Looking back and looking ahead at CEC’s Northwest Hiking Adventures

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For the past six months I have been working for CEC as their Conservation Advocate Fellow on the West Slope in the Northwest office located in Craig. Our office looks after Routt, Moffat, and Rio Blanco Counties and their conservation areas. One of the more exciting aspects of my position is to get folks from our region out into the areas we work to protect. This helps raise awareness of our public lands, Wilderness Study Areas, and other areas of special interest. The first week on the job I did a ride along with the Luke Schafer, West Slope – North Campaign Coordinator. He showed me some absolutely amazingly beautiful country in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties. It got me excited to explore these new areas that were foreign to me.

Cross Mountain–In Dinosaur National Monument (CEC)

Our outings were first coined as a “Hiking Series” and it consisted of four locations. The first location was to hike Howelsen Hill and Emerald Mountain up to the quarry. The second was the south rim of Cross Mountain in Dinosaur National Monument. For the third hike, we selected Carpenter Ranch, specifically the Yampa River Preserve. The last hiking location was Duffy Mountain. Of the four hikes offered, two happened: Howelsen Hill/Emerald Mountain and Carpenter Ranch. On both hikes the participants were fantastic and everyone had a great experience. The Carpenter Ranch hike was especially fun as we bushwhacked through the brush to explore an old home, found bear prints in the dried mud, and saw a bald eagle soaring above us on the hike out. It was because of the success of this outing that we decided to rename the series from “Hiking Series” to “Adventure Series.”

Beautiful hillsides of Diamond Breaks (Mark Pearson)

The three outings I planned in the newly re-named “Adventure Series” started with Cross Mountain in hopes of getting some interest in exploring the area and observing the canyon from above. Followed by an outing into a Wilderness Study Area of Brown’s Park National Wildlife Refuge called Diamond Breaks, up through Choke Cherry Draw. This hike ends at an old homestead and has an interesting story on how the area got its name. Lastly, I planned an outing to head into Bull Canyon on the far western border of Colorado visiting another area of beautiful canyon country. Unfortunately, Bull Canyon was cancelled due to weather conditions and the trips to Diamond Breaks and Cross Mountain didn’t fill, so we did not go.

Due to the cancellations, the “Hiking/Adventure Series” was not as successful as we had hoped for 2011, but the groundwork has already been set for 2012. With the areas already chosen, and the descriptions and posters written up, weather permitting, we can start earlier this spring and hopefully get more folks involved in getting out and getting excited about where we live. If you are interested in joining CEC’s West Slope – Northwest 2012 Adventure Series, check the Get Involved page of our website at ourcolorado.org to see where we will be exploring this spring.

You gotta lose to win, and CEC won big!

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As some of you may have heard, CEC was a top $5,000 ‘High Five’ prizewinner in the second annual Colorado Gives Day in December. We’re pretty sure that our success had a lot to do with the challenge issued by our Executive Director, Elise Jones, and here, in her own words, is a recount of the day.

“Sometimes you have to lose to win. Or, more specifically, to sacrifice one’s personal dignity in order to rally the team to victory. Such was the case for me when CEC participated for the first time in Colorado Gives Day (CGD) this past December 6th.

Everyone should wear a tiara at least once in their life: Elise on the Capitol steps (Beka Wilson)

Sponsored by Community First Foundation and FirstBank, CGD is designed to increase charitable giving to the state’s many worthy nonprofits. CEC’s board and staff agreed to help out by soliciting donations from their friends and family members.

To maximize CGD donations to CEC, our development director Beka not so innocently asked me if I’d be willing to issue a challenge to staff and board, a bet if you will, to inspire them to double down on their fundraising efforts. “Sure,” I innocently replied. “I’m a team player.”

“Okay, then – how about you agree to wear a princess dress and recite poetry on the steps of the Capitol if we bring in at least 250 donations.” As my jaw dropped in horror, Beka hastened to calm me down. “Not to worry,” she said. “It will be a tough goal for us to reach.” So I reluctantly agreed.

Little did I know how just how inspiring seeing me traipse around in a princess outfit would be to staff, board members and donors. We blew by our goal, galvanizing nearly 450 supporters to give more than $37,000 for CEC’s important conservation work. In fact, CEC won one of the “High Five” $5,000 prizes for bringing in the most donors for a mid-sized organization! As you might have guessed, I was both delighted and completely chagrined.

Days later, there I was, decked out in white taffeta and satin, tiara on my head and wand in my hand, riding on the 16th Street shuttle up to the Capitol. I was surrounded by gleeful staff who were snapping photos of the shocked faces of my fellow shuttle occupants. As I gamely sashayed up the Capitol steps to orate the obligatory poem (not an easy thing to do with all of those billowing petticoats!), I naively thought the episode would soon be behind me. Alas, the Facebook post of my devoted staffs’ video was highlighted in the Denver Post’s GCD coverage as an example of how area nonprofits went the extra mile to encourage donations—see the article by going here.

My dignity recovered, however, as I pondered how my 15 minutes of humble pie helped leverage $37,000 for Colorado’s environment, which as hourly rates go, isn’t half bad.

The moral of this princess fairy tale is two-fold: never take yourself too seriously and personal sacrifice is always a net gain in support of a great cause like CEC!”

We’re still here!

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As some of our regular readers have noticed, our blog has been awfully quiet lately. In addition to fixing a web hosting issue late last year that was preventing us from updating it, our dear web-guru and blog mistress Anne Pogoriler (AKA Pogo) has left CEC to pursue some exciting new opportunities.

We are all thrilled and excited for Pogo’s new ventures but it means that we have not had anyone to nag encourage and harass remind staff to blog about all of the cool things we’re working on. In Pogo’s absence several of us here are helping to run the social media sphere of CEC so please bear with us as we get back on track with regular postings.

Renewed efforts to nag encourage and harass remind staff about updating our blog have gone out and we should have some new, fresh, awesome content for you all to enjoy. In the meantime, please let us know if there are issues you are interested in, programs you would like to learn more about, or anything else we might be able to cover with  ye old blog.  Thanks for your patience!

A Season of West Slope Hiking

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Beautiful fall day in Hunter Canyon.

Beautiful fall day in Hunter Canyon.

The true chill of winter has finally hit Western Colorado after a full fall in CEC’s West Slope field office. Since August 27th we’ve hosted a series of adventures into our big backyard, exploring many of our region’s Wilderness Study and Wilderness Proposal sites. The outings drew an array of savvy hikers, from ages 17 to 70, who got a chance to see the nooks and crannies of the Grand Valley and beyond.

The explorations were an intimate opportunity to learn more about the process of conservation on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. The passage of the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) in 1975 directed BLM to identify Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), which encouraged involved community members to supplement the BLM’s efforts by mapping additional special places and identifying Citizen Wilderness Proposals (CWP). From there, conservation organizations (such as CEC) have pushed for permanent protections for these lands by having them legislatively designated as Wilderness Areas or National Conservation Areas (NCA). Today there remains a network of Colorado Canyon Country Wilderness Proposal Areas (CCCWP) that are being tracked for the possibility of conservation designation. During the West Slope Fall Hiking Series we visited a number of them and finished with a trek through our favorite local NCA.

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Harvest Hoedown

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Waiting on Trial with a rollicking set. (Jolynne Woodcock)

The Grand Valley’s expansive desert geography offers refuge for a variety of endeavors. The resource-rich landscape is dotted with oil and gas leases in an ever growing and controversial exploration. In the same setting you’ll find dinosaur quarries, renowned mountain biking, excellent off-season hiking, and endless routes for off-road vehicle use. To the west the Colorado National Monument awes thousands of out-of-state visitors every year, and at the far east end of the valley sits the quaint town of Palisade. In Palisade you’ll find a bounty of agriculture, including proud peaches and vibrant vineyards. With this being the season of harvest, Colorado Environmental Coalition decided this would the perfect setting for our new and improved fall fundraiser, the Harvest Hoedown.

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A friend in need

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Getting ready to get airborne. (Anne Pogoriler)

There are only a few things I will get up before the crack of dawn for and they are as follows: fresh powder on the mountain, leaving for vacation, and a family member or friend in need. On November 1st I woke up at 5:45am in order view via air and ground what exactly is happening on BLM land on the Roan Plateau with ongoing oil shale research and development projects. Because I love nature so much I consider this an example of family member/friend in need.

I had never been on a small plane before so, I was a bit anxious about how I might handle it. Traveling from Grand Junction where we had stayed the night before, by 8 am we reach the Rifle Regional Air Field to meet Bruce Gordon, our air guide. Bruce is the President of EcoFlight, a tour company that offers flights to provide first hand overviews of our country to better understand and encourage protection of the remaining wildlands & roadless areas of America. Learning more about Bruce, my fears of my first flight on a small plane began to ebb a little.

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Some tangible evidence

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About to head out for a staff/board hike led by Kurt. (Anne Pogoriler)

I’ve been interning at CEC for the last 9 months and although I’ve been invited on several exciting outings with the organization, I’ve yet to make it on a trip (I know what you’re thinking – what the heck is wrong with me!). Well, this past weekend I finally got to take part in their annual board and staff retreat down in beautiful Marble, CO at the Beaver Lake Retreat. We met everyone bright and early in Morrison, loaded up our gear and car pooled through the spectacular I-70 corridor up towards Glenwood Springs. After feeding the troops, we delved into an extensive and informative staff meeting. CEC works on a wide array of environmental issues in Colorado, and each staff member brings a particular expertise to these issues. During the meeting, I obtained a deeper understanding of how impassioned and dedicated these individuals are about protecting and preserving our incredible state. It really reverberated the sense of excitement I feel about getting to work with an organization that makes such a resounding impact on our communities. We concluded the day with an amazing dinner fit for kings and some great conversation with some of Colorado’s finest.

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FOND’s Fall Fest and the keys to preserving the magic of an incredible public landscape!

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Base camp at the FOND Fall Fest '11. (Thad V'Soske)

It was a breathtaking drive a few weeks back from Whitewater to Gateway along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway en route to the FOND Fall Fest. Vibrant clusters of red, orange, and yellow scrub oak intermingled with lichens of the same shades – a natural graffiti tagged the granite walls of Unaweep Canyon proclaiming the arrival of fall!

I’ve traveled this route quite a few times in the last 3 years and without fail each time I weave through the contours of this mysterious canyon a multitude of questions bubble up and into my consciousness. How this canyon formed? Is that granite!? Who lives out here? Can I turn down that road? Is that a wild herd of Elk!? Can I hunt in these parts? Whoa cool waterfall! Is there public access?

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FOND’s Fall Fest and the keys to preserving the magic of an incredible public landscape!

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Base camp at the FOND Fall Fest '11. (Thad V'Soske)

It was a breathtaking drive a few weeks back from Whitewater to Gateway along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway en route to the FOND Fall Fest. Vibrant clusters of red, orange, and yellow scrub oak intermingled with lichens of the same shades – a natural graffiti tagged the granite walls of Unaweep Canyon proclaiming the arrival of fall!

I’ve traveled this route quite a few times in the last 3 years and without fail each time I weave through the contours of this mysterious canyon a multitude of questions bubble up and into my consciousness. How this canyon formed? Is that granite!? Who lives out here? Can I turn down that road? Is that a wild herd of Elk!? Can I hunt in these parts? Whoa cool waterfall! Is there public access?

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It can be seen from outer space

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Twenty four hours a day the Tar Sands eats into the most carbon rich forest ecosystem on the planet. Storing almost twice as much carbon per hectare as tropical rainforests, the boreal forest is the planet's greatest terrestrial carbon storehouse. To the industry, these diverse and ecologically significant forests and wetlands are referred to as overburden, the forest to be stripped and the wetlands dredged and replaced by mines and tailings ponds so vast they can be seen from outer space.

Colorado Environmental Coalition sponsored an event in the KAFM Community Room in Grand Junction last night. The people packed into the room were treated to some amazing photography mostly taken from the open door of a small plane as it first flew over Canada’s Boreal Forest, then the Tar Sands project so hyped in TV commercials promising to create American Jobs. (I’ve often wondered how a project in Canada could create jobs in the U.S. Now I know the answer, but it scares me to death.)

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