Any adult who is interested in helping to protect, maintain and assist visitors to the canyons of the American River is invited to join Canyon Keepers. New volunteers training will be held on Saturday, April 7 at the Auburn State Recreation Area headquarters. There the trainees will meet State Parks rangers and other Canyon Keepers, who will instruct them in the responsibilities of a park docent and the various programs and activities where volunteers can help. They include meeting and assisting visitors at popular ASRA destinations, leading public hikes, canyon cleanups, Junior Rangers, creating and maintaining native gardens, making public presentations, and working on interpretive projects to share educational and entertaining interpretive information on topics such as flora and fauna, geology, history, Native American history and culture, river hydrology and visitor hazards and safety procedures in the canyons.
For more information and to sign up for the April 7 training, contact Jim LoBue at: [email protected] or call 530-887-8335.
The Junior Rangers Program gives youngsters the opportunity to experience the natural wonders of local river canyons while learning about how nature works and how to play a role in protecting and preserving those wonders. Any youth from age 5 through 12 is invited to sign up for the fun, educational and free program, which will take place on five successive Saturday mornings in June at the ASRA headquarters. Junior Rangers will find out what creatures are living in the river canyons and learn how to identify them by their furs, their tracks, even their scat and their skulls. Look under a magnifying glass to see what tiny creatures are swimming in the river. Learn how to protect from poison oak, insect bites and wild animals and how to help protect all from the dangers of wildfire. The sessions are broken up between Cubs – ages 5 and 6, and the standard Junior Rangers – ages 7 through 12.
For more information and to sign up for Junior Rangers, contact Sue and Roger Groghan at: [email protected] or call 530-878-6008.
To see the original article and more photos in the Auburn Journal newspaper, CLICK HERE.