Meet Bob Weiss, Jackson District, Trail Ambassador
“I am a deep believer in the power of public lands,” says Bob Weiss, who moved to Jackson Hole full-time in 2018 after he and his wife retired and has been a volunteer supporting the Bridger-Teton National Forest via Friends of the Bridger-Teton since 2021.
Bob’s first volunteering in the valley was in Grand Teton National Park. At that time, he lived in Wilson, close to the base of Teton Pass, which is part of the BTNF. “I thought that if I could volunteer for the National Park Service, I could for the BTNF. It was so close to my house, and I feel it is underappreciated, national forests don’t have the glamour of national parks, and we use our national forest pretty intensely here. I wanted to help educate people to treat it respectfully.”
He’s been a dedicated Trail Ambassador ever since. He has spent a lot of time in and around the Trail Creek Trailhead close to his Wilson home. “I try to get there early so I can do a hike on a trail to get a sense of any wildlife out and then typically my shift is from about 8 a.m.–12 or 1 p.m.,” he says. Initially, Bob spent his time managing parking at the popular trailhead and de-escalating potential conflicts between dogs/dog owners and different user groups. “Unlike in Grand Teton, on the national forest you can have a dog, but it needs to be leashed in the parking lot,” he says. The more time he spent at Trail Creek, though, the less time he had to spend on parking issues and asking pet owners to leash their dogs. “Over time, people came to understand,” he says.
More recently, Bob has found himself able to focus more on education about the trails in the area and responsible recreation. “I like helping people with basic safety and local information. It really is quite lovely.”
Having recently moved from Wilson into Jackson, Bob also now spends time at the Cache Creek Trailhead. This is possibly the single busiest trailhead on the BTNF’s Jackson District and also connects to the popular much-loved and -used Snow King Trail Network. “The access to the BTNF is just so easy, which is one of the many things that both makes it so special and makes it important that there are Ambassadors on it to educate and help users,” he says.