2018-Cairn- September Overnight @ RMNP

Start Date-End Date: 09/29/2018-09/30/2018 Land Manager Office: Land Manager Contact: Geoff Elliot Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Rocky Mountain Conservancy Summary: N/A Description: N/A Latitude/Longitude: 40.366324, -105.561004 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 35 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 16 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 46 Total Volunteer Days: 62 Total Unique Volunteers: 31 Total Volunteer Hours: 651 Staff Hours: 36 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: On the weekend of September 29-30th, the 2018-2019 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 some other visiting wildland firefighters from Texas and Poland 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 Cairn participants made a huge impact! We were able to build 45 piles that will be part of prescribed burns in the winter. After the hard work was done, we set up camp at Moraine Park and Geoff from the RMC gave a career in natural resources talk then we took a small walk down to Moraine valley to learn more about elk ecology. That evening we made tacos, and 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 history of the park, and the plants and animals that call RMNP home. We ended trip with some group bingo and a silent reflection where the participants wrote letters to their future selves that they will get at Cairn Graduation. 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, especially being as far away as RMNP is challenging as there there wasn't much time on the first day to do icebreakers and to learn names. However the small group work of the project helped mitigate that a little. We did more icebreakers and team development the second day. 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: