Description
Start Date-End Date: 04/23/2022-04/23/2022
Land Manager Office: City of Colorado Springs
Land Manager Contact:
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Registration opens March 1. Construct a new trail in Colorado Springs.
Description: Where You'll Be:
Just outside of North Cheyenne Canyon near Colorado Springs, Stratton Open Space is visited by an estimated 150,000 people each year to enjoy the area's many hiking and biking trails, which travel through five distinct ecosystems. The open space also connects users to the Pikes Peak Greenway and a trail network in Bear Creek Regional Park.
What You'll Do:
On this single-day project, you'll work with volunteers ages 14+ to reroute three sections of the Gold Camp Path trail that have become unsustainable. Each section will likely require a climbing turn and possibly some small rock walls, so this is a good opportunity to learn about sustainable trail structures. There will also be plenty of opportunities to work on basic trail construction tasks in a variety of terrain from steep cross-slopes to more mellow grades. There is something for everyone and beginners are always welcome!
We will have speaking crews as well as crews for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or any other volunteer familiar with American Sign Language (ASL). If you would like to join the ASL crew, please include this in the Comments section of your registration. If you are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and find yourself placed on the waitlist, please contact Kate Barrett at kate@voc.org.
Please note parking will be at a central location and volunteers will shuttle to the trailhead in 15-passenger vans provided by the City of Colorado Springs. It is a 15 to 20 minute shuttle ride.
Why It Matters:
The unsustainable sections of this trail are eroding, washing sediment into the Fountain Creek Watershed. In addition, this erosion degrades the vegetation along the trail corridor. By rerouting these sections, you will help improve both the hiking experience for visitors and the surrounding ecosystem!
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 128,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $26 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: 38.795403, -104.857463
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Moderate
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 62
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 45
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 6
Total Volunteer Days: 51
Total Unique Volunteers: 51
Total Volunteer Hours: 588
Staff Hours: 20.5
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Dan Allen with the City of Colorado Springs served as both our land manager contact and technical advisor. In preparation for the project, Dan rough cut, with machinery, the trail and created detailed construction notes with pictures and diagrams. In place of a crew leader orientation on Saturday, crew leaders were required to join the project team meeting in advance of the project where we assigned sections and discussed the type of work/construction notes.
We met on Saturday at Cheyenne Mountain High School with volunteers arriving as early as 7am. Some volunteers went to Stratton Open Space trail head and then arrived late to the high school. We had a late start on Saturday morning because we waited for our ASL interpreter to arrive with one of our ASL crew leaders. We took shuttles driven by city of Colorado springs staff to the trail head, where the shuttles remained on site all day.Despite a few fires in the the Colorado Springs region on Friday, Saturday was mostly beautiful. Slightly strong winds in the morning and afternoon. In all, we refined 2665 ft of trail, installed 3 timber steps, and built 50 ft of rock retaining walls.
Successes and Challenges: Successes:
many thank you emails from the the ASL crew after the project, they seem very interested in continuing this program
as recommended, printed the schedule and important information (raffle info) about the project so that ASL users could read it/accessibility.
Challenges:
Interpreter was late on morning of project (showed up at 8:15 instead of 7am), which made check-in less accessible for deaf/hard of hearing volunteers. there was some miscommunication with a few deaf volunteers who did not know they needed to bring lunch
many volunteers said they did not receive the project details emails (2 week and 1 week emails). Suspect it went to the spam folders
49 volunteers (13 project team/CLs and 36 crew members) participated, ideal number was 62.
After the project, Dan emailed me to say thatafter inspecting some of the rock retaining walls he noticed that some of the rock work was poor quality. Locations included unstable rocks with no contact with the surrounding rocks. Recommended we send our crew leaders more information on rock skills
Lessons Learned: - even if crew leaders join the project team meeting, it might be helpful to still have them get together on Saturday AM to review the type of work they will be completing and asking final questions. Some feedback from our project partner, Dan Allen, was that the rock work was poor quality, which potentially could have been resolved had we been able to discuss with
- consider ways to speed up registration? Have another volunteer assist in making name tags, labelling raffle tickets, etc.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: From Dan Allen: "I did want to mention that after inspecting some of the rock retaining walls I noticed that some of the rock work was poor quality. Locations included unstable rocks with no contact with the surrounding rocks. I know that rock work is a difficult skill to learn and teach. At the end of the day I found myself troubleshooting and working on multiple retaining walls, this seemed to speed up the process."
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 14 and older |
