Renewing Landscape and Community through Collective Action

Last year, 2 events significantly affected our local trails and landscapes:

COVID-19 and wildfire.

Throughout the pandemic, the outdoors provided space for personal rejuvenation and our trails and parks recorded a surge in use. On the most popular trails, usage increased between 40% and 60% in 2020 as compared to 2019. And with more people (and pets) comes the need for more active stewardship to prevent significant degradation of the places we love.

The Grizzly Creek Fire which started on August 10th, 2020 eventually burned about 33,000 acres in a mosaic pattern across Glenwood Canyon and the surrounding mesas. Not only does the Burn Area require rehabilitation and restoration, but nearby lands which did not catch flame merit pre-fire mitigation as well.

To address these needs – in addition to RFOV’s annual work – our theme for the year 2021 is

Renewing Landscape and Community through Collective Action.

2021 Projects

RFOV will provide community and group stewardship opportunities in the areas of Aspen, Basalt, Carbondale, Redstone, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Silt, and Parachute. However, we will increase our focus in the following areas to enhance the capacity of popular trails and to restore degraded landscapes:

• Pitkin County RFOV, working with Pitkin County Open Space & Trails, has secured funding through the State of Colorado’s Resilient Communities program to provide the coordination, planning, and implementation of 3-4 project days per week this project season. These projects will be spread across the county and are meant to maintain or re-build trails currently coping with surging trail-use.

• Marble In collaboration with the Town of Marble and US Forest Service, RFOV will coordinate, plan, and implement several projects both in-town and the adjacent White River National Forest to restore infrastructure and prevent the degradation of wilderness landscapes.

• Rifle To address the demand for greater hiking and biking access to the Rifle Arch/Grand Hogback, RFOV will begin building the Grand Hogback Traverse Trail with partners City of Rifle, Bureau of Land Management.

• Glenwood Canyon Restoration Alliance Following the Grizzly Creek Fire, RFOV launched and is now leading this umbrella partnership of non-profit, government, and business organizations to achieve 3 goals in the Burn Area: (1) Community-Building, (2) Community-Education, (3) Community-led Restoration. Visit the GCRA website here.

2021 Programs

From the top of Independence Pass to the banks of the Colorado River, the residents and visitors of our community are diverse, and RFOV wants to engage our region in meaningful ways that promote stewardship of our greatest resource – our shared outdoors. This year we’ll additionally increase our focus in the following types of work:

• Community Education We recognize that not everyone who cares for the outdoors cares in the same way. This year we will work to expand the variety and quantity of our educational programming.

• Trails & Ways Working with our partners, RFOV will continue to create a network of trails across the Roaring Fork Valley that are accessible to persons of various sensory/motor/physical/cognitive abilities. Click here for more information.

• Outreach In 2021, RFOV is working to better integrate our Latino and veterans communities into our mission of stewardship.

• Fire Living in the Western Slope presents nearly limitless access to the outdoors, but in that expansive wildland interface is substantial risk of wildfire. RFOV is working with many partners to build-out programming related to pre-fire mitigation, fire ecology, and post-fire restoration.

2021 Achievements

2021 Volunteer Awards