2020-Forest Health @ Genesee Park

Start Date-End Date: 10/10/2020-10/10/2020 Land Manager Office: City and County of Denver - Parks and Recreation Land Manager Contact: Andy Perri Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Help forests thrive on this unique project! Description: Read Before You Register! Need-to-Know Details: We greatly appreciate you volunteering your time and energy to care for Colorado's outdoor places during COVID-19. To help provide a fun and safe experience for all, there are a few temporary changes to be prepared for: You may only register yourself.Every volunteer must sign our digital COVID-specific forms ahead of time to be able to attend. You must provide your own food.VOC will not be providing meals at this time. You must bring a face mask and work gloves.Pleaseclick herefor our full packing list of required and recommended items. Please come prepared to use the bathroom outdoors.VOC is not providing portalets at this time and public restrooms may be unavailable. Pleaseclick herefor more information on how to "go" outside. Cancellation & Waitlists:Due to this year's limited number of projects and volunteer spots, we expect projects to fill quickly with waitlists. If you need to cancel, please emailoutreach@voc.orgas soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce. If you are waitlisted for multiple projects, please call us at 303-715-1010 ext. 116 and we can help you find an open project, if available. Where You'll Be: Not far from Denver off I-70, Genesee Park feels a world away with over 2,000 acres to explore. It is one of the oldest parks in the Denver Mountain Parks system and is home to the historic Beaver Brook Trail, coveted hiker-only trails, and a herd of bison! Its proximity to Denver and diverse recreation opportunities - from picnicking to backcountry hiking - make this park a popular pick with everyone from families and groups. What You'll Do: Spend a Saturday helping forests thrive in Genesee Park on VOC's first chainsaw project! We are seeking two types of volunteers: certified sawyers to drop dead and dying trees, and volunteers to serve as "swampers" and help haul the downed material to an area where it can be chipped at a later date. Regardless of how you participate, you will play an important role in improving the health of native Ponderosa pines and reducing the severity of wildfires! Only certified sawyers will be allowed to operate the chainsaws. If you are certified, please say so in the Comments section of the registration form and we will follow up for official confirmation. All other volunteers will automatically be designated as swampers. Why It Matters: When trees grow in clusters, they compete for moisture, nutrients, and sunlight. This weakens the trees and makes them more susceptible to bark beetles and diseases, which in turn leads to dead trees - perfect fuel for wildfires. By reducing the density of Genesee Park's Ponderosa pines, you will reduce the impact of wildfires and help the trees grow stronger and the forest more resilient. 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 125,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $25 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: 39.703205, -105.293631 Additional Information: Only certified sawyers will be allowed to operate the chainsaws. If you are certified, please contact Kelly Clouse at kclouse@voc.org to provide a copy of your certification. To help provide a fun and safe experience for all, there are a few temporary changes to be prepared for: You must provide your own food and, if desired, overnight accommodations.VOC will not be providing meals or campsites at this time. You must bring a face mask and work gloves.Pleaseclick herefor our full packing list of required and recommended items. Please come prepared to use the bathroom outdoors.VOC is not providing portalets at this time and public restrooms may be unavailable. Pleaseclick herefor more information on how to "go" outside. Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Difficult High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 11 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 10 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 10 Total Unique Volunteers: 10 Total Volunteer Hours: 93 Staff Hours: 28 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: we had a great day with coleman from DMP. we had three volunteer sawyers who were freshly certified at VOC's chainsaw training in September. They were still getting comfortable so things were probably a little slower than they would be once they are more comfortable. I decided not to saw to keep an eye on our new sawyers. i am glad that i did. nothing went wrong but they liked having some reassurance or a second opinion. the slope we were working on was REALLY steep. so cutting was difficult but the sawyers appreciated the experience. Since they were new, we had a lot of chains in the dirt and hitting rocks. i talked about this with the sawyer and told him to work on saw control. I had him sharpen the saw to learn that and so he sees what needs to be done if the chain goes into the dirt and dulls so that he hopefully wont do it in the future. we had 10 swampers (including me). Each sawyer had a swamper and the other 4 were with Coleman putting branches into the chipper. WRV had already come through and did a lot of saw work so there was already a lot on the groud to be chipped. Successes and Challenges: new sawyers - importance of keeping the chain out of the dirt, watching your bar/know where it is, volunteers really enjoyed the new project type. they really liked that VOC is expanding into ecosystem health. Lessons Learned: need to come up with a comprehensive sawyer/swamper saftey briefing for the morning orientation. Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: none! Description of Work Completed: