2010 Season's Start

Yep...Its going to be another record breaking year for Peak Steward activity on Colorado's 14ers!!

Brian Wallace here - Education and Outreach Coordinator for CFI - I've been hard at work recruiting and training a whole new wave of Peak Stewards that are getting really excited for this season. Let me bring you up to speed: I have conducted 7 trainings so far this winter and spring. They began in January with a training in Lakewood, there were two trainings in March (one in Boulder and one in Golden), 3 trainings in April (Fort Collins, Leadville, and Salida) and i just had one last Saturday in Glenwood.

Just for a little perspective, a typical Peak Steward Season consists of one 2-day training in the middle of June that, last year, maxed out at around 35 participants (almost doubling the size of ANY previous training). Those individuals proved to be incredibly dedicated volunteers who gave 140 collective volunteer days on the 14ers, counting visitors and advocating for ethical travel on the delicate alpine ecosystems (more than doubling any of the biggest prior years activity!!) The majority of those volunteers have already expressed their excitement to be involved again CFI is totally appreciative of their commitment!

So back to this season...throughout the 7 trainings so far I have managed to recruit and train 64 NEW Peak Stewards and still have the big training in Alma to go. If all goes as planned, we could have around 100 committed individuals volunteering as Peak Stewards this summer!! If everyone volunteers their requested 4 days, we could be looking at 400 volunteer Peak Steward days by the end of the season.

The really important thing to consider here is that we could be tripling (or more) CFI's presence on the mountains...we'll be able to get a more accurate account of visitor use, help educate many more visitors on alpine LNT practices, and hopefully turn more folks on to ways they can become involved with CFI!

The next training is in Alma and Mounts Lincoln, Democrat, and Bross (not on the summit though) on June 12-13. Contact me for details and to register!

Throughout the season there will be multiple contributors to this blog. They will be the dedicated Peak Steward volunteers mentioned above as well as myself...stay tuned for our stories, experiences, and the "ART" of 14er education!

-BW
brian@14ers.org