2019-Alpine Stewardship Training

Start Date-End Date: 07/20/2019-07/21/2019 Land Manager Office: USFS - Pikes Peak Ranger District Land Manager Contact: Ben Hanus Funding Partner: National Forest Foundation Programmatic Partner: Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, Leave No Trace, Inc. Summary: Learn best practices for trail and restoration projects in sensitive alpine environments! Description: The high alpine environments on Colorado's mountaintops are some of the most breathtaking and well-loved landscapes in the state. Yet their unique ecology is as fragile as it is beautiful, and with an ever-growing influx of visitors - especially on Colorado's 54 "fourteeners" - these iconic places are increasingly at-risk and require special attention when it comes to caring for and preserving these natural wonders. Trainees will receive an overview of alpine ecology, learn the importance of following Leave No Trace principles when working in these areas, practice manage work crews and risk above tree line and gain hands on experience in fundamental technical skills unique to working on alpine trails. Experience:This training is intended for those who have prior experience in trail and ecological restoration work and leadership of volunteer or staff crews. Latitude/Longitude: Additional Information: Training times and dates are 8am-4pm, June 8-9 Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: High Altitude Project: Desired Number of Volunteers: 10 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 15 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 15 Total Unique Volunteers: 15 Total Volunteer Hours: 240 Staff Hours: 50 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Among the participating groups (VOC, CFI, RMFI, WRV), we engaged 15 trainees, which was a good size for the number of instructors on hand. Though thunderstorms disrupted the agenda on Saturday, we were able to finish strong on Sunday, and this is reflected in the attached trainee evaluations. FYI on these, this is a boiler plate form we use in OSI trainings. It has one "if applicable" section on online materials. A few people didn't catch that when filling it out. Overall, feedback was good. Positive comments that stand out from these forms and a quick end of day debrief we did are: ability to gain new skills hands on time spent discussing and analyzing site options for maintenance tasks seeing the differences and best practices of alpine trail/restoration work cross training and gaining perspectives from volunteers and staff of various groups Informative field presentation given by Loretta about alpine ecology, with some interesting trail design elements mixed in, and the quality of information presented in the manual. Successes and Challenges: The main point of critical feedback was getting started earlier on the first day, which the instructor group is definitely already aware of! This was an unfortunate oversight. I think that when we were shooting for a late spring/early summer event we set the start time at 9am, and that just got kicked forward into July. We reset on day 2 with 6am wake up call and that helped us right things and leave most of the group feeling good about what was accomplished. Lessons Learned: So, if this is something we want to try again in the future, I think that the main recommendations are: Schedule for July to avoid having to reschedule and keep the group smaller to account for fewer people being available to help out with instruction in that timeframe Start early both days to get more time on the mountain and plan for some "rain delay" activities Ditch the classroom: Between a too late start and Pikes Peak Highway summer traffic, we realized it wasn't wise to try and start things indoors and then truck up to the trail. Doing this 100% in the field will maximize time outdoors while the weather cooperates. Continue to tweak agenda, refine learning goals and consider who the audience is: The session ended up providing a limited ability for trainees to choose what they worked on, especially with the truncated first day. It looks to me like some of the weaker evaluations came from trainees with more experience who may have felt they didn't learn what they hoped they would. On the flip side, other experienced volunteers made a good effort to be pro-active participants in the discussions and activity and still came away feeling good about the session. I think setting clearer expectations up front about what will occur, how everyone will get the most out of it with the experience they bring, and (again) starting early to avoid agenda disruption and creating more opportunity to try different things would all help in the future. Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: