STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Sawtooth National Recreation Area is the size of Yosemite National Park. And, right now, it’s being managed by just eight full-time, non-fire Forest Service staff members.

That was the sobering reality Mike Hoover, executive director of the Sawtooth Society, laid out for the Wood River Women’s Foundation at one of the philanthropic organization’s Mix and Mingle events held at Top Notch Fine Furnishings in Ketchum.

There, Hoover and his colleague Michael Coiner shared the organization’s work and the impact of a grant given to the Sawtooth Society by the Foundation. The $16,679 grant from the WRWF is being used to help the Society’s two trail crews clear 150-plus miles of trail, remove 1,000-plus fallen trees, brush back shrubs and other vegetation on 10,700 feet of trail and repair 150 drainage sites this summer.

Jennifer Gennuso, of Far + Wise, was among those attending the Mix & Mingle at Top Notch Fine Furnishings.

Hoover, who has lived in the valley for 14 years, admitted he didn’t know what the SNRA was until about 10 years ago. Now he’s at the helm of the nonprofit founded in 1997 by Bethene Church, the wife of the late Sen. Frank Church.

Sen. Frank Church is the Idahoan who championed the 1972 public law that created the 756,000-acre recreation area out of central Idaho’s majestic landscape. The organization’s conservation pedigree runs deep—the late Senator’s granddaughter Monica Church still sits on the board.

The SNRA, which encompasses the Sawtooth, Cecil D. Andrus-White Clouds and Hemingway-Boulder Wilderness areas, boasts more than 900 miles of trails, 40 peaks eclipsing 10,000 feet and more than 300 alpine lakes.

The Sawtooth Society’s work spans three main areas, Hoover told the women gathered at Top Notch Fine Furnishings in Ketchum: The Sawtooth Valley Wildland Fire Collaborative, the Sawtooth Goat Plate Program and trail maintenance.

Kathleen Eder and Sheri Johnnie have been longtime members of the Wood River Women’s Foundation, which hopes to grow its membership to 400 this year.

The fire collaborative has become a critical lifeline during wildfire season, filling a communication gap that Hoover said can leave residents in the dark before Forest Service teams get established. During the 2024 Wapiti Fire, the Society sent out more than 100 emergency notifications in 40 days, covering everything from ready-set-go statuses to how to build a go-bag.

The Society has also organized two community seminars preparing mountain people for wildfire season.

The Sawtooth Goat Plate Program raises funds for recreation, safety and enhancement projects within the SNRA.

The need for trail work has exploded since Trump Administration cut 40 percent of the Forest Service nationwide. The SNRA went from 34 full-time non-fire staff to eight.

WRWF President Jeannie Shroads takes a moment to relax on the luxurious furnishings at Top Notch.

In response, the nonprofit Sawtooth Society stepped in, tripling its annual trail maintenance from 150 miles to 450 miles. Crews hand-cut 1,300 trees using crosscut saws—a painstaking process that can take an hour per tree—and cleared drainages, illegal fire rings and, less glamorously, human waste.

“Pack it out if you’re up there,” Hoover advised.

The grant from the Wood River Women’s Foundation is helping the Society fund a backcountry trail crew while maintaining volunteer projects. That means more miles covered, more hands on the ground, and more of the kind of work that keeps the backcountry accessible.

Hoover’s enthusiasm was palpable as he described the impact: “When the world feels like it’s burning, we’re in a position to do something about it.”

The WRWF grant is helping the Sawtooth Society preserve the scenic Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

He also shared a few lighter moments, including the discovery that Sawyer, the goat featured on the Society’s Idaho license plate, is actually a girl. And he issued a plea for anyone who spots a pre-World War II crosscut saw hanging in a bar to give him a call.

The Society is always looking for volunteers. In fact, members of the Wood River Women’s Foundation are following their fearless field trip coordinator Susie Zachman into the Sawtooth National Forest to work alongside a trail crew that a 2026 WRWF grant helped fund on Friday, Aug. 28.

They’ll be picking up fallen sticks, cutting back sagebrush, trimming back branches, raking rocks and debris from the trail and, yes, hand-sawing downed logs that are blocking the trail.

Learn more at https://woodriverwomensfoundation.org/.