Description
Start Date-End Date: 06/27/2019-06/30/2019
Land Manager Office: USFS - Leadville Ranger District
Land Manager Contact: Ben Hanus
Funding Partner: National Forest Foundation
Programmatic Partner: Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
Summary: This physically demanding project will protect the delicate habitat of Colorado's tallest mountain.
Description:
Starting in 2017, VOC is partnering with other Colorado outdoor stewardship groups and the U.S. Forest Service through the National Forest Foundation Find Your Fourteener campaign so that together we can do more on our majestic Fourteeners. We are working collaboratively to increase the pace and scale of trail improvements and ecological restoration. Our vision is to work together, with you, to build and maintain a sustainable trails network, ensuring these peaks remain healthy and inviting for decades to come. With help from skilled, passionate volunteers like you, we can complete even more on-the-ground work on Colorado's Fourteeners. Every volunteer in the Fourteener community is important in this long-term effort, and we are grateful for your help!
Where You'll Be:
Located near Leadville, Mount Elbert stands at 14,433 feet and is the tallest peak in Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountain Range. The South Mount Elbert Trail is one of the most popular routes to the summit, providing the mountain's thousands of visitors with stunning views and the occasional marmot, pika, or mountain goat sighting as the trail climbs through the San Isabel National Forest and across alpine tundra.
What You'll Do:
Join VOC and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) for our third year in a row working on Colorado's tallest 14er, Mount Elbert! On this difficult project of about 20 volunteers, you'll spend the weekend working above tree line with adults 18+ to restore a closed section on Mt. Elbert's East Ridge.
This project will be physically demanding, but rewarding.Due to the remote location of the project, volunteers are required to hike to the campsite on Thursday evening (2.5 miles with 1,500 ft. elevation gain) and participate in the entire duration of the project. We will set up camp near 11,700 ft. and hike a short but strenuous distance from basecamp to the project site. Restoration tasks include transplanting native vegetation, hauling soil, and installing wattles to stabilize the soil and reduce erosion. Work on the highest project site (12,500 ft.) will focus on restoring a large section of deeply eroded trail braids and will require installing check dams from cedar planking.Meals will be provided by our volunteer Crew Chefs and Sunday will be a half-day of work followed by hiking back to the trailhead.
Click here to learn more about the importance of trail maintenance.
Why It Matters:
Colorado's "14ers" pay a price for their surging popularity, with an estimated 25,000 - 30,000 hikers visiting Mount Elbert in a single summer. Your efforts will help mitigate the harmful impacts from increased visitation and prevent trail erosion to protect the mountain's delicate alpine habitat.
Need-to-Know Details:
All days are requireddue to the remote location of the project.
Volunteers are responsible for providing their own camping equipment. VOC will provide meals, tools, and work gloves.
Cancellation:Our partners rely on VOC volunteers to accomplish critical stewardship needs, and our projects often have wait lists. If you need to cancel, please contact Emily Schaefer at 303-715-1010 ext. 116 as soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce.
About Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC)
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) is the state's oldest, largest, and leading outdoor stewardship nonprofit organization. Founded in 1984 to motivate and enable people to become active stewards of Colorado's natural resources, VOC has engaged nearly 120,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $24 million. Through award-winning youth and volunteer programs, leadership training, capacity-building programs, and collaborative efforts with nonprofits and land management agencies, VOC is an invaluable resource in Colorado, especially as our outdoor stewardship needs are approaching near-crisis levels. For more information, visit www.voc.org or call 303-715-1010.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.105672, -106.395373
Additional Information:
Camping Available: Yes
Physical Difficulty: Difficult
High Altitude Project: Yes
Desired Number of Volunteers: 15
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 16
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 32
Total Unique Volunteers: 16
Total Volunteer Hours: 362
Staff Hours: 50
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: This project marks the continuation of a successful partnership with the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) and the third consecutive season VOC has had a project with them on Mt. Elbert. Over the course of three days and under the direction of CFI staff, volunteers installed 71 square feet of rock wall, 21 log checks, 10 cribs, 29 straw waddles for soil retention, and 18 feet of buck and rail. Originally the plan for this project was to hike 2.5 miles up the South Mt. Elbert trail and camp at the CFI fixed site high camp, however weather conditions had another idea! With all the moisture this spring, the high camp location was still snowed under and we had to stay just below the trailhead at the Lily Ponds. Volunteers hiked to four different project sites each day--the closest site was a quarter mile up the trail, and the furthest was 2.5 miles up. Two crews worked on installing log check steps, one crew worked on installing rock monowalls, and the furthest crew worked on restoring a closed section of trail that had been rerouted in previous years.
Successes and Challenges: Successes: The smaller group size as compared to other VOC projects was a big hit, much easier to manage, and everyone had a great time getting to know each other. Crew chef Sean Mallory made great dinners and deserts in his cast iron dutch ovens.
Challenges: Large group of people with four-wheelers and jeeps rolled in on Friday and camped very close. They were loud and played music late into the night both Saturday and Sunday, in addition to running a chainsaw and shooting guns around midnight. Saturday morning we found they had taken about half of a large pile of timber CFI had prepped for buck and rail fencing and used it to light a bonfire that was still burning. We took back what hadn't been burned yet, but it was a big loss considering the manpower it takes just to transport that railing up the trail.
Lessons Learned:
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: The partnership with CFI is ever-evolving. In years past, I know there has been some tension and miscommunication regarding leadership roles. VOC crew leaders feel the CFI staff don't listen to them and are often frustrated that CFI ends up leading the crews. This dynamic was present on this project, but we were able to address it early. Only one VOC crew leader signed up, and I requested he get his own crew. Miriam, our CFI contact, accommodated and was great to work with. However, she also explained that the reason they prefer to have CFI staff lead crews is for communication purposes--CFI has the specs and scope of work directly from the Forest Service, and passing those instructions on to yet another third party risks introducing miscommunication which leads to mistakes in the work.
With that understanding in mind, I think it's actually best if CFI continues to crew lead on these projects. We just need to manage the communications on the front end--for the future, I think we need to tell CLs early that they will not be leading, explain why and a little bit about how CFI as an organization operates, and frame it as an opportunity to sit back, relax, and enjoy the project as a regular volunteer.
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 16 and older |
