Description
Start Date-End Date: 09/14/2019-09/14/2019
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: Remove fencing to protect wildlife in the beautiful Eagle Valley.
Description: Project photo by Trudy Burri
Where You'll Be:
Located in the heart of Eagle County, the Singletree Community sits on the northern slopes of the sunny Eagle Valley, offering magnificent views of the mountains surrounding the town of Edwards. 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.
What You'll Do:
Be part of a multi-year effort to remove old, barbed wire fencing that poses a risk to local wildlife. After coffee and a light breakfast, you'll spend the day with up to 30 volunteers cutting and bundling wire, and removing fence posts from the hilly terrain. Lunch will also be provided and by the end of the day, you'll have made a visible difference on the landscape!
Why It Matters:
Your efforts will help protect local wildlife and open up migration routes for deer, elk, and other species. Many animals, including low-flying birds and those that dive for prey, can easily become injured or entangled in the fencing, especially if they are young, pregnant, or winter-stressed animals. By helping out for just a few hours, you will make a lifetime of difference for these animals.
Need-to-Know Details:
Minors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on single-day projects.
VOC will provide all equipment including 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 emailoutreach@voc.orgor call 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: 39.645503, -106.573305
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Moderate
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 20
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 28
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 2
Total Volunteer Days: 30
Total Unique Volunteers: 30
Total Volunteer Hours: 171
Staff Hours: 18
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Thirty volunteers joined VOC and the USFS - Eagle-Holy Cross Ranger District to remove the last segment of a habitat-fragmenting barbed wire fence. The project was initiated several years earlier when 2 Singletree community members approached the Forest Service with a proposal to remove approximately 2 miles of old fence line. The fence was poorly maintained and no longer served its original purpose as a cattle barrier; it did serve to ensnare unsuspecting wildlife, claiming the lives of countless low-flying birds and deer. Over the last 4 years, community members and small volunteer groups chipped away at the fence, which was comprised of ranch wire and USFS t-post barbed wire. On this sunny, early fall day, volunteers removed the last half mile of fence and opened several hundred acres of prime high desert sagebrush habitat by way of improved connectivity.
Volunteers arrived at the Singletree community center around 8 for breakfast and orientation. At 9, they shuttled a half mile up to the project site, which was accessed via a cul-de-sac on Palomino Drive. A fence pulling demonstration was given by community partner Jim Knez, after which volunteers set out to 4 different sections of fencing. By lunch, they had completed 2/3 of the removal, and by 2pm the work was complete; a heaping pile of rusty coiled barbed wire was left as monument to bygone land management practices. A total of 1,750 lbs were removed later in the week by a USFS crew.
Volunteers, partners, and land managers were highly complementary of the project and VOC leadership/organization.
Singletree community member Jim Knez: "Alex, I just wanted to tell you what a pleasure it was to work with you last Saturday in Singletree. I know the planning it takes to successfully organize a large project like we accomplished. You get an A+."
District wildlife biologist Jen Prusse: "Hi Alex and Jim,
Thanks again for a fantastic volunteer day and for all the planning you both put into this. The amount of fence that was removed definitely exceeded expectations.
Hope to find some more fence out there to partner with VOC on in the future.
Best,
Jen"
Successes and Challenges: The tool manager and 2 crew leaders cancelled at the last minute, leaving only one VOC crew leader. Project partner Jen Prusse, the district wildlife biologist, had 5 USFS staff with her but they were not comfortable crew leading. This was only an issue during orientation/tool talk/introductions; afterwards the USFS crew dispersed along the length of the fence and assisted as needed.Although it was a small, short project, the lack of a tool manager and crew chef was felt. VOC project manager Alex had to stage tools, explain their safe use, and account for them all (many of which were very small); he also had to set out breakfast at parking area (where registration happened), shuttle volunteers to work site, come back to registration area to break down breakfast station, set up lunch station at work site, etc. etc. One more project team member would have been extremely useful. Luckily Alex was able to recruit volunteers to assist with some breakdown tasks.
There were a limited number of t-post pullers, so this was somewhat of a bottleneck, but after an hour of work volunteers got into a rhythm and did not appear to be slowed much.
Volunteers enjoyed the work greatly: fence removal is fast paced and the impact is immediately visible. Whereas a trail crew may only complete 30 ft. of trail in a day, a small fence removal crew can cover significantly more ground and the change on the landscape is obvious.
Lessons Learned: Fence removal work would lend itself to smaller crews of perhaps 3-5 volunteers. Two to 3 of these mini-groups could be paired with a single crew leader. Each mini-crew would have one of each type of tool (fencing pliers, bolt cutters, loppers if in dense vegetation) and each cluster of mini-crews could have a single t-post puller. Ideally, these tools could be bundled in advance. On this project a significant amount of time was lost determining how to distribute tools among crews and I am afraid several small tools were left on site because many volunteers never ended up using them; the most time- and volunteer-intensive work was coiling wire, which only requires gloves and tenacity.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 14 and older |
