2012-Hayman Fire 10-Year Anniversary Trail Creek Restoration - 6/23/2012

Start Date-End Date: 06/23/2012-06/23/2012 Land Manager Office: USFS - Pike & San Isabel National Forests Land Manager Contact: Lisa Patton Funding Partner: Coalition for the Upper South Platte Programmatic Partner: Summary: Help fight erosion in the area burned by the 2002 Hayman Fire, the largest fire in Colorado's history. Description: STEWARDSHIP SITE 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of the Hayman Fire, the largest fire in Colorado's history that burned 138,000 acres and 133 homes in 20 days. Most of the fire (72%) stayed on the Pike National Forest south and west of Denver and northwest of Colorado Springs. While the land is slowly healing, the fire's devastation continues to negatively impact surrounding water, plant, and wildlife resources. VOLUNTEER PROJECT - WHAT & WHY Due to the fire, the soil in the Trail Creek area remains loose and unable to efficiently soak up water. Run-offs loaded with sediments deposited into the South Platte River have affected major water reservoirs that provide over 75% of Colorado's water for municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses. Be part of this important effort to help minimize the damage to Colorado's precious water supply. This is also a unique opportunity to experience first-hand changes on the land 10 years after Colorado's largest fire on record. Volunteerwill establishing erosion control andcomplete stream restoration work which may include planting willows, re-vegetating areas of erosion, and installing protective log fencing.Volunteers will hike less than a mile to the project area, and work will be on uneven terrain, off trails, on hillsides with slight slope, loose soil, and in or along creek beds. Due to vegetation and tool and equipment use, long pants and long sleeves are necessary for protection. All volunteers will need to wear protective eyewear on site.Sunglasses are fine, though we willalso have extrasafety goggles available. PARTNERS Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP) U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Pike Ranger District National Forest Foundation OTHER FUN STUFF Meals: light breakfast; lunch Latitude/Longitude: 38.99689865112305, -105.06230163574219 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 60 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 47 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 7 Total Volunteer Days: 54 Total Unique Volunteers: 54 Total Volunteer Hours: 561 Staff Hours: 68 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Successes and Challenges: Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Stewardship Education: SA Lee Coveney and Mark Herndon did a great job education volunteers on the impact of the fire on this project. CUSP gave Lee material to read ahead of time. We learned a lot on the coordination and role of the SA on this project and as mentioned in the post project eval, there are was that can improve this role for next time. Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: See project evaluation in project folder Description of Accidents/Incidents: Three volunteers has minor signs of heat exhaustion. One was early in the day and the woman went to help with the kitchen. The other 2 happened in the afternoon following lunch. They came off the project early, rested in the shade, and were given electrolytes. The Waldo Fire sparked in the afternoon. Around 1:30pm, CUSP staff notified Cecily. CUSP staff Mark Herndon when to gather more information regarding the movement of the fire and road closer. After receiving additional information Mark and Cecily decided jointly to end the project early. Cecily (CLM for the project) gave directions to crew leaders and got volunteers who needed to head towards home/CO Springs via Hwy 24 out first. Some crews choose to stay to complete what they were doing because they weren't headed into the direction of the fire on their drive home. CUSP was pleased with how the announcements were given to the volunteers. Description of Work Completed: Nearly 50 volunteers of various ages (Volunteers tackled five different important tasks despite the heat: planting over a hundred willow stakes in a rehabilitated stream, planting hundreds of pines along the steep Trail Creek hillside, spreading seed and erosion control mats, harvesting willow stakes and removing invasive noxious weeds.) Volunteers planted over a hundred willow stakes in a rehabilitated stream. Hundreds of pines were planted on the steep hillside of Trail Creek to help regenerate the forest and to control erosion. Another team of volunteers spread seed and laid out erosion control mats on steep slopes adjacent to the creek channel. Other volunteers served as weed warriors controlling invasive noxious weeds, as well as, harvesting willows for additional staking. (I don’t have any hard numbers to quantify our work because CUSP did the design on the fly. I will get the information from them.) Everyone worked hard in the heat with hardly any shaded on the burn site. We have people of varying ages, youth, families, and the Denver 38 Racing group. CUSP was a fantastic partner to work with. They provide a staff person to help facilitate each task. Crew Chef Rose Beyer with Helpers Jeanne Cross, Wendy Kochevar, and Brandon Diaz provide a fantastic lunch of sloppy joes, veggie burgers, broccoli salad, carrot cakes and butterscotch bars. We also had delicious tortilla chips donated by Raquelitas Tortillas. Among the raffle items donated, there was a special VOC members only raffle for a lift ticket to Aspen ski resorts Funding for this project came from NFF. While it was healing to be able to restore the land impacted by the Hayman Fire, we were reminded that day of the impacts of fire on people. As we were on the project, the Waldo Fire sparked. Volunteers who came via Woodland Park, Colorado Springs, and Manitou Springs, left the project early so that they were able to safely drive home prior to the potential closure of Hwy 24. We will be back to work on the Hayman Trail Creek site on August 4th. Also see post project evaluation in the project folder