2022-Riparian Restoration @ Southern Plains Land Trust

Start Date-End Date: 04/09/2022-04/10/2022 Land Manager Office: Southern Plains Land Trust Land Manager Contact: Jay Tuchton Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Registration opens March 1. Restore valuable streambank habitat on our first camping project of the season! Description: Photo courtesy of the Southern Plains Land Trust Where You'll Be: The Southern Plains Land Trust creates and protects a network of shortgrass prairie preserves, including Heartland Ranch near Lamar. This preserve spans approximately 25,000 acres, an area larger than any of Colorado's state parks as well as several national parks! The rolling grassland terrain supports black-tailed prairie dogs, pronghorn, and a large herd of reintroduced bison. Several rare plants, a variety of native vegetation, and dozens of miles of seasonal streams can be found throughout the ranch. Public visitation at the preserves is extremely limited, and volunteer projects such as this one offer the unique opportunity to visit for free and learn about this remarkable area! What You'll Do: Join us for our first camping project of the season! We'll spend this Spring weekend in the southeast corner of Colorado working to restore important streambank habitat. You'll work alongside volunteers ages 12+ to install structures such as rock dams, Zuni bowls, and media lunas to help control erosion and, if possible, plant cottonwoods and coyote willows to further improve the habitat. 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: This work is vital to improving watershed health in the Arkansas River Basin, the largest basin in Colorado by area. By installing these erosion control structures and adding native plants to the landscape, you'll help slow water movement and improve stream health within these large and important preserves. 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: 37.684968, -102.895284 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. Please review our packing list at http://bit.ly/overnightprojects. If you have questions specific to this project, please contact Kate Barrett at kate@voc.org or 303-715-1010 ext. 113. Camping Available: Yes Physical Difficulty: Easy, Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 34 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 75 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 2 Total Volunteer Days: 77 Total Unique Volunteers: 39 Total Volunteer Hours: 748 Staff Hours: 38 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: VOC returned for the second season (third project) to the Southern Plains Land Trust to finish installing critical erosion control structures on the Raven's Nest Preserve. Most volunteers arrived Friday night and enjoyed a small bonfire before turning in for bed. Saturday saw high temperatures with little to no shade on the prairie, but volunteers worked well into the afternoon and completed enough work that we could end the day early on Sunday. In all, we built 24 Zeedyk structures to help with water and soil retention to mitigate erosion: 17 one-rock dams, 3 zuni bowls, and 4 media lunas. Volunteers also repaired 6 one-rock dams that had been damaged in a large flooding event since last year's project. Successes and Challenges: Challenges: - Another flat tire! Lessons Learned: - We need a four way lug wrench for all the vehicles, also an air compressor for each truck or at least enough on hand so one can go with the PM or TM to each project happening on a given weekend - The more rock trucks the merrier Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: