Gabe Howe ’12

With a father who attended Southern Oregon College in the 1967-68, it seems fitting that Gabe Howe ’12, would eventually become a Raider. Initially, he came to SOU in 2002 and met his future wife but left the spring of 2003. He moved back to the Portland-metro area and would bounce around jobs for several years while also earning an associate’s degree from Mt. Hood Community College. By 2009, he was ready to return to Ashland and once there, he’d never look back.

Re-enrolling as a junior and majoring in English and Writing, Howe was much more focused than he was his freshman year and strived to build good relationships and connections with his professors. “I loved the small class sizes and Dr. Alma Rosa Alvarez was one of my favorite teachers because she was passionate about her field but really looked out for and cared for her students,” he said.  He got involved with the Outdoor Program but didn’t get as much outdoor time as he wanted because he and his wife had a child during his senior year and he worked part time at Ashland Shop n’ Kart to help make ends meet.

Since 2005, Howe and his wife, Jillian Stokes, had been making annual backpacking trips into southern Oregon’s Kalmiopsis Wilderness where entire trail systems had been rendered impassable following damage sustained after the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Trails were overgrown and essentially non-existent even though maps highlighted them. He set out to do something about it. In 2010-11 he recruited SOU students to help clear local backcountry trails. “We did it the old-fashioned way with human powered crosscut saws, Pulaski’s, hand clippers, etc.  It was literally an experiment but I was intrigued by the potential to make it something other than just fun,” said Howe.  He started a website and submitted volunteer opportunities to the Medford Mail Tribune outdoor section to find volunteers.

Soon some of the trail clearing trips were taking a week to work on while helping the US Forest Service as volunteers. They needed resources which the Forest Service could not afford so he applied for federal non-profit status to help fundraise for new tools and mileage reimbursement. He made his work part of his senior Capstone project, which helped to name the organization the Siskiyou Mountain Club (SMC). He considered staying on at SOU to work toward a graduate degree but after graduating spring of 2012 with a bachelor of arts in English and writing, he pursued the trails avenue full time. By 2013 he began applying for grants and putting a lot of time into fundraising.

“To date, we’ve restored about 250 miles of trails that had disappeared, or were about to be lost, from the wild landscapes across northwest California and southwest Oregon. We help manage approximately 400 miles of trails on a triennial basis. We’ve built the systems of a Wilderness Corps program that provides interns entry level opportunities and a scaffolding into staff development and leadership,” said Gabe. SMC has restored lost trails, rebuilt stream crossing bridges and is currently rebuilding the Bolan Mountain Fire Lookout with a crew of 26- 18 interns, five assistant crew leaders and three crew leaders.

“SOU provided me an avenue to build the skillset I needed to grow Siskiyou Mountain Club from a small group of volunteers into a thriving nonprofit driven by the community.” 

Learn more:  Siskiyou Mountain Club