Notes from the Field

RMFI Friends, 

In recent years, it’s felt like we’ve all faced the realities of change occurring at a quickened pace. Examples include the pandemic, shifting administrations with starkly different agendas, and navigating the ever-changing funding environment. At the organizational level, RMFI has moved offices, modernized its major operational and internal processes and systems, and experienced two Executive Director leadership transitions. To many of us, it has felt like a storm surge—juggling so much change in rapid succession. 

August was a busy month at RMFI as we wrapped up 2 backcountry projects for the 2023 Season and started a brand new project at Pancake Rocks!

Sangre De Cristos - Broken Hand Pass Trail

One of our favorite and oldest projects here at RMFI is our South Colony Lakes Project. The South Colony Basin sits in the Sangre de Cristo mountains just outside the town of Westcliffe. South Colony Basin is home to 2 alpine lakes and the trails for 3 fourteeners: Humboldt, Crestone Needle, and Crestone Peak. The trail leading up to Humboldt Peak was one of RMFI’s first projects back in the 90’s and one of our founder, Mark Hesse’s, favorites. RMFI got to continue the legacy in 2021 by working on the South Colony trail leading up to the base of Humboldt.

After 8 years as Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Field Institute, it is very bittersweet to announce that I have accepted a position with the U.S. Forest Service and will be leaving my position at RMFI effective September 30. Carl Woody, RMFI Program Director, will step into the interim Executive Director role upon my departure and until a new person is found to take my place. 

Whether we are building rock steps, completing cobbling, constructing switchbacks, or other features, trail building and trail maintenance often requires moving rocks - and LOTS of them!

When moving smaller rocks, we often use canvas bags called coal bags or hand carry rocks. Though often the size needed for cobbling, steps and similar features use rocks that are about the size of a microwave or slightly bigger. To move these rocks, we use 2 rock bars and a specialty rock net called an RCD - Rock Carrying Device (see picture to left).

JULY 21, 2022

WASHINGTON, D.C. - 

As part of the President’s America the Beautiful Initiative, the Biden-Harris Administration today launched an interagency effort, called the Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation (FICOR), that will work to create more safe, affordable, and equitable opportunities for Americans to get outdoors.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – With visitation to Pikes Peak region parks and trails expected to increase over the next several weeks, federal, state, county and city land managers remind visitors to recreate responsibly on public lands. Recreating outdoors is an important way of life for all Coloradans, and public land agencies need everyone’s cooperation to help them sustain enjoyable outdoor experiences and preserve natural areas for future generations.

Kathryn Sosbe

Office of Communication

April 27, 2022

Loretta McEllhiney surveys flora on San Luis peak in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forest. As the Colorado Fourteeners Program manager, she is responsible for not only the safety of trails on 47 Colorado mountains higher than 14,000 feet, but she also has grown into an expert about alpine plants. (Photo courtesy Executive Director Lloyd Athearn, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative)

Written by Eric Swab. Reposted from the Trails and Open Space Coalition Website. 

***

(Eric Swab offers a fascinating account of the man behind of the region’s most beloved canyons. A man who swallowed documents, got into gun-fights, had several near-death experiences, borrowed money 14 times and it would seem attempted to swindle the federal government)

NEWS RELEASE

April 6, 2022

Shared from Patagonia, Author: Kristian Jackson

A series of logs hangs precariously over the edge of a muddy hole, forming a makeshift bridge across what used to be the trail alongside Grogan Creek. I watch my companions tiptoe past, gracefully navigating their bikes through the encroaching rhododendron, before following them across the greasy byway to the safety of solid ground.

DENVER, Colorado, January 13, 2022 – Two project teams in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States Forest Service are honored recipients of the 2021 Chief’s Awards, the agency’s highest award.

The Leave No Trace (LNT) Center for Outdoor Ethics focuses on educating people - our most valuable resources for initiating change - to protect the outdoors by providing them with invaluable skills, knowledge, and resources.

343-acre open space acquisition in city’s southwest foothills receives unanimous recommendation from Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Advisory Board

NEWS RELEASE

Sept. 30, 2021

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Vanessa Zink
Lead Communications Specialist (719) 491-0363

Improvements will increase safety along route and at the Garden of the Gods Park entrance

Written by 2021 RMFI Intern, Riley Jones

Between 2015 and 2020, seven people died attempting to ascend peaks in the Crestone Group, a dramatic and notorious cluster of five 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo mountains.

On average one hiker dies every year trying to bag peaks in this granite cathedral.

NEWS RELEASE

Sept. 20, 2021

No matter our differences in backgrounds or how we choose to enjoy the great outdoors, trails create common ground that connects us. Access to trails is a privilege we acknowledge and can only safeguard through our actions toward one another.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado Springs has been chosen as a Hot Spot by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. The city is one of ten Hot Spots selected nationwide to participate in this year’s education program. From Oct.

Road closed from main entrance of North Cheyenne Cañon Park to Helen Hunt Falls to all users for project duration; park trails remain open

NEWS RELEASE

Sept. 8, 2021

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Vanessa Zink

Senior Communications Specialist

719-491-0363

NEWS RELEASE

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Colorado Springs City Council today unanimously approved on a 9-0 vote a question for the November ballot seeking approval from Colorado Springs voters on a 20-year extension of the Trails, Open Space and Parks (TOPS) sales and use tax through 2041 and increasing the current 0.1 percent rate to 0.2 percent or 2 pennies on a $10 purchase. TOPS is a dedicated sales and use tax for acquiring, developing and maintaining trails, open spaces and parks that is currently set to expire in 2025 as approved by voters in 2003.

Written by RMFI Program Manager, Lindsay Williams

Know before you go, plan ahead, be courteous on area trails and help protect sensitive natural areas 

APRIL 20, 2021: 

APRIL 20, 2021:

CAÑON CITY, Colo. – The Bureau of Land Management Royal Gorge Field Office is looking to hear from the public before undertaking a planning effort to improve travel and camping on BLM-managed lands in Chaffee County. A public input period begins today and will continue through May 20. 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A portion of Gold Camp Road is now closed to vehicles until further notice due to a large boulder blocking the roadway. The closure is from the northern boundary of North Cheyenne Cañon Park, north of the Chutes and Ladders trailhead, to the gravel parking lot uphill from Helen Hunt Falls. The boulder fell into the road Sunday, April 25.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.

In May 2020, Colorado Parks and Wildlife began an effort to overhaul a 1998 document titled, "Planning Trails with Wildlife in Mind." This document was created to support land managers in planning for trails while incorporating strategies to address wildlife impacts. While it has served as an excellent tool for trail planners throughout the state, it had not been updated in 20 years.