Matching donations to help institute with effort to buy, develop research center

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer

Article Last Updated; Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:01AM

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Information about donations to the Mountain Studies Institute for building a research center in Silverton is available at 387-5161 or www.mountainstudies.org.

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Mountain Studies eyes Silverton site

SILVERTON - A campaign to raise $1.5 million to build a center for researchers who study mountain environment issues is about halfway there.

"In addition to donations, we have two challenge grants," said Koren Nydick, director of the Mountain Studies Institute. She said an anonymous family will match donations up to $100,000, and the Gates Family Foundation (not Big Bill) will match donations up to $45,000.

The institute has a contract to buy the 10-acre Outward Bound Colorado camp just outside Silverton. The site contains a main lodge and a number of cabins that will be converted to work space and housing for researchers. As the center expands, Outward Bound and a recreational vehicle camp on the property will be phased out.

A section of the property fronts the Animas River, and there are wetlands and a flood plain - riparian features that can aid researchers and be incorporated into a regional citizen-science education program for students and youth organizations.

A fen near the north edge of the acreage, which has been used as a dirt-bike track, eventually will be rehabilitated. Fens are wetlands created from organic matter compacted over millennia that may contain rare plant and animal species.

In five years, the center would be expected to have new laboratories, a library, computer facilities, a weather station and an outdoor amphitheater for instruction, Nydick said. Additional fundraising will be needed to carry out the long-term goals.

"The goal is to have a year-around center here," Mountain Studies Institute operations director Jim Donovan said while leading a tour of the grounds Tuesday. "Ultimately, we will be able to do research right outside the door." Donovan is assisted by volunteer Katy Rende from the Western Hardrock Watershed Team. The goal of the Watershed Team is to clean up - in cooperation with local groups or agencies - pollution associated with Colorado's 150-year mining history and connect communities to their mining past.

A full environmental assessment of the land will be done, Donovan said. He pointed out two SWCA Environmental Consultant employees who were doing a plant inventory.

Jeremy Yanko was on-site, too. He is coordinating efforts by the institute and the town to create a two-mile loop trail that includes points of interest such as the research center and the historic Lackawanna Mill on the opposite bank of the Animas River.

daler@durangoherald.com