Dan Watson will hold the annual NPS Volunteers in Parks Program Updates session on Zoom on Wednesday, March 6, at 6:30 pm.

Dan will discuss the new Swamper Video, where to send Volunteer Agreements, Chainsaw Program information, a 2023 program recap, and more.

You can find more info and register at: IAT-U Virtual: NPS Volunteers-In-Parks Program Updates (2024) - Ice Age Trail Alliance.

The OUR NAWAKWA nonprofit group completed their purchase of the Camp Nawakwa property in January. Their plan is to maintain the camp to provide outdoor experiences for youth. For the past several years, we have been partnering with the Girl Scouts to hold a snowshoe hike. We are holding our event with the Girl Scouts again this year, and we will be the first group to hold an event with Our Nawakwa.

Mother Nature has not been good to us this year, but we hold out hope for enough snow to snowshoe by the end of February. If not, we can hold it as a winter hike. We will need 3 or 4 hike leaders for the event. If you have snowshoes, and would like to participate in this snowshoe hike, please contact Vicki Christianson to volunteer. The volunteers will arrive at noon with a sack lunch. The hike will begin at 1:00. More information will be sent to our registered volunteers prior to the event. Hope to see you there.

If you want to know more about Our Nawakwa you can go to their Facebook page. On Facebook, search for “Our (Camp) Nawakwa”. Check out the post from Sherry Jasper that was posted early morning on January 31. It starts out: "This is a great one for people to share". Her post gives a terrific overview of their plans and goals for the camp.

In 2023, we rerouted trail off a forest road/logging road detour by Horseshoe Lake on the Chippewa Moraine Segment. The trail now travels high above two lakes to get to Town Line Road. A bench was also added at a scenic view point between the two lakes.

In 2024, we will be completing a 1 mile reroute of the Harwood Lakes segment at Kim’s Crossing. This will get us off the logging road. The trail will turn off the logging road and travel south along the edge of a wetland before turning east and traveling high along the south flank of a hill until it meets up with the west end of the shared Horse Trail. This route will travel out of sight of any future logging projects along the logging road. To the south of the hill is a wetland with several kettle lakes.

In 2023, our carpenters replaced a dilapidated bridge at Brunet Island on the Jean Brunet Trail. The new bridge was a big success, and we are going to do another bridge build at Lake Wissota State Park this year. A big thank you to our carpenters for their masterful work.

In 2024, we will take over maintenance of the trail that lies in the Chippewa Moraine National Scientific Reserve. This includes the entire Chippewa Moraine segment, and the western 1.5 miles of the Harwood segment. This will add 9.5 miles of trail work for the chapter. We have added trail adopters to this section of the trail who will monitor the trail and do minor trail cleanup. In April, we will have a major trail maintenance day to clean up winter damage to the Harwood Lakes and the Chippewa Moraine segments. We will need a full crew to accomplish this. If you are not on our trail crew (with a Volunteer Agreement-see below), consider joining our trail crew this year. There is something special about building and maintaining the trail. You will never look at the trail with the same eyes again after participating in a work project and learning what it takes to keep our trails in top condition.