2022-Prologis SWAT @ Gateway Mesa Open Space

Start Date-End Date: 05/13/2022-05/13/2022 Land Manager Office: Town of Castle Rock Parks & Recreation Department Land Manager Contact: Barbara Spagnuolo Funding Partner: Prologis Programmatic Partner: Summary: The new Legacy Trail extension provides users with access to the unique northern forested portion of the property. Description: Where You'll Be: Nestled between the towns of Castle Rock and Franktown, the Gateway Mesa Open Space is an easily accessible gem on the Front Range offering scenic overlooks, stunning views of the Rocky Mountains, and 275 acres of diverse terrain ranging from open scrub brush to dense mixed pine and steep cliffs. What You'll Do: Join VOC for our fourth year building the Legacy Trail and spend National Trails Day among conifer forest, ferns, mosses, and interesting rock formations! On this moderately sized project of about 40 volunteers, you'll break ground on the remaining section of this new hiking trail, connecting VOC's previous work to the existing Chuck's Loop Trail on the eastern edge of the property. Work will be moderate to difficult in nature and likely include bench cuts, timber or stone steps, and several small crossings of narrow drainages. Why It Matters: The current loop system in Gateway Mesa Open Space is 1.6 miles and travels around the flat, exposed mesa through open grassland. The trail you help build will create a secondary, hikers-only loop extension that will provide access to a forested environment completely different from the rest of the park. 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: 39.388419, -104.801991 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 25 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 35 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 35 Total Unique Volunteers: 35 Total Volunteer Hours: 249 Staff Hours: 20 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: 31 Prologis volunteers and 4 volunteer crew leaders joined us at Gateway Mesa Open Space to rough cut the new section of the Legacy trail. Hannah, Vanessa, and our two TAs for the June 4th Gateway Mesa project (Donna and Wes) had a site visit on May 3rd and walked the new section of the trail. During the site visit, there was quite a lot of scrub oak, however, before May 13th all that was cleared by Castle Rock crews. We began promptly at 9am, all the volunteers had arrived. We started with a group photo, with was a great way to get the group in one place for morning announcements. After breaking into crews, I organized the lunches to hand out and crews began the walk to the tool staging area. I packed up registration quickly and was able to arrive to the tool staging area right before the first crew arrived. They helped unload the tools, and crew leaders directed their crews what tools to grab. Prologis invited a video production person to film a few interviews, which slowed down a bit of the morning. The only tools that remained after all crews had grabbed what they needed were a few loppers, hand saws, 3 mcloeds, 2 adze hoes, and 5 pulaskis. Around 1:45/50pm, one crew headed back to the tool truck to end for the day. Most of the crews had also finished their sections from the morning and were either starting on new sections or equally tired. I discussed with Barbara and we agreed to end the day a little early, since there was already a lot of work completed. By 2:30pm, everyone had returned to the tool staging area/VOC truck. Gave a short thank you and did a final group photo. everyone began the walk back to the cars by 2:35pm. By 3pm, Hannah returned to the parking lot and everyone was gone. Success! Successes and Challenges: Successes Donna and Wes were able to flag the area in advance of the corporate team, which was a few weeks earlier than they anticipated. Really appreciated their flexibility. Lunch was delivered in the morning and distributed to each person Completed a rough cut of approximately 1000 ft of trail Challenges Project and tool list were originally written to perform corridor clearing, however, we have to switch directions in the week of the project because most of it was cut out by CR crews. Some crew leaders got lost on the way to the project site. Pink flagging was laid out to help them find the way between the tool cache and trail, but it seems like maybe there could have been better direction given on how to get to the project site. Ended a little early around 1:50-2pm (scheduled to end at 2:30pm) because people were tired. Many Prologis volunteers only brought a single water bottle, no backpack. This made the carrying of the lunch boxes slightly awkward. Some crews were able to put them in the buckets. With them not bringing much water individually, I carried 3 water jugs to the trail for crews to refill. Luckily it wasn't too hot, but we could have run out of water by the end of the day. After the crews returned to the tool truck, they mostly emptied the 4th water jug as well Lessons Learned: Water - Corporate crews might not be prepared like typical VOC volunteers. Over pack on water jugs, and assign 1-2 crews to carry them. I carried them in, and spent most of the morning hiking from the tool truck to the crews with water. Tool List - Should have packed more pick mattocks and potentially pixies since the work ended up being more of a rough cut instead of corridor clearing. Otherwise, the rest of the tool list was great. Each crew did find a lopper and hand saw helpful. Trash for lunches - potentially set up a good way to ditch the lunch boxes in the morning since they are bulky. Special Notes: Began trail rough cut at section 28 section 29 - left the rocks where they were for a future crew to figure out Section 31 - steep section was slightly cut out, needs more work Section 35 - big rock that will need a rock bar Cut both paths around the big rock after section 35 ended rough cut of trail around section 38 Barbara, Rich, and Marcy (town of castle rock) are going to walk the trail again before June 4th and will reflag/tape the path from the main trail. Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: