BY MADISON RUTHERFORD

Sara Toms grew up exploring the Superstition Wilderness, joining her dad on “Dutch hunting” trips in search of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine and asking her mom endless questions about the mountains. Those early experiences sparked a lifelong curiosity about the natural world, leading her to study geology and eventually build a career in environmental education, park management, and wilderness EMT work. “I wanted to be able to speak for the mountains and tell Earth’s story,” she says.

After serving as a ranger at Red Rock State Park and Picacho Peak, Toms transferred to Lost Dutchman State Park, a full-circle moment she describes as “coming home.” As assistant park manager, Toms is responsible for ensuring that the 320-acre protected area is safe for both visitors and its hundreds of native plant and animal species. “I protect the park from the people and the people from the park,” she laughs.

Toms also works with a team of rangers and volunteers to clean up litter, remove invasive flora, and maintain trails by hand – often using creative approaches that minimize environmental impact and benefit the community. “We have a volunteer who has a sticker business, and they use the cardboard we find [on the trails] to mail their stickers in,” she says.

For Toms and many of her peers, who live on park property, it’s more than just a job. “We live where we work, it becomes who we are, and it becomes part of us. It becomes more of a responsibility to the future and to the earth,” she says.

“It’s one thing when you walk and pick up litter, but to us, it’s like… maybe you can also educate someone on why we shouldn’t litter, and it’s a bigger picture because we’re helping preserve it for generations to come.”

This deep-seated sense of environmental accountability is shared across a network of behind-the-scenes trail stewards who quietly keep Arizona’s natural landscapes clean, intact, and thriving.

“It’s hard for people to see what a trail looked like before because you see the finished trail. If the trail’s fine, you’re not complaining about it – you’re just enjoying nature,” explains Debbie Fogle, who founded Alpine Trail Stewards with her husband, Aaron, in 2023. “But what you didn’t see is what it looked like before – walls of downfall, completely overgrown New Mexico locust trying to rip your clothes off, and areas where the tread was barely visible.”

The nonprofit is dedicated to restoring and maintaining non-motorized trails in Eastern Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The all-volunteer team tackles everything from brush overgrowth to damaged trail signs, but Fogle is particularly proud of their restoration of Government Trail #119 along Escudilla Mountain’s western slope, which sustained significant damage after the 2011 Wallow Fire. “We spent 858 hours doing the impossible – 16 volunteers made 42 trips up that mountain, and each trip was up to 1,700 vertical feet,” Fogle says. “We cleared a wall of trees into a trail again.” Over six months, Alpine Trail Stewards removed the remnants of 1,020 decaying, fire-ravaged trees that covered the trail, using primarily crosscut saws in designated wilderness areas where motorized equipment is prohibited.

Alpine Trail Stewards has already cleared 18 miles of trails in 2026. “We’ve been working really hard on building a volunteer system that’s sustainable,” Fogle says. “We want something that outlasts all of us.”

For Nicole Corey and her husband, Justin, that connection to the outdoors and commitment to the community was the inspiration for their nonprofit, Natural Restorations. Founded in 2015, the organization focuses on revitalizing Arizona’s natural spaces through trash and graffiti removal, invasive species management, and replanting projects.

Natural Restorations’ work also centers on supporting military veterans through its Dedicated Restoration Team, inspired by Justin’s best friend, Derek, who struggled to adjust to civilian life after returning from service in the U.S. Army. “Derek told him that he enjoyed the distraction of picking up trash and making the areas he enjoyed look better,” Corey says. “We wanted to provide a low-to-no-stress environment where veterans could spend time in nature around other veterans while doing something positive where they can see an immediate, visible impact because of their actions.”

Since its inception, nearly 16,500 Natural Restorations volunteers have removed more than 2 million pounds of trash, eliminated over 50,000 square feet of graffiti, and planted more than 100,000 trees and cacti in burn scars in the Tonto National Forest. “Almost 3,000 of those volunteers have been under 18,” Corey notes. “It’s amazing to see kids give up their Saturday morning to pick up trash left behind by careless adults.”

Land stewardship is as much about education as it is restoration and conservation. Environmental education is a cornerstone of the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy’s stewardship program, which oversees more than 30,000 acres of protected land in Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve. “What gives me hope is when we do field trips and the third and fourth graders come out, the stewards teach them, and you just watch them come alive, ask questions, and get so excited about the plants, the animals, and being outdoors,” says McDowell Sonoran Conservancy CEO Angy Shearer.

It’s also about prevention, she says. McDowell Sonoran Conservancy volunteers regularly patrol the preserve’s 225 hiking and biking trails to ensure visitor safety and help with navigation. “We notice if somebody is struggling, we’ll sit and wait for them to come our way, and then give them direction on the shortest way back,” Shearer explains. “If they are really struggling and need medical attention, we’ll call and get them help, and we’ll tell emergency services where they are so they can locate them easily.”

Extreme heat, drought, and monsoons all take a toll on Arizona’s vulnerable ecosystems, but human behavior poses an equally serious threat. “Trail users can make a huge impact in very simple ways,” Fogle says. “Stay on the trail, respect closures, respect other people, respect the space, pack out your trash, and report issues that you see.”

Shearer emphasizes the importance of understanding and practicing responsible recreation, especially when it comes to respecting trail boundaries. “When you go off trail, you’re crunching on plants, biocrust, and living ecosystems that help the preserve thrive,” she says.

McDowell Sonoran Conservancy stewards also assist scientists with ecological research, including monitoring butterfly migration, tracking tortoise movement through telemetry, and supporting restoration efforts. “When you go out and see the beauty of the preserve and know that you had a big part in that, the reason that the animals are thriving and the plants are doing well… all of that is because of all the hard work of the stewards,” Shearer says. “People don’t realize that, but we know it, and it is just so rewarding.”

A resounding throughline runs through each trail steward’s mission: an obligation to care for the earth, leave it better than they found it, and ensure these practices endure so future generations don’t have to start from scratch. “When I teach geology out here, it doesn’t matter what age it is. I get everybody in a circle, and I have them scoop up a handful of rocks,” Toms says. “And I say, ‘Look at these rocks… Every single one of these has a different story, and every step you’re going to take today is going to be part of that story. This place has a lot to tell, and we need to protect it for future generations to be able to love and continue to read this story.’… Every step we take, let’s make it a better one.”