All Stewardship all day everyday? Yes, all day everyday. From our newsletter to our events we are stewardly. If our organization is a bulls-eye, then stewardship is in the center. We can’t help ourselves, we have a wealth of climbing areas staring us in the face all day every day of the highest caliber. Caring for our crags ensures access, it sets our community apart, and it creates the infrastructure to ensure landscapes are sustainable for all climbers.
The BCC team charged into the COVID-19 pandemic last March and April asking “what can we do?.” Trail and climbing visitation remained active during lockdown and then exploded over the summer. In 2020, folks moved from all corners of the country to Boulder to access open spaces that remained open unlike theaters, museums, concert venues, and even schools. Visitation is up at the crag, on the trail, at the campground, the bike park, and on the skin track; have you seen it?
The Boulder Climbing Community’s stewardship work became critical to ensuring that Front Range landscapes were not only maintained, but provided the resources to be sustainable under pressure. The BCC stepped up and had the most impactful year of its existence. (Read all about it here). To summarize: more trail feet built, more bolts replaced, more wag bags stocked, and a whole lot of work behind the scenes to set up to do even more stewardly good in 2021.
Trails and trail maintenance, monitoring endangered species like the golden eagles, providing wag bags, replacing aging bolts and anchors, organizing crag clean ups-stewardship days, graffiti removal days, and advocating for climbers, is the “stewardship” work we do to keep local Front Range crags open and sustainable for generations to come. Right now, 2021 y’all, the BCC has even more stewardship work planned, and we need everyone’s help to make it happen:
Trails
We are entering our 8th season of trail work with 30 weeks of work planned!
Nearly doubling our weeks of work in Boulder Canyon to 14 weeks: 4 at Avalon (Middle Tier), 5 at Upper Dream Canyon, and 5 at Castle Rock Overlook.
Finishing the Cynical Pinnacle reroute at Cathedral Spires
Working on projects in the Flatirons and Indian Peaks Wilderness, yes!!
Eagles
We will continue to monitor eagles in Boulder Canyon so that we can open crags as soon as the eagles have time to nest
Bolts
Replacing 500+ bolts along the Front Range in 2021
Boulder Canyon crag makeovers include Avalon, Sherwood Forest, Black Widow Slab, and Easter Rock, as well as bolts replaced at Clear Creek Canyon
Stewardship Days
6 days planned at crags the community has identified as high need, the Graveyard Crag
Graffiti clean up at Darkside Boulders, and additional days at Eldorado Canyon State Park, and the Flatirons
Human Waste Mitigation
Noticed a wag bag station at your local gym or gear shop? We are working with local gyms and gear shops to make it easier to make sure you have a wag bag in your backpack for whenever you need one, wherever you need one.
Port-a-potties!! Return of the port-a-potty at Upper Dream and all hail the port-a-potty at Castle Rock
We hope you are as excited as we are by these projects!
The BCC held its first annual stewardship kickoff campaign one year ago under uncertain future circumstances, and the community stepped up to contribute critical funds to ensure we could continue our work during the pandemic. There is more work to be done in 2021 and we need the community’s help to guarantee the full scope of this work happens.
The best way to support the BCC is through a $5 or $10 recurring donation a month, if you can do more, awesome. If you are already a monthly donor consider making a small donation during the campaign to demonstrate a “heck yeah!” for all this good work. You would be surprised how many climbers have no idea who the BCC is, tell your friends and spread the word of this good work!