2017-Singletree Fence Removal

Start Date-End Date: 06/10/2017-06/10/2017 Land Manager Office: USFS - Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger District Land Manager Contact: Jennifer Prusse Funding Partner: Singletree Property Owners Association, Berry Creek Metropolitan District Programmatic Partner: Summary: Join this important effort to clear the way for wildlife! Description: About the Stewardship Site: Located in the heart of Eagle County, the Singletree Community sits on the northern slopes of the sunny Vail Valley, offering magnificent views of the mountains surrounding Edwards, Colorado. This project is part of an ongoing effort to remove a fence that extends across large sections of the Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger District, built when the land was a privately-owned cattle ranch. About the Volunteer Experience: Volunteers will safely remove barbed wire fence by pulling posts from the ground and cutting and bundling wire. The project will be moderately difficult and requires hiking off-trail over uneven terrain. About the Overall Impact: This project will help protect wildlife, including deer and elk populations. Although deer and elk can jump fences, they can easily become injured or entangled, sometimes dying of trauma and dehydration. Animals can be hindered by deep snow or steep slopes, and young, pregnant or winter-stressed animals may have a difficult time clearing fences as they forage and migrate for food. Large, low-flying birds, especially raptors diving for prey, can collide with fences and break wings, impale themselves on barbs or tangle in wires. NOTE: MINORS ON VOC PROJECTS Youth under 16 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on single-day projects. Latitude/Longitude: 39.645503, -106.573305 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 30 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 38 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 1 Total Volunteer Days: 39 Total Unique Volunteers: 39 Total Volunteer Hours: 312 Staff Hours: 31 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: The day kicked off at the Singletree community center at 7:00 am, where dedicated volunteers showed up as early as 6:00 am to help get things set up. The morning was clam and cool, which we all appreciated in anticipation of the long day ahead of us out on the dry exposed hills of sage and juniper. We had a strong showing of 38 volunteers who traveled from all corners of the state to participate in the Singletree Fence Removal project, one volunteer even traveling all the way from Pennsylvania! After everyone had some time to mingle and grab some breakfast, we broke up into 4 work groups to begin carpooling to our starting points. The logistics of the day were particularly cumbersome, starting breakfast in one location, lunch in another and work from 5 different locations. Luckily, we had a number of volunteers agree to carpool their groups, which helped things run a little smoother. Once the chaos of getting everyone carpooled to the correct locations died down the volunteers were hitting the hills with haste to remove the 50 years old barbed wire fence. We had 5 staging points for crews to drop off materials and the piles began to grow as the old fence was systematically broken down. Community members were eager to offer their thanks, fill up water jugs and even provide some unexpected snacks throughout the work day. The work was tough, the hills were steep and the dirt and gravel often loose. With the 90 degree sun beating down and little shade or escape from the exposure crew leaders made sure volunteers were staying hydrated and finding time for breaks. As I drove from group to group to check in with crews, everyone seemed happy chatting away with other volunteers and exchanging numbers. As noon approached the groups were eager to welcome a break in the shade, enjoying a catered lunch. VOC received a generous 500 dollar donation for lunch, so smiling moose deli was on the menu and offered a great variety of tasty sandwiches, with cookies and lemonade made by crew chef Gail. After celebrating some project milestones for our 2 volunteer crew leaders, we broke back into our groups to finish off the day strong. In total we were able to remove.5 miles of old barbed wire fence, which would provide a huge benefits towildlife in the area. Successes and Challenges: Challenges; The logistics of the project were the most challenging of the day, even with 10+ volunteers offering to carpool I still spent the day diving back and forth from group to group and helping shuttle people around. Community member Lee Rimel was instrumental in organizing the project, but threw a couple curveballs at the last second which made it difficult for me to get the morning work groups going efficiently. Although he was in the 8:30 CL meeting and I had spoken with him extensively beforehand, he neglected to mention multiple, additional work tasks he wanted carried out for which he grab people randomly for. I didn't mind adding in extra projects but it created confusion when volunteers were trying to get oriented with how to remove fence safety with their crew leaders. I was able to rein him in and make a more organized plan to accomplish his goals and still keep groups together and on task. successes; Overall, the project went great. We accomplished more work than we set out to and all the volunteers seemed to enjoy the work and feel appreciated. I also made a connection with a possible crew leader/tool manager and she is interested in attending our upcoming open house. Another connection made was with Trudy Burri who is a a city council member in Meeker CO and is super excited to get the word out for VOC in the northwest part of the state. she is very interested in organizing a project in the Meeker area for the 2018 season! Lessons Learned: Having so many groups working in different areas and no tool manager made it difficult to round up tools at the end of the day. I ended up having to chase people down to get everything back, and still ended up with a missing pair of pliers. The solution would be to give each CL a tool list for their group and put the responsibility on the CLs to ensure all tools are accounted for, whichI willdo in the future. Our groups with VOC crew leaders did such, but having non voc CLs is where it was most difficult. Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Jen Austin from USFS spoke about the impact of the project and it seemed to really surpise alot of volunteers to hear what an impact fence removal can have on wildlife populations. Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: .5 miles of barbed wire fence removed, posts pulled