2021-Fence Construction @ Duck Creek State Wildlife Area

Start Date-End Date: 04/24/2021-04/24/2021 Land Manager Office: CPW - Duck Creek State Wildlife Area Land Manager Contact: Levi Kokes Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Optional camping the night before! Celebrate Earth Day by installing fences to help preserve native habitat. 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. Please click here for our full packing list of required and recommended items. Cancellation & Waitlists: Due to limited spots on this year's projects, we expect projects to fill quickly with waitlists. If you need to cancel, please email outreach@voc.org as 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: Duck Creek State Wildlife Area is in the upper northeast corner of the state and boasts habitat for small game animals and waterfowl. The area is a favorite of both local hunters and wildlife enthusiasts, who come for the many turkey, deer, pheasants, doves, small game and waterfowl. In the spring, Duck Creek State Wildlife Area is attracts many migrating birds including Baltimore Orioles, Eastern Kingbirds, and Upland Sandpipers, among many other varieties. What You'll Do: Let's "mooooove" some fencing! Celebrate Earth Day on the eastern plains as you work with volunteers ages 14+ to install approximately two miles of post-and-wire fencing to better manage grazing and protect the natural plant and animal species. With wide open views and campsites available Friday night, this project is a great getaway to discover the lesser-known parts of Colorado. Camping is available on Friday just 15 minutes away at Tamarack Ranch State Wildlife Area if you wish to arrive the night before the project; please note that VOC will not be providing any meals or camping equipment on this project. Why It Matters: With limited resources, equipment, and labor, this project simply would not be possible without the help of volunteers! Once installed, the fencing will help Colorado Parks & Wildlife graze the property more effectively. Managed grazing is an excellent tool for creating a more native and sustainable habitat for local wildlife, which in turn continues to attract visitors and hunters to support the local community. 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 126,000 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: 40.879561, -102.786492 Additional Information: 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 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. Camping is available on Friday at Tamarack Ranch State Wildlife Area, just 15 minutes away from the project, if you wish to arrive the night before the project. Please note that VOC will not be providing any meals or camping equipment on this project. More information about camping will be sent via email approximately two weeks before the project. Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Moderate, Difficult High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 20 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 18 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 3 Total Volunteer Days: 21 Total Unique Volunteers: 21 Total Volunteer Hours: 204 Staff Hours: 20.5 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Volunteers worked a full day creating new barb wire fencing at the Duck Creek State Wildlife Area. The weather was fairly mild, starting out quite chilly and still and moving to a sunny but rather breezy afternoon. Volunteers worked with the folks from Colorado Parks and Wildlife to install T-posts and string up 4 strands of barbed wire over said posts. Working in junction with the CPW technician and land manager, volunteers strung up approximately 16,016 ft of wire (with each strand were stretched end to end) using approximately 971 wire clips on approximately 243 T-posts. Special acknowledgement to Brandon and Cole Brouillette, Steve and Nathaniel Lacher, as well as Steven Knoll all of whom spent the whole project manually pounding the T-posts into the ground with a steel tube. Successes and Challenges: Successes: Volunteers were very punctual, courteous, upbeat, and hard working. We were able to install an extra 1600 feet of barb wire or so which was not originally expected by Levi Kokes, CPW Land Manager. Everyone wore their mask and were more than willing to put it back on if they had taken it off for a break but were passing within 6 ft of one another. Challenges: Not having enough signage due to 3 projects in one weekend. Unlikely to be an issue again since projects are more scattered and only one group had an issue finding the site so it may be a bit of an anomaly Lessons Learned: It may be best (if this many projects happen at once again) that, if staff is working solo on a project, the staff member working solo gets a VOC wrapped vehicle. Since I did not have any sort of project team or leads/tool truck/kitchen tent it wasn't very obvious who I was which was only an issue during camping the night before. No one knew who they could come talk to if they had questions and due to it being the weekend with Turkey Season in full swing, I didn't know who would appreciate me coming up to say hello and who would probably prefer I did not. Another option would be to have an extra sign to point to the vehicle the staff has but that would require more sandwich boards being made as I could have used about 2 more on the project to make directions more clear. Overall, my lessons are only applicable if more than 2 projects are going out at once. Special Notes: Steven Knoll and Brandon Brouillette both received their 3 project stickers! Matthew Wallace received his 10 project patch. Emily Tyler is at her 5 project mark but she left before I handed out the prizes and did not get her pin. Nathaniel Lacher expressed interest in Crew Leading. Planning to send information over to him today. Stewardship Education: Levi gave an efficient run-down of how the fence is wildlife safe, what the fence will do, and why building the fence will help improve the area. Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Just that any staff working solo on a project might benefit from more VOC branded items such as signage and trucks to allow volunteers to recognize who their project manager is while not directly on the project. Description of Accidents/Incidents: I neither saw nor was told of any accidents or incidents. Description of Work Completed: