2016-Cairn September 2016: Fire mitigation at RMNP

Start Date-End Date: 09/17/2016-09/18/2016 Land Manager Office: NPS - Rocky Mountain National Park Land Manager Contact: Geoff Elliot Funding Partner: Rocky Mountain Conservancy Programmatic Partner: Summary: Students from the Cairn program will go to RMNP for their first project. Description: Students from the Cairn program will go to RMNP for their first project. Latitude/Longitude: 40.364405, -105.559170 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 40 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 7 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 25 Total Volunteer Days: 32 Total Unique Volunteers: 32 Total Volunteer Hours: 480 Staff Hours: 34.5 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: On the weekend of September 17th-18th, the 2016-2017 Cairn season kicked off with our overnight project in Rocky Mountain National Park! It was a beautiful weekend in the park, and elk were migrating all around us. We worked alongside the NPS fire crew and the Rocky Mountain Conservancy to build fire burn piles. The fire crew had done a lot of forest thinning and fuels reduction work, but the piles take a long time to make, and 35 Cairn participants made a huge impact! We were able to build nearly 40 piles that will be part of prescribed burns in the winter. After the hard work was done, we camped in Moraine Park, ate tacos, made s'mores and talked around the campfire. Sunday morning was an early wake up call, so that we could beat the crowds on the trail to Emerald Lake. It was a gorgeous day, and Geoff from the Rocky Mountain Conservancy talked to us about the plants and animals that call RMNP home. Successes and Challenges: Successes -- working with Rocky Mountain Conservancy was awesome. They took care of setting up the work and campground with NPS, and provided a lot of stewardship education and talked about summer opportunities for the students. The fire work was great because it was tangible and visible and hard work! Challenges -- having the overnight as the first project is tricky, because there wasn't much time on the first day to do icebreakers and to learn names. Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Provided extensively by Rocky Mountain Conservancy in many instances -- at the campground and on the hike. Also provided by the NPS fire crew in terms of fire ecology, Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: