2022-Forest Health @ Buffalo Creek #2

Start Date-End Date: 09/17/2022-09/18/2022 Land Manager Office: USFS - South Platte Ranger District Land Manager Contact: Chris Kuennen Funding Partner: National Forest Foundation Programmatic Partner: Summary: Help forests thrive on this chainsaw project! Description: Project photo by Sue Daniels Photography Where You'll Be: The Buffalo Creek area is an approximately 90-minute drive Southwest of Denver, in the Pike and San Isabel National Forests. With plenty of U.S. Forest Service designated campgrounds and 50 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails - many of which tie in to the Colorado Trail - this area is a popular destination for urban-dwellers seeking to escape the city while avoiding I-70 traffic. Anyone that attends a VOC volunteer opportunity in August, September, and October will be entered in a drawing for the chance to win a $300 SCHEELS Gift Card. The more opportunities you attend, the more entries you will earn. Good luck! What You'll Do: Join us for the first weekend of Summer as we help care for Colorado's forests. This project for volunteers ages 18+ will consist of two types of volunteers: chainsaw-certified volunteers to cut dead and dying trees, and volunteers to help clear debris from felled trees and move it to an area where our Forest Service partners will later collect it. In doing so, you will help promote a healthy forest ecosystem by mitigating threats of disease and wildfires. 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. *Only certified sawyers will be allowed to operate the chainsaws. If you are certified, please include this in the Comments of your registration and send your certificate to Kate Barrett at kate@voc.org. ALL SAWYERS MUST HOLD A CURRENT FIRST AID AND CPR CERTIFICATION IN ORDER TO OPERATE A SAW. Want to get certified? Visit ourTraining Calendarfor upcoming training opportunities. 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 trees in the area, 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 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: 39.323114, -105.246187 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. Camping is available on both Friday and Saturday night. Please note that VOC does not provide any camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags, etc.) but will provide breakfast 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. To organize carpooling please visithttps://www.groupcarpool.com/t/xdrcvq Please determine the following amongst yourselves: 1. Pick up location 2. When you leave 3. Vaccination status 4. Mask usage VOC suggests coordinating carpooling in the safest way possible and encouraging a mask friendly policy in your cars. If you have any issues finding a rider or a ride, please feel free to reach out to myself. Happy volunteering! Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Difficult High Altitude Project: Yes Desired Number of Volunteers: 15 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 36 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 36 Total Unique Volunteers: 20 Total Volunteer Hours: 338 Staff Hours: 34 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: The second Forest Health project of the season went a lot smother than the first one. Many of the sawyers returned from the first project and knew all the logistics. On Saturday we had 12 sawyers in total. All chainsaws ran pretty well after some initial and basic maintenance. Saturday morning after the welcome talk, all volunteers carpooled to the worksite. Sawyers picked their chainsaw and did some initial maintenance to get them started. In the meantime, we did a safety talk with swampers to understand what the calls mean and how to stay safe working with a sawyer. Once the sawyers were ready, we did another safety talk with the entire group. Eric Lucas, lead this talk since he is a B-certified sawyer and EMT. He reminded all sawyers of the calls and the communication they need to have with swampers. After the safety talks and when everyone had their PPE we headed to the worksite. B-certified sawyers were working close to A-certified sawyers in case these had any questions or needed help with anything. The whole group got together for lunch and continued working till 3PM when we met to clean and do some maintenance to the chainsaws to have them ready for the next day. Back at camp we had appetizers/happy hour and dinner as a group. For the second day, we were down 4 sawyers, We followed the same schedule of the first day with the difference of not meeting for lunch. Volunteers were encourage to have lunch in the area they were working at and then meet at 1:30PM to deep clean the chainsaws and do maintenance together. We followed this plan and we were back at camp right at 3PM. Successes and Challenges: Successes: No injuries All chainsaws worked great We had a good ratio of B to A-certified sawyers Tool manager and staff were sawyers, which made the packing/loading process a little easier Challenges: Not enough swampers No cell-phone reception at the worksite Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: