Greys River District, Cottonwood Campground
Jack Robertson volunteered for FBT and the BTNF for the first time in summer 2025, says he tries to devote three months of every year to volunteering. “I’ve been doing that since 2019,” he says. “I really enjoy it because it gives me a feeling of making a contribution.” He’s returning to FBT and the BTNF in 2026 because, “The opportunity to spend time on the forest is a reward in itself. It also gives me the opportunity to be help to the Forest Service, to assist visitors, and to protect the wonderful resource with my small contribution.”
Jack likes doing his volunteer work on public lands. Before the BTNF he was a host at the Eagle Creek Campground on the Custer-Gallatin National Forest (just north of the Gardiner entrance to Yellowstone National Park) for two summers and also volunteered with the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska one summer.
Jack spends much of his time on public lands today. He says there weren’t any national parks or forests near the town where he grew up in southern Arkansas. Still, in high school, he wanted to have a career as a forest or national park ranger.
While Jack didn’t have the wilderness experiences that he loves so much today—“the wilder the better nowadays,” he says—as a kid, he was exposed to camping and the idea of responsible recreation as a Boy Scout. “Scouting was very important to me because it got me into the outdoors,” he says.
On the BTNF, Jack helps to educate users about the wonderful resource and how to help take care of the forest so that it’s around for future generations to enjoy and to hike in. “The BTNF offers a perfect place to be of service to others who share my love of the area, while also taking advantage of the recreational opportunities that are so plentiful at my doorstep.”
His Wheaton Terrier, Zebulon (named for Zebulon Pike, for whom Pike’s Peak in Colorado is named), will be with him. “Zeb loves the outdoors more than I do, if that’s possible,” Jack says.
Fun Fact: When not volunteering, the home Jack occupies in Colorado was built in 1924 and has 57 windows! He has taught himself how to build windows. His home is one block from the edge of Pike-San Isabel National Forest.