Annie Glickstein grew up loving the great outdoors. “Horses, dogs, being out by the ocean. I just I’m an outdoors person,” says Annie. “Anything outdoors was me.” She even met her husband on a camping trip nearly four decades ago. “We’ve always done hikes on our vacations. Weekend warriors. Hiking. The outdoors is very important. And we’ve always been really big about recycling and using less stuff and trying not to leave a big footprint wherever we went,” she says. That passion led to her current role. She and her husband vacationed in Sedona for years and decided to retire in Red Rock Country. After moving here about four years ago, Annie was at a house party when someone suggested she join Friends of the Forest. She started as a volunteer. Today, she serves as the president of the nonprofit. Founded back in 1994, Friends of the Forest is a nonprofit, volunteer-led organization that assists the Forest Service with various projects. About one-third of the nonprofit’s members reside in Sedona. Others reside in other parts of Arizona and can travel to assist the group. Annie has a background in emergency services work. She has worked as a 911 dispatcher, a volunteer EMT, an emergency room secretary and a senior disaster program manager for the Red Cross in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
At Friends of the Forest, Annie manages teams or committees of volunteers tasked with various assignments. For example, one committee is responsible for graffiti removal. Trail ambassadors help educate people on topics like how much water to bring on a hike. The nonprofit’s volunteers have built retaining trails due to erosion and removed barbed wire fencing. She estimates the group has about 150 volunteers who are putting in hours and about 600 people on the books who help behind the scenes. Friends of the Forest logged over 30,000 volunteer hours in 2022, and the nonprofit does work all over Northern Arizona.
“I just love seeing projects getting done by so many people,” says Annie. “It’s the bragging rights of all the teams. I think my committee chairs make me so proud because my life is so easy because they do so much.” She has gone to schools to speak to students. She’s often on trails and helps out as needed. In October of 2022, Annie installed recorders that listen to Arizona toads in the Fossil Springs Wilderness in Strawberry to gather information for scientific research. Overall, the nonprofit strives to preserve the wilderness. “If you come to Sedona today, and you go on a trail, you’re going to hopefully have a great experience. And I know that’s because we’ve been out there,” Annie says. – By Teresa K. Traverse
