In the foothills north of Mancos set against the backdrop of the prominent La Plata Mountains, you can find a web of trails meandering through ponderosa pines as far as the eye can see.
This peaceful place offers opportunities for solitude, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and cross-country skiing. Perhaps you have visited the Chicken Creek trail system to walk your dog in the warming spring months as the Oregon grape and spring beauty flowers begin to emerge. Or maybe you have traversed this landscape on your cross-country skis, soaking in the still winter landscape muffled in snow. While Chicken Creek offers plentiful recreational opportunities, its potential for stewardship work also abounds.
In 2020, San Juan Mountains Association entered a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation to embark on stewardship projects at Chicken Creek. These projects include installing new trail signs, mitigating social trails, and helping to engage the public in how to be good stewards of this beautifully forested land.
SJMA has not been alone in conducting conservation work at Chicken Creek. A collaborative partnership has formed around this area to include Mancos Trails Group, the Forest Service and the help of youths from SJMA’s various education programs.
Included in this have been the youths from Deer Hill who helped SJMA install new trail signs at Chicken Creek this summer. The hands-on experiences that these teenagers gained is what helps form the foundation of our next generation of land stewards.
In physically investing in this conservation work, these young people were able to see the tangible results of their hard work and the benefit that they could bring to both the landscape and the surrounding community. They learned that by installing trail signs, they could not only show recreationists the way to go, but also help them stay on the trail to prevent unnecessary damage to the surrounding flora.
In addition to the amazing work of the Deer Hill youths, SJMA’s Forest Fridays program also brought local middle-schoolers to Chicken Creek to invest in stewardship work while learning about the natural environment.
Finally, SJMA’s forest ambassadors have given many of their summer hours to continuing the work of trail signage and engaging trail users in conversations about the conservation work that they are doing.
The work to responsibly steward Chicken Creek has been a communal effort and SJMA is grateful to our various community partners for all of their help.
We are just around the corner from National Public Lands Day, the nation’s largest volunteer day for public lands.
NPLD was established in 1994 to celebrate and steward our nation’s beautiful public lands. This year, NPLD is Sept. 25, and SJMA has several projects planned.
For our main project this year, we are collaborating with Canyons of the Ancients National Monument to restore the Bradfield Bridge Campground and Dolores River put-in.
We encourage you to get involved with your local public lands, whether that’s joining an organized project, picking up trash with a friend or enjoying the “Fee-Free Day” at national parks.
To learn more or if you are interested in joining SJMA’s activities on this day, email Erica Tucker at etucker@sjma.org.
Rachael Woodie is the community education specialist for San Juan Mountains Association.
