PICTURED: Participants gathered to plan for the day’s work to come.
October saw the continuation of the environmentally sensitive method of tree removal coordinated by the Colorado Unit of Mennonite Disaster Service. Volunteers and camp staff facilitated the work in the forest and in the kitchen to join together for a successful week. With the Spruce Beetle infestation of the past 7 years subsiding, the focus of the efforts has returned to the ongoing and necessary fire mitigation work which makes for increased defensible space and protection of camp facilities in the event of a forest fire. Thanks to the 20 volunteers from Kansas and Colorado who came from near and far to accomplish the work of feeding everyone at camp (including our UFO Quilters 1 & 2 retreat participants) and reducing the threat of a fire disaster (i.e. thinning and cutting ladder fuels and running slash through the MDS chipper. The combined effort represented 424 volunteer hours or 1 person working 8 hours a day for 53 days. THANKS!
PICTURED: As part of the thinning, a pully system was used to transport slash and minimize erosion on steeper slopes above Edelweiss and Columbine.