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CDTA Volunteers Made a Difference on National Public Lands Day
10/06/06
(Pine, Colo.) Continental Divide Trail Alliance volunteers who turned out for National Public Lands Day on Sat., Sept. 30, got to help build and rehab a section of the country’s longest, highest, wildest backcountry trail. They also were part of a larger contingent of volunteers joining a national one-day effort to care for America’s public lands.
“Our volunteers did an incredible amount of work on the Trail in just a few hours,” said Susan Westhoff, CDTA director of volunteer programs. “A project like this shows how much people can make a difference when they work together as a team. It was a great day.”
Some 20 volunteers, plus several CDTA and U.S. Forest Service staff, worked a section of the Trail outside Fraser in Grand County, Colo. They built 18 drains, eight check dams, two stream crossings and two bridge abutments. They also removed two windfall trees, filled and crowned 100 feet of trail, rerouted 500 feet of trail and rehabbed 200 feet of existing trail. Several hardy volunteers even got training on how to use a large crosscut saw that takes two people to operate.
Work on the Continental Divide Trail was one of five projects in Grand County on National Public Lands Day, an annual event coordinated by National Environmental Education & Training Foundation, based in Washington D.C. Organizers expected up to 100,000 volunteers to participate at up to 1,000 sites across the country, resulting in as much as $10 million in improvements to the places Americans use for outdoor recreation, education and enjoyment.
“Our volunteers even had some snow to contend with that was leftover from storms more than a week ago,” Westhoff said. “But it didn’t even slow them down.”
Some 170 volunteers in pitched in at five sites in Grand County, according to BJ Duffy, NPLD coordinator for the Forest Service’s Sulphur Ranger District in the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest.
“The weather was gorgeous,” Duffy said, “and we had a nice turnout.”
Duffy said work done by volunteers on all five NPLD projects in the county saved federal and county agencies $46,000 in time and labor.
Volunteers came from all over the Front Range came to work on the CDT for the day – from as far away as Fort Collins, Longmont and Palmer Lake. Locals from Winter Park and Empire also were on the crew, as were four members of a family from Evergreen.
Nationally Continental Divide Trail Alliance was one of more than 125 federal, state, county and local groups participating in National Public Lands Day.
“Ten years ago National Public Lands Day was the launching pad for CDTA to develop partnerships with local communities and other volunteer organizations. Our program has grown and become more visible as a result,” said Paula Ward, Continental Divide Trail Alliance co-executive director.
In addition to the project in Colorado, Continental Divide Trail Alliance also coordinated a National Public Lands Day project in the Rio Puerco Valley outside of Cuba, New Mexico.
Each year Continental Divide Trail Alliance organizes more than 40 of its own volunteer projects in the five states encompassed by the 3,100-mile-long Trail (in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico). Projects range from one-day outings to weeklong backpacking trips deep in the back country. Some 1,000 volunteers work the Trail annually. They range in age from teens to the 70s and come from all over the country and the world. For many, working a CDTA volunteer project near desirable destinations like Rocky Mountain National Park or Yellowstone, or a variety of National Forests and Wilderness Areas, becomes a “volunteer vacation” and they sign up year after year.
For more information about volunteering to work on the CDT, contact Brenda Dolan-Hobgood at (303) 838-3760 or brenda@cdtrail.org.
The Continental Divide Trail was established by Congress as a National Scenic Trail in 1978. When complete, the “King of Trails” will be the most significant trail system in the world. Stretching 3,100 miles along the backbone of America from Canada to Mexico, it accesses some of the most wild and scenic places left in the world while conserving the environment and promoting personal well being.
Since 1995, the Continental Divide Trail Alliance has played a central role toward the completion, management and protection of the Trail, including coordinating more than 8,000 volunteers who have contributed more than $3.5 million in labor. Continental Divide Trail Alliance is the voice for unity in the diverse story of the Trail.
For more information about the Continental Divide Trail, call (303) 838-3760 or toll-free 1-888-909-CDTA (2382). Or visit www.cdtrail.org.
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