Since its inception, the BCC has focused on stewardship work to accomplish our mission. For a decade this organization has worked to manage climbers’ impact on trails, cliffs, watersheds, and wildlife. Our approach involves having boots on the ground at crags and utilizing the many community volunteers to get the work done. That all came to a screeching halt in March due to the spread of COVID-19.
In a normal April, the BCC would have a fully operational FRCS crew working on a heavily impacted trail or base area. We would have volunteer rebolters replacing rusty bolts in Boulder Canyon. There would be folks stocking wag bag stations from Clear Creek to Boulder Canyon. But this is not a normal April. We have had to adapt our programs to fit the current environment and unfortunately that means we can’t run things like usual. Instead, we are doing our best stewardship work from home offices and without the help of so many of our volunteers. We have been taking this time to evaluate the effectiveness of our work and how we can improve. Better tracking for projects, new educational material and management plans are the topic of many discussions. We are planning for how we can have the biggest impact in a shortened season and hit the ground running when the time is right. It hasn’t been all desk work either. Wag bag stations are staying stocked, our eagle monitoring program is running and many hikes have turned into site visits for future projects.
Photo of Stewardship Manager Daniel Dunn from the stewardly home office, where drills and spotting scopes are the best paperweights
You might be wondering what you can do to help at this time. One of the biggest impacts individual climbers can have right now is doing their best to practice LNT principles. Staying on established trails, packing out any trash, using wag bags, and respecting closures to name a few. Many land managers are overwhelmed and understaffed due to the COVID situation. By being responsible climbers, we are doing our part to ease the strain on those resources and continuing to promote a good relationship between our community and those who manage climbing areas. As restrictions begin to lift, come volunteer with us to work on trails, replace bolts and stock wag bags. The BCC will continue to prioritize stewardship in the future and we will need your help to reach our goals.
You can also contribute to our future stewardship work by becoming a BCC member, or buying a suggested donation ticket to our Virtual Film Fest this Friday! The BCC’s stewardship work relies on funding from members, donations, and community events, and events in particular have been hit hard by the current crisis. The BCC will continue to prioritize stewardship in the future and we will need your help to reach our goals.