2022-Family Camping: Post-Fire Trail Restoration @ Drala Mountain Center

Start Date-End Date: 07/09/2022-07/10/2022 Land Manager Office: Drala Mountain Center (formerly Shambhala Mountain Center) Land Manager Contact: Mac McGoldrick Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Registration opens June 1. Restore a fire-damaged trail at this ecologically-minded health and wellness retreat center. Description: Project photo by Owen Lavin Where You'll Be: Located about an hour outside of Fort Collins, the Drala Mountain Center (DMC) hosts roughly 300 programs that bring people from all over the world. 40 people live on the DMC campus year-round while over 13,000 people visit each year to enjoy the serene campus, network of hiking trails, and the Great Stupa, a one-of-a-kind example of sacred architecture in North America. In 2017, DMC decided to take a regenerative development approach to any ecological or environmental work on the land. Awarded an environmental stewardship award from Larimer County recognizing initial ecological efforts, DMC is actively committed to ecological health, capacity, and resilience. What You'll Do: Spend a summer weekend at the unique Drala Mountain Center! Whilechildren ages 6-11 enjoy fun, educational nature activities, children ages 12+ will work alongside parents, family members, and other VOC volunteers to restore the Center's perimeter hiking trail. This trail was badly damaged during the Cameron Peak Fire and you'll have the chance to help reclaim the trail and restore it for visitor use. Camping is available Friday and Saturday night; VOC's volunteer Crew Chefs will provide breakfast on Saturday and Sunday as well as dinner on Saturday night. Why It Matters: Around 16,000 visitors attend the Drala Mountain Center each year to take part in mindfulness programs, hike the trails, and connect with the natural world. The perimeter trail as it exists is unstable and rocky. Your efforts will make it safe for many users to come. 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: 40.7353644, -105.5435353 Additional Information: Camping is available on both Friday and Saturday night. Please note that VOC doesnotprovide any camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags, etc.) but will providebreakfast on Saturday and Sunday as well as dinner on Saturday night. More information about camping will be sent via email approximately two weeks before the project. Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Easy, Moderate High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 50 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 56 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 22 Total Volunteer Days: 76 Total Unique Volunteers: 44 Total Volunteer Hours: 503 Staff Hours: 43 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: We had 3 VOC staff participating in this event: VOC staff crew leading VOC staff overseeing the boots on the ground/trail construction VOC staff overseeing the youth programming Overall logistics for the project: VOC staff arrived to Drala Mountain Center around 4pm on Friday and set VOC signs for volunteers to find the parking area. Kitchen tent was set at the end of Usfs 168 road. Camping area was up the hill from the pavilion and kitchen tent, near the parking lot. VOC brought the water buffalo and we were able to fill it up at the "downtown" area at Drala (5-minute drive from camping area). One VOC staff stayed at the entrance of the parking lot to greet volunteers and indicate them where to park and how to get to the camping area. Itbecame more intuitive where parking and camping areas were once some tents were set and cars were parked. On Saturday morning we welcomed volunteers and spitted the group in 2 (youth programming and volunteers working in the trail). We reminded parents to send lunch with the kids since we were not meeting for lunch break. The pavilion were the youth programming took place was in close proximity from the kitchen and bathrooms. The first sections of trail were relatively close to kitchen and bathrooms (5-minute walk). Saturday night we had Michael (Drala director) joining the group for dinner and talking a little more about the land and what makes Drala Mountain Center so special. Some of the kids in the youth programming planned a play for the volunteers and presented it to the group after dinner. We finished with the trail construction around 1:30pm, parents were instructed to meet with their kids before starting taking their tents down. Volunteers were encouraged to visit the Stupa after Sunday's work. Trail construction (Vanessa): There were 17 sections flagged from the red obelisk next to the creek to Drala HI Rd. All 17 sections were completed by the end of the first work day. Land manager with the help of one of the VOC crew leaders flagged the next work area to connect the build trail to the Marpa Point trail. This is the area surrounded by Drala HI Rd. Volunteers started with the new flagged area on Sunday morning and continued up the Marpa Point Trail. We finished the trail by 1pm and asked volunteers to help loading tools in the rental truck which was parked on Drala HI Rd by the entrance to Marpa Point trail. Volunteers returned to camp to meet with their kids and take their tents down. Youth programming (Elise): VOC staff coordinated with Mac McGoldrick and Alyssa Graziano (DMC staff) to host two full days (~8-4pm) of youth programming for youth ages 6-11. Day 1 programming included: a Leave-No-Trace presentation, a forestry walk and talk, a meditation lesson, a native plants and pollination activity, and free craft time. Day 2 programming included: a greenhouse tour, a hike to the Stupa, a nature scavenger hunt, and a planting activity. Successes and Challenges: Successes: One port-o-lets was ADA which worked great for one of the volunteers who was in wheelchair. We constructed 0.46mi of new trail and restored 0.69mi of trail affected by the Cameron fire. The work area was closed to the road and easy to access with tools. Communication with Drala Mounta Center staff was easy and effective Drala has an "on-call" staff who is always listening to the radio in case of emergency VOC radios worked great within the distance from youth programing to the trail construction Challenges: Recruiting leadership volunteers for this project was challenging. Initially we only had 1 crew leader registered and no technical advisor. The camping area was limited. On one side we had the parking lot and on the other side a downhill Very high temperature this time of the year (mid-June) Youth programming successes (Elise): The pavilion on-site was an excellent hub for all the youth programming. It was shaded, large enough for the whole group, and close to the campsites, kitchen, bathroom, and hiking. Mac and Alyssa both helped to lead programming, as well as chaperone the group of youth, which was very helpful since they were high-energy and very independent thinkers Youth programming challenges (Elise): It was difficult to maintain the youth group's focus as we transitioned from one activity to another (Ex: Hiking to sit-down activity) Youth still had lots of energy at the end of the day; meanwhile parents were exhausted and DMC/VOC staff needed a break too Lessons Learned: The trail we were asked to build was very primitive and "natural". It takes less time to build this type of trail since it doesn't require building structures and it was in a flat area. The project coordinator should carry 2 radios (VOC and Drala) There are many roads at Drala Mountain Center. Many VOC signs were needed to make the path clear for volunteers There is good water pressure to fill up the water buffalo at the "downtown" Drala has a dinning hall that we were not able to access/use due to Covid protocols. It is worth asking more about this service for future projects Youth programming lessons learned (Elise): Need at least 2 adults at all times for child safety/abuse protocols and lunch/bathroom breaks Consider only allowing families to attend if they can spend both days It would have been helpful to have one dedicated youth programming person to design and lead the 2-day programming rather than multiple people (VOC staff + DMC staff + partner organizations) It was critical to have a dedicated space for youth programming that is close enough to camp to be convenient, but far enough that youth programming doesn't disturb tool truck/kitchen/mealtime activities at camp It would have been helpful to have some specific youth programming activity to occupy the kids at dinner for a few hours Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: