2019-South Lottis Trail Restoration @ Fossil Ridge Wilderness

Start Date-End Date: 07/06/2019-07/07/2019 Land Manager Office: USFS - Gunnison Ranger District Land Manager Contact: Joseph Carlson Funding Partner: National Forest Foundation Programmatic Partner: Summary: Save your spot for July Fourth weekend near gorgeous Gunnison. Description: Where You'll Be: Located just northeast of Gunnison, the Fossil Ridge Wilderness features over 30,000 acres of forests, alpine lakes, granite peaks, and the namesake limestone ridge that contains the remains of prehistoric sea life. Open to hikers and equestrians, the Wilderness offers 26 miles of trail popular with anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts. What You'll Do: What better way to spend July Fourth weekend than sitting around a fire with free food and beer? Don't worry about finding a campsite; we've got you covered on this quiet and gorgeous, yet easily accessible, volunteer project near Gunnison. Besides enjoying meals from our volunteer Crew Chefs and the company of 35-45 other volunteers, you'll spend the weekend installing drainage structures and performing other maintenance work along a half-mile section of the South Lottis Trail. Tasks will take place at high altitude and car camping is available. Click here to learn more about the importance of trail maintenance. Why It Matters: The South Lottis Trail was previously open to motorized traffic and is now too wide for current use; it has little to no drainage structures and the area is suffering from the impacts of trail widening and erosion. The U.S. Forest Service has limited resources to maintain the trail, and your efforts will be a significant help in making the trail more sustainable for visitors as well as for the local communities such as Pitkin, Ohio City, Gunnison, and Crested Butte. Need-to-Know Details: Minors under 18 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on overnight projects. Minors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on single-day projects. 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, pleasecontact Emily Schaeferat 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: 38.654961, -106.574519 Additional Information: Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 35 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 89 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 2 Total Volunteer Days: 91 Total Unique Volunteers: 48 Total Volunteer Hours: 959 Staff Hours: 47 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: 48 volunteers came out and contributed over 900 hours of volunteer work. Dave and Susan Gebhardt and 2 representatives from the from the forest service (peter and andy) were around to help answer questions for the crew leaders and volunteers. the forest service was ery pleased with the quality and quantity of the work that was completed. They have plenty of more work for next year! We did the work that was lined out initially in the scope. We did not complete all that was laid out but I think Dave and Susan laid out more than we could complete. The priorities were the waterbars and the turnpike. We finished the turnpike and a good chunk of the waterbars. Successes and Challenges: sucessess: andy and Peter being on site to help prep materials and give technical guidance. Dave stayed up at the turnpike all weekend so it was nice to have susan around too to help out with the folks lower on the trail doing the tunpikes. challenges: there was a water crossing that was high off the water and the water was running pretty fast. This limited how many people we sent above the crossing. Will have to come up with safe ways to cross if we go back next year. Since there was snow on the trail at the site visit, Dave and susan were not able to do trail notes, which would have been helpful. There seemed to be a lot of confusion among crew leaders as to what they should be doing and who should be where. Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Sue Navy with High County Conservation Advocates did a little chat on the history of Fossil Ridge Wilderness Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: none Description of Work Completed: