2017-REI Yay Day at Green Mountain

Start Date-End Date: 06/13/2017-06/13/2017 Land Manager Office: City of Lakewood Land Manager Contact: Erik Nilsen Funding Partner: REI - Recreational Equipment Inc. - Denver, CO Programmatic Partner: Summary: REI employees will come out to Green Mountain to help with trail maintenance. Description: REI employees will give back to the widely used trails at Green Mountain, in Lakewood, Colorado. Green Mountain is located between Alameda Parkway and E-470, making its 20+ miles of trails easily accessible. It is mostly used by hikers, trail runners and mountain bikers, and has an estimated visitation of 500,000 people per year! With such high use, and little respite during mud season, these trails need near constant restoration. The City of Lakewood has a very limited staff capacity, so volunteers are crucial in getting this work completed, and keeping trails safe and sustainable! Volunteers will help clean out water bars, close widening trails, and re-grade eroded areas of trail. Latitude/Longitude: 39.689806, -105.152003 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 30 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 37 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 37 Total Unique Volunteers: 37 Total Volunteer Hours: 185 Staff Hours: 16.5 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Right up to the day of the projectREI representatives worked hard to rally staff and muster up excitementabout the VOCproject. Theirhard work paid off with a total of 37 volunteersattending the project, a significant improvement in volunteer turn out from the years previous SWAT. REI volunteers trickled in around 7:15 am with enthusiasm for a day of hard work outdoors, and fueled up with some coffee and bagels. The REI rep, Eddie,who helped organize the project brought along some swag and handed out rei volunteer t-shirts to help amp participants up. We got started at 8:00 am and began shuttling crews of 10 in the van up to the Rooney Valley trailhead, where the trail maintenance work began. Although shuttling volunteers cut into the work time it was much more efficient than hiking up and allowed for crews to get a staggered start and space out adequately. By 9:00 am we had all 4 crews up on top of the mountain with tools in the ground, working away. We had 3 main tasks which included installing water bars, closing widening trails, and re-grading eroded areas of the trail. The work spanned about .8 miles down the trail and the REI volunteers proved to be fast and efficient workers, quickly catching on and breaking up into smaller groups to get more work done. Other than the occasional mountain biker we had the trail all to ourselves and lucked out with a nice cool breeze which made the 80 degree weather feel much more manageable. The crews were able to finish all the work laid out for them by 11:15am and then began the mile hike down the trail to enjoy a celebratory lunch provided by REI. The crew of about 40 spent the next hour enjoying delicious boxed lunches from Mod Market and socializing. Many of the volunteers expressed interest in volunteering at another VOC project and I was able to hand out many of ourproject mailers. Successes and Challenges: The logistics of shuttling crews to the top cut into what was already a short work day, but hiking would have taken longer so it was our only feasible option. It would have been nice to have the land manager, Eric, out on the project day of. His seasonal staff had an OK understanding of the tasks but two of them had just started working with the city that week, so some spec questions did come up. Overall though, the project outcome was successful and the group proved capable of finishing all the work we set out to accomplish. Having our intern, Marlee, out for the project was also a huge help, especially in terms of loading and unloading tools, and crew leading. Lunch was also a great success, gotta love a corporate lunch budget :) Lessons Learned: Don't trust Starbucks when they says they put the coffee cups in the bag, Marlee saved the day by running out to grab some before the volunteers arrived. Radioswere super helpful! Special Notes: Stewardship Education: We didn't have any formal education but working on water erosion and social trail closures definitely brought up a conversation around proper trial usage amongst volunteers. Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: N/A Description of Work Completed: