cabin, their destination for that night,they will enjoy a program on the historic cabin and the significance of Native American culture in the area.

Campfire talk by Hatch River Expeditions about the Colorado River.

Campfire talk by National Park Service staff about history of Pahntom Ranch, recreation and other issues.

When John W. Powell first navigated the Colorado, it was terra incongnita. Today, not only is every mile eagerly enjoyed by rafters and anglers, but every drop is carefully accounted for by the Bureau of Reclamation and the seven southwestern states which depend on this life-giving river. What will happen to the Colorado as pressure mounts from environmentalists, recreationists, and water-hungry Southwestern cities?

Grand Canyon National Park, Kaibab National Forest

1.Presentation on post-fire forest ecology on the North Rim.
2. Tour of historic ranger cabin at Jacob Lake

Host: USGS, Kaibab NF
American Frontiers exhibit on US Geological Survey

Team South meets representatives of agencies and organizations who played and continue to play an important part in reintroducing condors to northern Arizona. The day begins with a roundtable discussion at Kaibab Plateau Visitor Center in Jacob Lake at 10 am, followed by a visit to the Peregrine Fund's observation ramada in House Rock Valley.

The Vermilion Cliffs were chosen to be the first site outside of California for the reintroduction of condors into the wild. The condor populations in California are beginning to stablize, but to ensure a healthy gene pool, biologists decided to split the flocks. The birds were carefully divided so as to create the most genetic diversity possible, and the chosen few were released into this site, chosen for its remote location, its terrain, and its vegetation. Condors have marked preferences for roosting, flying, and nesting, and although there is no historic record of condors living in the Vermilion Cliffs, the released birds seem to be doing fine. Biologists and other condor lovers are eagerly awaiting the first chick hatched into the wild here; the first wild chick hatched in California just 5 months ago.

Host: Kaibab NF, BLM, Peregrine Fund, PLIA

House Rock Valley/The Wave area

Hike into the Wave; a fabulously beautiful white Navajo Sandstone formation in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.

Host: Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Strip Office

1) Location: Hatch River Expedition Headquarters, Marble Canyon
Theme: Colorado River Management Plan: the view from the commercial outfitters side

Host: Hatch River Expeditions

2) Location: Lees Ferry
Tour of Lees Ferry, Lonely Dell
Host: National Park Service

3) Location: Glen Canyon Dam
Theme: Media event
Host: Bureau of Reclamation;

1) Tour of Paria Canyon Area

Host: Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Strip Office
Contact: Becky Hammond 435-688-3323;

2) Program on recreational uses of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area & tour of Wahweap Marina area/Lone Rock area

Host: National Park Service

Team South will be briefed today by Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Deputy Superintendent Bill Pierce about management issues.

Host: National Park Service

Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Presentation by Pauline Wilson on Native American Issues.

Rainbow Bridge is considered an extremely sacred place to the Dine (Navajo) and other neighboring native tribes. How does the Park Service meet everyone's needs when they manage a sacred site which is also a popular recreation area?

Host: National Park Service

On Lake Powell. What are the impacts of our daily lives on the fish who share our lands? How have pollutants, dams, and development changed aquatic habitats, and what are we doing to mitigate it?

USGS Aquatic Ecologist Mark Anderson will brief Team South on resource management issues at Lake Powell, followed by USGS Fisheries Biologist Gordon Mueller who will present a historical perspective on the endemic fish species of Colorado River drainage.

USGS Biological Reserves scientists are conducting studies on the effects of trace elements in irrigation drainage water on the survival, growth, and behavior of endangered fish in the Green River Basin. Studies of pike minnow, bonytail chub, and razorback sucker are providing important information to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in support of recovery efforts for these species.

Hosted by USGS
American Frontiers exhibit on US Geological Survey

Programs and tours of the Hole in the Rock area in the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument

Host: Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Strip Office
Contact: Brian Bellow 435-826-5626

Invasive plant species, including noxious weeds, are plants which are not native to an ecosystem but which have taken over that ecosystem and are endangering native species. This is an urgent and potentially disastrous problem throughout the public lands of the West, where invasive plants are destroying riparian areas, aggravating fire hazards, killing off native species, and even poisoning the soil. What can we do to combat this widespread and urgent problem?

Host: Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Strip Office, USGS
American Frontiers exhibit on US Geological Survey

Richfield, Utah

Roundtable discossion about the Paiute ATV TRail, a on public-state-private partnership, and how it has affected ATV use and tourism in central Utah. Tour of the Paiute ATV trail during the Rocky Mountain ATV Jamboree.

Hosts: Fishlake NF, BLM

Tours of Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, Manti LaSal Mammoth Site, Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum

Hosts: Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office, City of Price, USDA Forest Service

The Trekkers take a day off & try their luck fishing in this 17,200-acre reservoir stocked with rainbow & cutthroat trout and kokanee salmon.

Interpretive programs include Fire Management, the Strawberry Valley Restoration Project, and Winter Recreation


Host: USDA Forest Service, Uinta National Forest

Location: Johnson Battalion Historical Site

Host: USDA Forest Service
Contact: Dennis Lund – 928-779-1450

Pine Valley Campground, Wasatch-Cache National Forest
Team Joining Ceremony Barbecue/Reception celebration of ending of Trek w/dignitaries. By invitation only

Host: PLIA, Wasatch-Cache National Forest
Contact: Stephen Maurer, 505-345-9498

This Is The Place Heritage Park, Salt Lake City
National Public Lands Day

Large public event to celebrate National Public Lands Day and the conclusion of American Frontiers: A Public Lands Journey. Re-enactment of team joining ceremony, Smokey hot air balloon, exhibits, entertainment, dignitaries.

Host: PLIA
Contact: Stephen Maurer 505-345-9498