Snowlands Network is a volunteer-directed organization. Our success is made possible by the dedication of volunteers throughout our work. The following volunteers lead efforts in specific areas. Please join us as a volunteer for a few hours or more actively.
Coordinators
Gail Ferrell
Lake Tahoe and Reno
Gail Ferrell has volunteered her time working to protect winter wildlands for skiers and snowshoers since 1999. Her primary work has focused on an area outside her home in Reno, Nevada called Tahoe Meadows. The success in banning snowmobiles from a majority of Tahoe Meadows’ 4000 acres can be attributed to her perseverance.
Gail has built a Nevada constituency of members for Snowlands, and has contributed extensively to the raising of funds through events and grants. She also serves as a Director of Snowlands . She was interviewed in three articles in 2004 for the Reno Gazette-Journal and her opinions on the need to protect public lands for human-powered winter recreation have been published in the Opinion Section.
Gail is a past director of the Winter Wildlands Alliance, the national organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of areas for human-powered winter recreation. She volunteered her time for six years to work on important national issues with Winter Wildlands Alliance such as the protection of Yellowstone National Park in winter.
Gail holds a Bachelors degree in mathematics and a Masters degree in the Teaching of Mathematics, as well as a Masters degree in Educational Psychology. She has been a professor of mathematics at Truckee Meadows Community College since 1990 and was awarded Teacher of the Year in 1995 and received Nevada Regents Teacher of the Year in 2008. Her interests include backcountry skiing, bicycling, dancing, singing and environmental issues.
Monte Hendricks
Highway 50
Monte is an avid backcountry skier and an expert on issues related to muscle-powered winter recreation along the Highway 50 corridor. As the Highway 50 regional coordinator he leads Snowlands Network on issues in the area. He attends many meetings, develops policy and prepares alerts and media information as required. He also organizes projects such as trail markings in the area.
Monte is also the current President of the El Dorado Nordic Ski Patrol. Founded in 1982, the Patrol is one of the most respected volunteer groups working with the Eldorado National Forest. The Patrol’s mission is providing a needed winter backcountry safety presence, ski trail and hut maintenance, helping backcountry travelers in need, and public education on winter mountain safety skills.
Monte currently serves on the California Recreation Resource Advisory Committee representing winter non-motorized users. This federal advisory committee reviews and makes recommendations as to how collected recreation fees on USFS and BLM public lands in California should be spent.
Since November 2003 Monte has been a member of El Dorado County’s ad hoc Rubicon Trail Oversight Committee as a non-motorized representative working toward resolution of user conflicts, addressing the massive resource damage caused by unmanaged vehicle use, and a still unrealized dream of developing a management plan allowing for responsible motorized use of this historic trail with adequate environmental protections.
Monte and his wife, Julie, share a love of the outdoors and adventure that includes backcountry skiing, hiking, backpacking, mountaineering, photography, fly fishing, and just exploring the wonderful wilderness we are so lucky to have. Over the years Monte and Julie have taught outdoor skills through the California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Fish & Game, many local search and rescue organizations, and the California Becoming an Outdoor Woman Program.
Professionally, Monte is a banjo maker. Since 1977 he has been partner with his brother Allen in Hendricks Banjos. Monte is a noted builder of custom banjos as well as a repair and restoration specialist.
Jeff Erdoes
Lands Monitoring
Jeff Erdoes received a BS in political science from UCLA in 1977, but considers himself a life-long student, advocate and admirer of western public lands. He has walked, hiked, bicycled, backpacked and skied widely in California and Nevada's outback.
Jeff has professional experience ranging from water analysis to commercial photography to credit fraud investigations, but his passion is the natural and physical sciences. He spent one favorite summer in 1979 as a Range Aid working for the Austin District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in central Nevada. In 1980 he backpacked 1,500 miles across California, from its southeast-most desert at the Colorado River to the fog-bound coast where it meets Oregon, including about 500 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. He considers it "the unsurpassed privilege of a lifetime".
As a long-time resident of northern Nevada, Jeff proved that an old desert rat can self-learn the art of snow travel. His favorite trips are day-long sojourns skiing trackless snow – steady, measured and self-reliant.
Jeff's pursuit of tranquility in the wilderness of the Lake Tahoe region routinely brings him face to face with the indiscretions of snowmobile motorists. He is thus an involuntary, but attentive, student of snowmobile abuse and over the years has extensively documented the gamut of abuse in the eastern Sierra and the Lake Tahoe region. He routinely supplies this information to authorities. His photographs appear in several publications.
Jeff has been a supporter of Snowlands since day one, offering his expertise and a great deal of his time in monitoring and documenting misuse of sensitive lands. His investigations now include snowmobile pollution of remote water and air, snow-season attrition of alpine vegetation, and forecasting of unlawful snowmobile wilderness entry. On behalf of Snowlands, Jeff receives, verifies, distributes and tracks incoming citizen reports of snowmobile abuse, including vehicular intrusion and trampling of wildlife refugia.