2017-Great-West SWAT @ Red Rocks

Start Date-End Date: 07/25/2017-07/25/2017 Land Manager Office: City and County of Denver - Parks and Recreation Land Manager Contact: Funding Partner: Empower (formerly Great-West) Programmatic Partner: Summary: Trading post trail project Description: Work will be out on the Trading Post Trail. There are a couple of heavily eroded sections of trail in which we will fill back in with material this year until we can address the drainage issues on the trail at another time. Trail Maintenance. Latitude/Longitude: 39.670243, -105.203890 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 50 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 53 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 53 Total Unique Volunteers: 53 Total Volunteer Hours: 296.5 Staff Hours: 18 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: The morning started off in a dust stormas a small storm rolled in over the red rocks, bringing a light rain to the Upper South Lot. Although rain and dusty high winds are never ideal forour breakfast station and tent set up,it was a bit of a relief after the previous week had brought near 100 degree days to the area. The work set out was going to be very labor intensive, moving 21 cubic yards of material down a flight of steps and 1/8 of a mile down the Trading Post Trail, so the overcast day wasa welcomed surprise. The project was slated to begin at 9am but volunteers began showing up as early as 8am, eager to help get things set up. The turnout was impressive, with 48 of the 50 volunteers showing up. Although the tasks for the day were relatively straight forward (filling eroded sections with red dirt, corridor clearing, and drain clean out) I was glad to have recruited 5 crew leaders to help manage the number of volunteers. The main task was moving all the red dirt down the trading post trial to patch up the large holes left by the cracking asphalt beneath the trail. This task kept the bulk of volunteers busy, and required a lot of management to determine how many people we needed filling buckets, transporting them down the fire line, wheelbarrowing. It was hard work, so many volunteers frequently asked to switch between tasks, so having crew leaders to keep a handle on their group and manage those changes was helpful. Having 14 wheel barrows at the site was also a huge help in being able to accomplish moving all the material, the challenge was that I only had the van to transport all the tools. I made a trip out the day before to drop additional wheel barrows and then had to make a second trip to pick them up but I am glad we had them there. Ryan (DMP ranger) was a big help in keeping the groups motivated and also helping with some of the harder tasks when volunteers grew tired. I would say the most challenging part of working with the group was keeping volunteers motivated to take on the harder tasks, at time we had very few willing to be on the fire line or wheel barrow, and way too many volunteers wanting to spread material. Which wasn't helpful if we couldn't actually get it down to them via fire line and wheel barrows. A few of the volunteers who had been on last year's Swat at red rocks knew the work would be hard and stuck to corridor cleaning with no interest in doing anything else. While that is fine and I would never push anyone to work beyond their capabilities, it did make it difficult to get the work done at time. It forced some volunteers who had been doing the hardest work all day to be stuck on those tasks. Small challenges aside, the project was a success. We were able to transport all the set out materials down to the trading post trail, and accomplished all the other tasks we set out to do as well. Although GWF is usually able to provide a large group of volunteers, exploring less labor intensive projects in the future might also be worthwhile. If the weather had in fact been a 90+ degree day I don't think we would have accomplished all the work set out for us. Successes and Challenges: Successes The volunteer turnout was great, with all but 2 volunteers showing up The group was fun and excited to be out of the office getting their hands dirty Group organizer Elizabeth Moser was very responsive in pre project planning We accomplished all the tasks we set out to complete that day! It was really helpful having 5 CLs on the project Challenges The amount of tools needed at the project site were more than I could fit in one VOC vehicle, so I ended up having to do multiple trips to accommodate that challenge. It was hard to keep volunteers motivated to do that harder tasks (which required about half of the group) so many volunteers who had been doing those tasks all day were not able to switch out. The sudden dust storm created a thin layer of red dirt on the breakfast Lessons Learned: Coordinate help shuttling tools to the work site sooner to prevent making multiple trips Special Notes: N/a Stewardship Education: N/a Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: N/a Description of Accidents/Incidents: N/a Description of Work Completed: