It’s a busy time of year for families, retailers, shipping companies and, certainly, for nonprofits focused on successful fourth quarters. But it’s also time to reflect, and there are certainly many significant events in 2025 to ponder for those of us who are stewards of the land.
During the spring and summer, all of us at San Juan Mountains Association (SJMA) stood alongside our federal colleagues as they withstood the uncertainty of layoffs or made agonizing decisions to voluntarily take an off ramp from their careers. Those who remained dug in and worked diligently, despite dramatic reductions in ranks.
The motivation to work tirelessly hits us every time we step outside. The San Juans – and all public lands – need all of us as stewards like never before. Your support provides the critical foundation toward our efforts. As federal staff and services suffered continued cuts, SJMA stepped up to fill in gaps.
In late spring, facing no federal funding to pump vault toilets, SJMA took up the mantle to help find funding and coordinate with service providers. While not the most elegant part of our stewardship mission, waste management is a critical one. We worked with the San Juan National Forest, the National Forest Foundation, the city of Durango and San Juan County to keep trailhead toilets open to the public. Waste management companies, Bob’s Johns and Mountain Septic, were tremendous partners in the efforts to keep these facilities as clean as possible, and they get huge kudos for their dedication to public lands, too.
SJMA’s stewardship team – including a mix of seasonal staff as well as stalwart volunteers – cared for our public lands with renewed purpose. SJMA’s four-person wilderness crew collectively covered more than 200 miles of Weminuche Wilderness trails, removing 627 trees from trails across the Weminuche over a nine-week season (reduced because of limited funding). At the end of June, the wilderness crew embarked from Highland Mary on an eight-day hitch, with the goals of monitoring areas above tree line and fully logging out Vallecito Creek Trail. They checked in four days later having completed all their tasks in half the time allotted.
Meanwhile, we stationed SJMA’s Forest and Alpine ambassadors – a total of nine individuals – at popular destinations across the San Juans, including the Alpine Loop, packing out more than one ton of trash, improving trail conditions, cleaning and stocking vault toilets, cleaning dispersed campsites and naturalizing campfire rings, all while engaging with and educating nearly 40,000 recreationists on exploring our public lands responsibly so that we all can enjoy them.
All of these efforts were further enhanced through 170 distinct volunteers, who donated well over 2,000 hours as stewards on our public lands. Whether they spent a day at Ice Lake Trailhead or a four-day weekend in Chicago Basin, picking up trash and talking to visitors, managing their adopted Forest Service Road, or helping to maintain conditions along SJMA’s adopted segment of the Colorado Trail or the Pine River Trail, their efforts served to enhance experiences for others.
Public lands bring us all together. We may differ in the ways we choose to experience our public lands, but most of us recognize the value they provide to each of us. To work with so many talented and dedicated people in the care of these incomparable places makes even the hardest days so worthwhile. To each and every one of you who spent time caring for the San Juans in 2025, thank you.
Stephanie Weber is SJMA’s Executive Director. Her deep ties to and passion for the Southwest show in her vision for SJMA.
