September 2019 Newsletter
the power of PLACE
Protector of Place
It’s a small thing, but it makes me proud. In early September Volunteer Outdoor Colorado (VOC) visited Gothic and reworked the Judd Falls Trail (see the adjoining article). One of the most heavily used recreation areas, the previous trail was not “designed”. It “emerged” as people scrambled through rocks and picked their way, occasionally through research, to the overlook.
RMBL’ers Alice and Steve Jennison took charge. VOC knows how to mobilize volunteers, Alice is an expert in trail planning, and Steve runs RMBL’s facilities, so the great result is not a surprise. Fifty plus individuals chipped away at boulders, cleared vegetation, and stacked rocks. Within 2 days we had a beautiful trail, with no erosion problems, clearly leading to the overlook. The old trail will soon be forgotten.
Ian Billick | PhD
Executive Director, RMBL
sciencestories
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado
Happier Trails
We don’t need to tell you how beautiful Colorado is. But living here comes at a cost. Beautiful places attract people. Lots of them. In the last 50 years our state’s population has grown from two million to nearly five and a half million. All those people use Colorado’s public lands — the parks, the recreation areas, the ski resorts — and the more these places are used the more likely they could become overused and damaged. Couple that with budget cuts from state and federal land managers, and you have a recipe for paradise lost.
That’s why RMBL has taken the lead in stewardship of the land we depend on. We’ve been here over 90 years. If we’re going to continue our work for another century, we have to protect our resources.
How An Artificial Climate Change Experiment Affected A Colorado Meadow
