Beth Dayton

crew member #7 President of Salem Area Trail Alliance, Saw Program Coordinator for Cascade Volunteers

Bio

Location: Salem, Oregon

Beth is a retired Oncology Surgeon getting back to her roots in the woods as President of Salem Area Trail Alliance, and Saw Program Coordinator for Cascade Volunteers for the Willamette National Forest.

  • Growing up in Bozeman, Montana, Beth enjoyed outdoor activities like skiing, backpacking, and canoeing. Upon retiring, she's enjoying the outdoors again through volunteer work and has inspired fellow chainsaw-wielding female volunteers, who now make up over 50% of the volunteers on her trail crews.
  • As President of the non-profit Salem Area Trail Alliance, Beth leads volunteers as they contribute thousands of hours to building and maintaining trails for mountain biking. In eight years of work at Silver Falls State Park, she has helped SATA build 12 miles of new trails.
  • As the Saw Program Coordinator, working with Oregon team members like Randy, Glenn, and Nathan, Beth coordinates classes and field work events that reach over 100 volunteer sawyers each year, allowing them to certify, or re-certify, for Forest Service saw cards. 
  • As a key member of the Salamander Crew, a subset of the Cascade Volunteers, Beth leads multi-day camping trips to facilitate trail work and cleanup efforts, including bucking out downed logs, tread work, and helping to rebuild bridges.  
  • In 2021, she led teams to help clear and rebuild over 40 different trails, including trails directly affected by the devastating fires in the Pacific Northwest.  
Why Oregon?

One word: Reliability.  When I lead a volunteer crew out to maintain trails in the back-country we might hike eight or ten miles in a day, with everything we need on our backs.  If a piece of equipment malfunctions or breaks, we can’t just get another from the truck or the shop.  I need everything I have with me to be durable and reliable under every possible condition, from snow and rain to blistering heat; cutting old growth or fire-hardened wood or nasty wet brush or whatever the day brings.  If our bodies can take the punishment we should never have to doubt that our tools can take it.”