Pull weeds in a beautiful canyon outside Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Update: This event is full and there is currently a waitlist. See other available trips
Join us May 20-23, 2025 for three days of restoration projects in Johnson Lakes Canyon.
Johnson Lakes Canyon is a beautiful 800-acre, cattle-free private inholding surrounded by Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Landowners Susie and Rick Knezevich have placed Johnson Lakes Canyon in a conservation easement with the Trust. For 12 years, they have been bringing Johnson Lakes Canyon back to health by removing invasive species; planting oak, cottonwood, and native grasses; and raising streambeds by adding woody debris to catch sediment.
Johnson Lakes Canyon is an important landscape to compare with the heavily grazed Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where more than 96 percent of the monument is open to livestock grazing. The restoration work we accomplish in Johnson Lakes Canyon forms an important contrast to how grazing management and protection of public lands can and should be handled in the monument.
This year, our restoration work will primarily be weeding non-native plants. Join us in the field to see for yourself how worthy this landscape is of protection.
Who can sign up?
Many of our trips are family friendly! Please see our FAQs for more information or email us with questions about particular trips.
Membership is optional, but we ask that participants who are comfortable financially become members of the Grand Canyon Trust with a $25 donation. Members receive a subscription to our biannual print magazine, The Advocate. Please contact us if you have any questions. You’ll also need to submit your volunteer application form to secure your spot on the trip.
*To accommodate new volunteers on this very popular trip, we ask that volunteers who attended the Johnson Lakes trip in 2024 refrain from signing up this year.
What to expect
We’ll fuel up with coffee and breakfast in the mornings, and spend our days weeding non-native plants throughout Johnson Lakes Canyon. We’ll return to camp in the evenings for free time, appetizers, dinner, and excellent conversation.
There will also be time to soak in stunning vistas, swim in the lake, do yoga with Kaya McAlister, and spend time with the wonderful and gracious Knezeviches.
We’ll hear from the Knezeviches about their philosophy of advocacy work and learn about land stewardship. On one day of the trip, we hope to go for a nearby hike to check out another relatively ungrazed landscape.
On the last day of the trip, we’ll break camp, pack up, and head home.
Accommodations
We will have a car-camping-style base camp at Johnson Lakes Canyon. The Trust and the Knezeviches will provide water, a full camp kitchen, and a port-a-potty on site.
The Trust provides: All meals, snacks, field equipment, tools, and training.
Participants provide: Personal transportation to Kanab, Utah, or the site (4WD, high clearance vehicle required but carpooling will be available), individual camping gear, coffee mug, lunch container, work clothes, work gloves, wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, rain gear, and clothes for warm days and cold nights. Please come prepared.
How to sign up:
- Select “SIGN UP,” and follow the prompts.
- Check your email for further instructions.
- Send in your volunteer application form for the year.
- Become a member of the Grand Canyon Trust.
- A Trust trip leader will confirm your spot.
Questions? Email volunteernow@grandcanyontrust.org
Trip packing list
Our gear list will help you prepare. We can loan some items on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact us for details.
Frequently asked questions
Curious about logistics, the food you'll eat during the trip, or the difficulty of the field work? Check out the frequently asked questions.
7 perks of volunteering with the Trust
When you volunteer with the Trust, we make it worth your while. From eating good food, to learning new skills. Find out the perks of volunteering.
Public health considerations on volunteer trips
Our top priority is the safety and comfort of our trip participants. Precautionary measures that will be followed on trips to avoid the spread of communicable diseases will be communicated in pre-trip emails. If we feel that a trip cannot be safely conducted due to public health conditions, or for any other reason, we will cancel the trip with as much notice as possible. Volunteers or participants may reach out to volunteernow@grandcanyontrust.org with any questions.
The Grand Canyon Trust is committed to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion at every level of our work. The conservation field and the Colorado Plateau have their own histories of racial injustice and exclusion and as a largely white organization, we know we have work to do. We are actively working to make the conservation field and the Colorado Plateau more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive. Read the Grand Canyon Trust’s justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion statement
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