Above: Filming in action, from left: Maddy Mengel, Carol Boggs, Ruchao Qian, Dan Speiser, and Yash Sondhi. Photo by Eric Phillips

One of RMBL’s strengths is that it facilitates collaborations in the field. Who can resist an invitation to spend a week on a joint project, high in the Rocky Mountains?   

For us, one collaboration this past summer began at a professional meeting last January, with a conversation among my graduate students, a co-principal investigator on our grant, me, and a faculty member from Case Western Reserve University. My lab and my co-PI are studying the visual ecology of the Mormon fritillary butterfly’s mating behavior. Females that are well fed as larvae have more orange wings, which attract males that are looking for mates. My students and I gave talks at the meeting about responses of male butterflies to differently colored decoy “butterflies” made of square Pantone color chips. Our work at RMBL showed that males preferred decoys that are the same color as females that are well fed as larvae. Further, silver spots on the underside of the wings reflect light back through the wings, amplifying the orange color on the wing upper sides; that amplified color is even more attractive to males. Finally, the black patterning on the wings affects male color perception, such that amplified orange spots are effective only when they are surrounded by black markings. 

Yash Sondhi, an assistant professor at Case Western, suggested that we could use his 3D high-speed video cameras to track male flight patterns. This would tell us about the distance at which males perceive the different decoys, and the distance at which they realize that a decoy is not a butterfly. This in turn tells us about visual acuity and its interaction with color and pattern. 

Before we knew it, we had signed up not only Yash, but also Ruchao Qian, a doctoral student in Jamie Theobald’s lab at Florida International University, and two filmmakers, Mark Unger from WonderLab and Shaffer Nickel from Crested Butte, to come out to Gothic along with my co-PI, Dan Speiser, a visual ecologist from the University of South Carolina, and his family. They all showed up in late July, and the lack of a serious monsoon this past summer allowed us to get an excellent set of videos, which we’re currently analyzing. 

But the serendipity continued. One of my doctoral students, Maddy Mengel, was rooming at RMBL with two members of Cassie Stoddard’s lab at Princeton University. Kristina Fialko, a postdoctoral researcher in the Stoddard lab, was taking hyperspectral photos of hummingbird habitat. Her camera takes pictures in which each pixel contains the spectra of the light in that pixel, to an amazing 2-nanometer resolution.  

We’d been puzzling over a good way to examine the color differences in detail across our butterfly’s wings — this could solve our dilemma! And Kristina was very interested in 3D high-speed videos of her hummingbirds’ behavior. So we arranged a trade: videos of hummers for photos of butterflies. 

These collaborations will likely continue: Yash may propose a new project on moths at RMBL next summer, Maddy wants to expand on the 3D video work, and she may also travel to Cassie’s lab to expand on the hyperspectral photography. And Dan, who is actually a marine molluscan visual ecologist, was fascinated enough by RMBL and its environs that he and his family are thinking of returning as visitors. 

I’ve long thought that we should alter the sign at the road entrance to RMBL to say, “Surgeon General’s warning: May be addictive.” It’s true!

Above: Diane Thomson (far left, with red backpack straps) with a restoration ecology class on a 1992 field trip to a mine reclamation site. Photo courtesy of Diane Thomson

Diane Thomson, PhD, returned to RMBL this past August for an integral projection model workshop, her first time back since her only other RMBL experience as an undergraduate researcher in 1992. But one transformative experience can shape a life. The RMBL summer of 1992 had such an effect on Thomson. “I think there are a lot of people like me who only got to go to RMBL once,” Thomson said. “But it was still hugely influential.”

In the decades between, she built a career as an ecologist studying plant-pollinator interactions, climate change, conservation, and the power of long-term ecological data. Thomson is now a professor of biology and environmental sciences at Pitzer and Scripps colleges in Claremont, California.

Thomson grew up in Tucson, Arizona, surrounded by the Sonoran Desert. As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, she was looking for an immersive summer ecology experience when she asked ecologist Mike Rosenzweig, PhD, for advice. He pointed her toward RMBL.

The trip from the desert Southwest to Gothic provided a dramatic change. Thomson arrived at 9,500-foot RMBL and adjusted quickly to cold nights, rugged terrain, and life in a small scientific community. She remembers sleeping in Ore House, with mice for roommates. Mostly, she remembers the sense of wonder that both the mountain environment and the science fostered.

“We learned about the full array of research happening at the field station,” she said, “from bird behavior to aquatics to pollination.”

Thomson took summer courses, learning from scientists and teachers including Allison Brody, PhD; Rosemary Smith, PhD; and John Cairns, PhD. The experience exposed her to a scientific culture that was different from what she had encountered in classrooms.

What really stood out was the community setting for science that RMBL provides. Textbooks can make science appear to be the work of brilliant individuals making isolated discoveries. At RMBL, Thomson saw scientists living together, talking about their work on hikes, challenging and learning from each other, and having fun doing it.

That experience helped Thomson imagine a life in science. “It was my first chance to see what this kind of work was like in real life,” Thomson reflected. “And I might have gone down that route anyway — you never know — but that experience shaped my path.”

After RMBL, Thomson continued her education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she worked with ecologist Dan Doak, PhD. She came to focus on plant-pollinator relationships, introduced species, honeybees and bumblebees, and the ways ecological patterns can change over time. “Long-term data really help us capture patterns that are not detectable over a shorter time period,” she said.

The value of those datasets often grows in ways researchers could never have anticipated when the studies began. “We’re especially fortunate when long-term data can be creatively repurposed,” she said. “Some of the things that I’ve done with my long-term data, I had no intention of doing that when I started.”

One example came after a wildfire. “Because I had access to pre-fire data, I was able to then use those data to try and address concerns about how the community had changed after fire,” she said.

That experience reinforced a lesson she has carried throughout her career: The original question that motivates a study may not be the most important question the resulting data eventually allow scientists to ask. “The original goal of the study might have been one thing,” Thomson said, “but over many years, having continued to build those datasets, they’ve enabled a lot of really interesting research that asks questions that maybe weren’t the original intent.”

Her work has also made her cautious about simple explanations of ecological change. A decline in one species may be connected to changes in another species, changes in plants, rainfall, temperature, or some combination of factors. “It’s one thing to say bumblebee numbers have gone down, and another thing to say I can connect that with when honeybees go up, bumblebees go down, I see that connection in my data, and then the plants are connected too,” she said. “And now you have some machinery to say, like, OK, well, if honeybees went away, if we restored some plant habitat, then we might expect that pattern to reverse.”

Complexity is part of what keeps Thomson interested in ecological research. Models can help researchers move beyond simply describing a trend and toward understanding the mechanisms behind it. “Just because you can show a trend line through something doesn’t mean you understand how it works,” she said. Climate change makes embracing complexity even more important.

For Thomson, the lesson is not that ecological change is easy to predict. It is that long-term observation can reveal a world that is more complicated — and sometimes more hopeful — than our first mental models suggest.

On her return, much had changed. But some things remained immediately recognizable. “It was really interesting, because obviously the field station has changed a lot,” Thomson said. “There are some things that are still the same, but there’s been a lot of new cabin construction, and there was a big renovation of the old cabins. But when the dinner bell rings, that brings back a lot of memories. Ore House is still there.”

More meaningful than the sounds and buildings, though, was reconnecting with former teachers. Thomson was particularly happy to see Rosemary Smith, whom she had not seen since her student days at RMBL. “It’d been over 30 years, and it was really fun to connect with her and say thank you,” she said.

A single summer at a field station does not necessarily determine one’s way of life or one’s way of being. For Thomson, though, that summer helped establish a way of seeing science: as a community, as a long-term practice, and as a process of asking better questions as the evidence changes and complexity grows.

— John Hausdoerffer, PhD
Director of Story
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

Mallory Wright traded the Texas heat for the Colorado mountains after childhood trips to Estes Park sparked a lifelong love of the outdoors. A graduate of Tarleton State University, she moved to Crested Butte in 2021, bringing a background in hospitality management and a passion for hiking, skiing, and connecting with people. She spoke with RMBL Communications Manager Suzanne Ennis about what makes RMBL 365 feel like home and why the campaign to pay off its mortgage matters.

Suzanne: What brought you to Colorado, and what keeps you here?

Mallory: I came to the YMCA in Estes Park with my family when I was growing up, and those trips really introduced me to my love for the mountains. I’ve always loved being outdoors, and Texas weather made it harder to enjoy the outdoors in the way I wanted to. Colorado gave me the opportunity to build a life around that.

I originally came here for the summer activities, but over time I’ve learned to love the winter activities just as much, and so do my dogs!

The weather and the access to the outdoors are a huge part of what keeps me here, but the people and the sense of community are what really make Colorado, and especially Crested Butte, feel like home.

Suzanne: You have a background in hospitality management. What do you love about working with people, and how does that shape the way you approach your role at RMBL 365?

Mallory: Hospitality management, to me, means creating the best environment I can for people and for the world around them. I love creating experiences for people and making them feel like they matter, that they are welcome, and that they have a purpose in the space they are in.

I love that in my role at RMBL 365, I truly get to put people and our environment above all else. It gives me the opportunity to think about not just where someone is staying, but how they experience their time here and how we can make that experience meaningful.

Suzanne: What do you love most about managing RMBL 365?

Mallory: What I love most about managing RMBL 365 is building connections with our Crested Butte community and educating people about RMBL, what we do at 365, and what happens up in Gothic.

The laundromat next door has actually become a really unexpected avenue for that. I’ve been able to connect with people who might otherwise never interact with RMBL or never have a reason to go up to Gothic. It gives me the chance to tell them about the multitude of projects happening there and introduce them to a part of our community they may not have known. I really enjoy being that connection between people in town and the larger RMBL community.

Suzanne: What do you hope people feel when they walk through the doors of 365?

Mallory: My goal is for everyone who walks into RMBL 365 to feel welcome and like they have a home away from home.

We know Gothic as an extension of home for so many people’s daily lives, and I hope that same feeling can be extended to RMBL 365. And when you’re in town, you’re even closer to home!

I want people to feel comfortable walking into the kitchen, sitting in the living room, talking with someone they’ve never met, or simply settling in after a long day outside. I think those little moments are what make a place feel like home.

Suzanne: Can you tell me about a memorable guest, gathering, or moment at 365 that has stayed with you?

Mallory: My favorite times at RMBL 365 have been when we’ve had multiple different ages, groups, and types of stays happening all at once.

I love coming into the building each day and talking with everyone about what they have planned — helping someone figure out the best hiking route, making coffee while guests eat pancakes and wrap up their morning conversations, and then welcoming them back in the afternoon and hearing exactly how their day went.

To be involved with my guests while they’re here is truly so much fun. I get to see people arrive as strangers and sometimes leave having made new connections, found a new favorite trail, learned something about RMBL, or simply had a really great day in the mountains. Those are the moments that make the job special to me.

Suzanne: Beyond hosting mission-aligned guests versus functioning as a hotel or hostel, what makes RMBL 365 different from other places to stay or gather in Crested Butte?

Mallory: RMBL 365 is unique because you can’t really replicate the energy that RMBL carries into each space we have.

When you’re here, you become part of the RMBL community. You’re sharing a space with the person staying in the room next to you, the people gathering in the living room, the researchers and students passing through, and the community members who come through the building.

That sense of community can be felt almost immediately. From the moment you wake up and walk into the kitchen to when you’re winding down for the night, there’s an opportunity to connect with someone. I think that feeling is difficult to create intentionally; it’s something that just happens when you bring the right people and environment together.

Suzanne: How do you see 365 connecting people to RMBL’s larger mission, even if they aren’t scientists or researchers?

Mallory: RMBL 365 allows us to open our doors to a much larger community, not just researchers and scientists, but students, families, community members, nonprofits, educators, and organizations that share many of the same goals and values as RMBL.

Having a space like 365 means we can host more people and facilitate more opportunities for education, research, collaboration, and community engagement. We’re able to host larger groups for high school education programs and welcome organizations outside of RMBL that are aligned with our mission.

For me, that’s one of the most exciting parts of 365. It gives people who may never consider themselves “scientists” a way to interact with RMBL and become part of the conversation around science, education, and our environment.

Suzanne: What would it mean to you to see RMBL 365’s mortgage completely paid off, and what would that make possible for RMBL?

Mallory: To have RMBL 365’s mortgage completely paid off would mean so many more opportunities. It would give us more room in the operating budget and more capacity to do even more with the building.

It would also allow us to look at our maintenance and improvement plans and start tackling some of the things on that list sooner rather than later. We have ideas for growth, too, and that additional financial flexibility could allow us to invest back into the building, make improvements, and create even more opportunities for the people and organizations we serve.

But beyond the financial piece, I think there’s something really meaningful about having the building fully belong to RMBL. I would love to see 365 continue to settle into RMBL’s history and feel like it is part of the same story as the cabins in Gothic, just the newest one. Paying off the mortgage wouldn’t just be the end of something; it would really be the beginning of what 365 can do next.

Suzanne: What would you say to someone who has stayed at 365, attended an event there, or appreciates RMBL’s presence in the community about why supporting the mortgage payoff campaign matters?

Mallory: Supporting the campaign to pay off RMBL 365’s mortgage matters because resources matter.

RMBL 365 is one of RMBL’s newest and greatest resources. Keeping it strong and sustainable means more room for education, research, community engagement, and the advancement of the work RMBL is doing.

Supporting RMBL 365 also means more people get the opportunity to be introduced to 365 and, through it, to RMBL as a whole. They get to see the people, science, education, and community that make this organization so special.

To me, RMBL 365 represents possibility and hope for the future. It gives us more room to bring people together, share knowledge, and create connections around science and the environment. Supporting the mortgage payoff campaign helps make sure that possibility continues for years to come.

Take a video tour of RMBL 365 and see how it supports RMBL’s vision, then make a gift toward the effort (please note “RMBL 365” in the designation field).

RMBL welcomes mission-aligned guests, offering a unique combination of meeting space, lodging, and communal areas designed to foster creativity and collaboration. Learn more about hosting your workshop, retreat, or educational program at RMBL 365 here.

— Interview by Suzanne Ennis
Communications Manager
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

Top photo: Mallory Wright. Photo by Nolan Blunck

For Doug La Follette, PhD, stewardship has meant showing up. It has meant driving to the Milwaukee airport to pick up a visiting scientist, teaching a two-week course between legislative sessions, and, year after year, opening his checkbook to support a cabin, a dining hall, Crystal (a big all-seasons cabin), and a new, modern shower house at a research station he first visited nearly five decades ago.

Before he was a politician, La Follette was already active in Wisconsin’s environmental circles. In 1970, as a University of Wisconsin professor, he helped organize the state’s observance of the first Earth Day, held under Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, the event’s national founder. That same year, he and Peter Anderson founded Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, an environmental watchdog group that later became Clean Wisconsin, now one of the state’s leading environmental organizations.

Around that same period, he read Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb and invited its author, then a biology professor at Stanford, to speak to his students. “I went to Milwaukee and picked him up at the airport, and we hit it off, as you might imagine, as a couple of scientists who were concerned about environmental problems,” La Follette said during a recent conversation in Gothic.

Ehrlich later invited him to RMBL to give a talk. “I did that, and I thought it was a wonderful place and I’ve been coming here ever since,” he said. He estimates the year as 1975 or 1978. By then, he had been elected Wisconsin secretary of state, an office he would go on to hold for a total of 44 years, longer than anyone else in state history.

Years later, at a former RMBL director’s invitation, La Follette began teaching a two-week environmental science class at RMBL. It was later cut to one week and eventually dropped because of student housing logistics.

His career brought together science and politics in a way that was unusual at the time.

“Because I was a scientist who had gone into politics, that’s pretty rare. So that’s why [Ehrlich] invited me, and I was interested in continuing to educate people here,” La Follette said.

Asked whether RMBL changed his views on the environment, La Follette said it mostly confirmed them. “Because I’ve always believed in good science,” he said. “So I was very pleased to see what was going on here, and very interested in some of the different projects — [including] the marmot studies and the monument plant studies.”

When longtime RMBL scientist David Inouye recently asked how he was doing, La Follette answered, “Not as well as the monument plants,” and the two laughed. This year’s bloom, as it happens, has been an especially good one.

Among the friendships La Follette made at RMBL, one in particular stands out: billy barr, whose decades of meticulous precipitation and temperature records have become key evidence of a changing climate.

“I got to know billy and we became very good friends,” La Follette said. He still tells people to watch “The Snow Guardian,” the 2016 documentary about barr’s work.

La Follette’s giving to RMBL has supported some of the lab’s most tangible needs. His first major gift helped build the Augusta cabin, matching a National Science Foundation grant that had already funded a companion cabin, Purple. He later helped fund the new billy barr Community Center and the visitor center, which, by his account, was built from a log research building that had to be relocated out of a wetland.

When asked which contribution he is most proud of, he replied, “At the moment, I guess I’d have to laugh and say the new shower house, because I’m sure the students here are having a great time taking showers in a nice new building.”

That impulse, to make RMBL more livable, traces back to his own stays in the cabin he helped build.

“I stayed in Augusta a number of times,” La Follette said. “I guess being here, I saw the need to make this place nicer, if you will, for the students and the researchers because coming here shouldn’t be that difficult in terms of everyday living. Because of that, I did all I could to help support getting the new dining hall to make it a nice place to come and a place you’re not going to fall off of because the stairs are collapsing, for example. And then I’ve always been concerned about the student housing, and right now there’s a real need to do something about that.”

Today, one of La Follette’s priorities is replacing the propane tanks powering stoves in many of RMBL’s cabins.

“We have a plan to get rid of all the propane tanks, which are dangerous, and produce pollution when you use them in a stove,” La Follette said. “And most all the cabins have gas stoves. And it’s not healthy for them either to have the stoves where they’re sleeping. So that would be a great project for someone who has a few dollars to spend.”

When John Hausdoerffer, PhD, RMBL’s director of storytelling and advancement, noted that removing the tanks would also help with wildfire mitigation, La Follette agreed.

“Well, yeah, I mean, if one of those tanks explodes, that’s a real disaster.”

He is just as insistent about ongoing operating support. “I would urge people to remember that ongoing contributions of $5,000 or $10,000, $20,000 a year are important to keep this place going,” he said.

Asked why RMBL still matters to him after all this time, La Follette pointed to the science and the people.

“Well, I guess the reason it always has: because it’s important for the science,” he said. “And now, like I say, because climate disruption and the problems it’s causing have finally reached the level of general awareness, if you will. That means what goes on is even more important in some ways. And besides, I also have friendships here with lots of people, and those friendships make it a continuing thing of importance to me.”

RMBL is approaching its centennial, having been founded in 1928 by John C. Johnson, a biology professor from what was then Western State College in Gunnison. Asked what he hopes for the lab’s second century, La Follette returned to the changes he has witnessed during his own nearly 50 years at RMBL.

“It’s almost been a hundred years since this place was started with a professor from Gunnison that had the foresight to start this place and buy up the mining claims and so forth,” he said. “And a lot’s happened here. It’s gone from a place where people lived in tents and didn’t have any water to drink, really, to a modern, high alpine research station, one of the best in the world. And so my hope for the next 100 years is that we continue that and continue to make the improvements we need to continue to provide those kind of services.”

— Suzanne Ennis
Communications Manager
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

Top: Doug La Follette, PhD, at RMBL in August 2026, with Gothic Mountain in the background. Photo by Suzanne Ennis

For a student, a summer at RMBL can be life-changing. There’s nothing like experiencing field research firsthand in one of the world’s most-studied mountain ecosystems alongside scientists at the leading edge of ecology. There’s also nothing like going to sleep after a fit of giggles.

Mammal Lab. 10 new summer residents (not including the various mice and insects that have found residence here).

Competitive in nature, the education program at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) accepts 40 undergraduate, recent graduate, or early-career graduate students to participate in a 10-week scientific research experience.

This summer I found myself making the short (compared to some) journey from Denver to Crested Butte as an undergraduate student in the research program. As my junior year of college ended and summer began, I giddily awaited any email that ended in @rmbl.org that might contain information about what summer would consist of. One such email contained information about cabin assignments and contact information for the other students assigned to Mammal Lab.

Quickly, communication via email began, each of us shyly introducing ourselves, and talk of creating a group chat began. Thus, the “Mammal Lab 🏠” group chat was born, and slowly, as we got to know each other better, honest questions and nervous quips began flooding my messages.

As all 10 of us moved in, conversation easily flowed, and orientation week brought about many laughs, new experiences, and connections.

Soon enough, as everyone settled and found their unique place within RMBL, our schedules became more populated, classes started, and first days in the field were completed. Some Mammal Lab friends and I found ourselves in the Rocky Mountain Ecosystems class with Kaysee Arrowsmith, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas. Our class, a small amalgamation of students from across the country, from various backgrounds, all researching related things — plants, pollinators, or stream ecology.

Field days looked quite different for everyone. RMBL has around 175 different field site locations in and around Gothic, Colorado. Just outside Crested Butte sits the unincorporated community of Almont. The Almont Triangle State Wildlife Area is where Nick Dabagia (PhD student at the University of Arizona) and I have been looking at how long-term nitrogen deposition affects plant floral traits at the community level.

Christie Hicks joined RMBL this summer as chief operating officer, bringing a background in environmental education, outdoor leadership, and nonprofit management. Before joining RMBL, she led Western Colorado University’s Wilderness Pursuits program and served as executive director of CB Nordic. We sat down with Christie to learn what drew her to RMBL, what excites her most about the role, and how she hopes to help support the organization’s future. .

Suzanne Ennis: What drew you to RMBL? What made you want to take on this role? 

Christie Hicks: I’ve been drawn to RMBL for a long time because of its focus on science and the environmental education piece with the kids’ programs, because that’s what my background is. My master’s is in environmental education, and I taught environmental studies and chemistry at the high school level for many years. 

When I first moved here, I always thought I’d go work at RMBL…. but it just never happened. I’ve always loved RMBL’s mission, and when I saw that they were hiring for a COO, after spending four years at home with my son, it seemed like the right opportunity. 

Suzanne: What excites you most as you settle into the position?

Christie: The most exciting thing is just being out in Gothic and becoming a part of this community, getting to know the scientists and the students who are visiting. We also just have an incredible team that is doing great work out here already, so getting to know them too.

Suzanne: For readers who may not know, what does a chief operating officer do at a place like RMBL? 

Christie: The COO’s job is to run the place so that our executive director, Jeni Blacklock, doesn’t have to do that anymore. 

RMBL is a complex operation. We’ve got about 70 buildings, 30 outhouses, a dining hall that serves three meals a day, seven days a week all summer long, the Visitor Center, and now we have RMBL 365, our new year-round lodging and events facility in Crested Butte. 

Right now I’m learning how Gothic operates in the summer and how RMBL 365 is being integrated into those current operations. Really, it’s about making sure we have the resources we need to support the science and the education that’s happening here on a daily basis, and making sure we have the resources we need for any future initiatives. 

Suzanne: What has surprised or impressed you most since arriving? 

Christie: I’ve been surprised and impressed by the longevity of some of the science going on here, and also the women who have been critical characters in the history of RMBL.  I love it. And now it’s carrying on to badass women running the organization! That’s awesome. Some cool ladies here, which I always love. 

Suzanne: When you’re not working, how do you like to spend your time? 

Christie: I mostly spend my time biking and skiing. I Nordic ski and ski on the resort with my kid. We mountain bike. I’ve always been a rafter, so we like to get out on boat trips every year. I also do a lot of yoga. I was a yoga teacher when I first moved here, and I was starting to teach again.  I love being outside, and I’ve always loved getting people outside. 

Suzanne: If you could wave a magic wand, what facility improvements would you most like to see at RMBL? 

Christie Hicks: We obviously have aging infrastructure. 

If I could wave a magic wand right now, I would electrify each of the cabins. We’d remove the propane tanks that are in close proximity to each of the cabins. 

I would do some serious hardening of all the cabin structures to make sure they are wildfire resistant and have proper vegetation clearance on all sides. I’d also renovate the inside of each cabin so that it’s sealed to keep out critters while still keeping the rustic character that’s really part of RMBL.  

Suzanne: What inspires you most about RMBL’s work? 

Christie: I’m really interested in the science, but also the stories that are coming out of that. 

We’ve got people out here measuring moisture in the ground and in the soil, but using that data to tell a story about how our planet is changing and what our role in that is —  that, to me, is the most powerful thing about RMBL right now. 

Every single scientist here has a story about what is happening with our planet right now. That’s the real reason I’m here. 

— Interview by Suzanne Ennis
Communications Manager
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

Top: Christie hitting the trail

RMBL’s Development Manager shares what brought her to the Gunnison Valley, why connection matters, and what excites her about RMBL’s future.

Suzanne: Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, and what brought you to the Gunnison Valley?

Gigi: I grew up in Upstate New York, in the Finger Lakes region, spending most of my time outside, climbing trees, camping, and building snow forts.

My husband and I started coming to Crested Butte about 6 years ago and fell in love with it.  I grew up in a small town, so the sense of community here really struck a chord with me.  And then almost 4 years ago, we got involved with the Adaptive Sports Center in Mount Crested Butte, working and volunteering with the Winter Sports program and helping to make outdoor adventures accessible to individuals with various disabilities or specific needs through adaptive programs and therapeutic recreation.  Our relationship with Adaptive has continued to grow over time, and we also bought a small home here a few years ago to deepen our connection to this place.

Suzanne: What drew you to RMBL, and what does your role as Development Manager involve?

Gigi: I discovered the RMBL townsite and field station in Gothic on my way to a mountain bike ride on one of our early visits here. Having undergraduate degrees in environmental science and biology and a master’s degree in communication, I actually dreamed of being a park ranger or wildlife biologist.

Suzanne: You get to meet many of RMBL’s supporters. What do you think inspires people to invest in RMBL’s work?

Gigi: I believe that what inspires people often stems from a sense of seeing themselves in the mission. In the work I do, two themes are always central to how I approach it: connection and community. When people feel connected to a mission, they also feel compelled to support it, whether it’s through financial support, volunteerism, or advocacy. The investment is personal, not just practical, and the mission must be genuine and authentic or, quite simply, it will fail. Furthermore, most people want to be part of something bigger than themselves that makes a difference. RMBL is not just a field station in a beautiful valley—it is an integral part of Crested Butte and the Gunnison Valley’s history.

Suzanne: Can you share a favorite memory or story that captures the spirit of RMBL?

Gigi: I have two that I love, but I find more of them every day!

The first is the story of a lovely woman who reached out to say that she had a copy of a book her late husband wrote during his tenure at RMBL and was curious whether we would want it for our library. She shared with me how her husband had worked at RMBL many years ago, and she spoke of his time with students, as well as his colleagues and peers, as being among his most meaningful moments. As I read her letter and thought about how personal her remembrance of him was, I was also struck by the fact that the building in which my office is housed was actually named for her husband’s friends. The mental images of them sharing those times together turned abstract historical concepts into the real-life stories of scientists devoted to conservation and activism. I walk into that building with a new reverence every day, with a better sense of the 100 years of history that make up this place. And I have a new book to read before I give it its rightful place in our library.

The second story found its way to me just yesterday. Another letter, this time from a man whose family owned Skyland Camps for more than 30 years before ski resort development began. He recalled fond memories of the time he spent with RMBL researchers and shared his reflections on the collaboration and friendship that continue with several of our scientists to this day. The letter also included a significant donation to support students and young researchers, as well as programs for public outreach and education. What touched me most is that this donation stems from a distribution of funds from his parents’ estate and is also this donor’s first gift to us. That he chose RMBL as its recipient is indeed an honor.

For me, both of these speak to what’s special about this place. We talk about the Power of Place, and we have our own definition of what this means. But for me, the true spirit of RMBL exists in the fact that the Power of Place has a unique meaning for each and every person it has touched.

Suzanne: Why do you think it’s important for RMBL to host public events, in addition to supporting world-class scientific research?

Gigi: I believe that people’s faith in science is inextricably linked to their ability to understand how it impacts their lives. Returning to my points above about connection and community, these events help connect how the science of RMBL relates to “real life”—for example, how rising stream temperatures impact stream health and how stream health, in turn, impacts whether fishing will be good this year. These events also demonstrate that RMBL is not an isolated community of elite scientists, but rather a collection of people who value this place and want to be a vital part of it.

Suzanne: Is there a public event you’re especially looking forward to this summer? What makes it one you wouldn’t want people to miss?

Gigi: Ha! Can I say all of them?! I say that somewhat facetiously, but it’s also true. Our summer calendar touches on so many topics, supported by brilliant scientists who generously share their knowledge and their work, and donors and board members who open their homes to host gatherings where guests can interact with experts in specific areas of study. We’re hosting guided hikes to experience this high-alpine environment in deeply personal ways, movie screenings from collaborators in the fields of art and science, family-friendly afternoons that enable parents and children to experience science together in creative ways, breeding bird surveys, and monthly book club discussions. Oh, and we’re launching our own RMBL Marmot Tears IPA in collaboration with Irwin Brewing Co.! How could I ever pick just one? I would say you wouldn’t want to miss any of these!

The energy of this place, as we look ahead to the next 100 years, is palpable. The opportunities to leverage evolving technologies to not only advance new studies, but also augment the rich data accumulated over a century of field science, are staggering. But the drive to attract people to science and make it accessible to everyone gives me hope for a better tomorrow. The sense of mission and the commitment to achieving it has never felt more real, and THAT is incredibly exciting.

— Interview by Suzanne Ennis
RMBL Communications Manager

Top: Gigi Lorence at Blue Mesa reservoir